The Name of the Beast | Little Willie and the Origin of the Name Tank

Tanks! Tanks are amazing! And we here, at the Tank Encyclopedia, love them very much! But how did the tank get the name tank? Most people handwave it away as the original Mark Is looking somewhat like water carriers but that… makes no sense. Just look at the thing, how in the world does this look like a water carrier? The story actually begins with the Lincoln No.1 Machine, popularly known as the Little Willie, and it has a lot to do with the very peculiar way in which this one particular vehicle was built. So join us in paying an homage to the reason we’re called the TANK Encyclopedia, and let’s find out where the name came from!

Join this channel to get access to exclusive perks:

If you liked this video, please consider donating on Patreon or Paypal!

Sources:
‘The British Tank: 1915-1919’ by David Fletcher
‘Osprey New Vanguard 100, British Mark I Tank 1916’ by David Fletcher
‘AFV Weapon Profiles 3, Tanks Mark I to V’ by Chris Ellis and Peter Chamberlain
‘A New Excalibur: The Development of the Tank, 1909-1939’ by A.J.Smithers
‘The Tank: Its Birth and Development’ by William Foster and others
‘The Landships of Lincoln’ by Richard Pullen
‘Eyewitness, being personal reminiscences of certain phases of the Great War, including the genesis of the tank’ by Major-General Sir Ernest D. Swinton.
‘History of the Tank’. Dinner Speech on the Commemoration of 50 years since the first use of tanks. January 1977
‘Lincoln No.1 Machine, Little Willie’ by M.J.Verrall, October 1988
‘The Madsen Machine Rifle. Main Characteristics, Organization and Tactical Use’
The Commercial Motor, A SIX – CYLINDER 105 h.p. SLEEVE-VALVE DAIMLER, 3rd April 1913, Page 14
The Commercial Motor, 3rd April 1919

An article by Stan
Narrated by Jungelson
Edited by Battlehammer
Sound edited by Jungelson

Russian subtitles were provided by Vasinev Vladislav

[tasman]

Awsome little vid I remember years ago when I was a very young tank nut. I was collecting some tank magazines one every week from the news agency. I'm talking 1980s yeah I'm an older gent. I remember a fun fact, reading that the name tank could also have been water cistern or just cistern. So you can imagine if cistern stuck instead of tank we would have had anti cistern tank gun or anti cistern guided missile.

[WildBillCox]

Edifying. Thanks for posting. Liked and shared.

[theromanorder]

Fun fact, the mark 1 was originally called big willie and was called so by the troops after it was changed
Could you please do some videos on tank doctrine evaluation

[tomhenry]

Need to cover the French who on their own built tanks

[capdetigla]

Man it would be great if you made a voiced article on the french g1 series of prototype tanks

[Sigma_therizzler]

Can you do e-75 german replacement of king tiger II .

[ROBERTN-util]

1) What did the German Army call tanks in the Great War? Tanks (The world's first designed for the purpose antitank weapon was the Mauser T-Gewher. Any guesses as to what that T stood for? In 1918 they called for a TuF machine gun. TuF = Tank und Fleiger")

2) Little Willie was the derogatory nickname for Kaiser Bill's son, who pretended to be a Field Marshall commanding first an army and then an army group. (" Despite being only thirty-two and having never commanded a unit larger than a regiment, the German crown prince was named commander of the 5th Army in August 1914, shortly after the outbreak of World War I. However, under the well-established Prussian/German General Staff model then in use, inexperienced nobles who were afforded commands of large army formations were always provided with (and expected to defer to the advice of) experienced chiefs of staff to assist them in their duties. As emperor, Wilhelm's father instructed the crown prince to defer to the advice of his experienced chief of staff Konstantin Schmidt von Knobelsdorf")

[Mortrag]

Overall I really liked the video and the chosen topic.
But maybe a more serious tone would have improved the presentation, and less a "sensational one".

[mohdsaufi]

Greeting from Malaysia.
Why it call, little Willie?