The tanks that crossed no man’s land into German territory on the morning of 15 September 1916 had grown out of an experimental prototype developed the year before by Fosters of Lincoln known as ‘Little Willie’. This vehicle was comprised of components designed and built by a number of industrialists, and drew on technologies advanced under previous projects. It was built on an unsuspended track frame and was fitted with a non-rotatable dummy turret with machine gun mount. It was 8m long, required two men to drive it – one for steering, clutch, gear box and throttle operation, another for the brakes – and four to operate the armament. It was protected with boiler plate and could travel no faster than two miles per hour.

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