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To complement the pictures from the Tank museum, a brief resume of the two Willies.

The tank now know as "Little Willie" was commenced by William Foster & Co in August 1915, designed by William Tritton & Lt. Wilson (RNAS). It was constructed of bolier plate and used tracks ordered from the US and used on the 'Bullock Creeping Grip Tractors'. It had a fixed, dummy turret and a pair of wheels at the rear to aid steering. At that stage it was known as the "Tritton Machine", the tracks looking more like those units on a modern bulldozer.

During testing the tracks proved unsatisefactory and too short to facilitate trench crossing.

The vehicle was re-built to incorporate longer track units and used track links of Foster's design. At the same time the steering wheels were removed as was the dummy turret, hence the circular hole in the interior of the vehicle today. The revised vehicle, now christened "Little Willie" proved a better performer, but was abandoned in favour of the lozenge-shaped "Wilson Machine", which became known as "Big Willie", and later still "Mother".

JH

- jch_in_uk

The revised vehicle, now christened "Little Willie" proved a better performer, but was abandoned in favour of the lozenge-shaped "Wilson Machine", which became known as "Big Willie", and later still "Mother".

And of course 'Mother' was armed with six-pounders so technically was a 'male' tank...