Maggie's Farm

Today is the 90th anniversary of the first use of tanks in combat. The Brit invention, designed of course to end the stalemates of trench warfare, was first put to use on Sept. 15, 1916, in the Battle of the Somme. That machine was a Mark 1. Would like to have seen the German faces when those things first appeared on the horizon. WW1 Brit tanks came in "male" and "female" versions: the male with a big gun and a couple of machine guns, the female with several machine guns only. Speed 3 mph.

Animation of the Mark 1 tank here. A brief summary of that early application here.  The excellent website of the world's best Tank Museum in Bovington, UK, here. (Stonehenge is cool, but dull, and looks like the photos. The tank museum is unforgettable.)

Below, a WW1 Mark V.