seclect a technology eg. tank, submarine, aircraft carrier etc. and analyze the development of the technology from WWI through employment in WWII. Include comparison of countries development, key persons and events, factors that lead to success or failur

Development of Tanks from WW1 to WW2

WW1 - World War I

Prior to World War I , power-driven vehicles were still fairly unusual and their exploit on the combat zone was limited , particularly the heavier motor vehicle . The first mechanical AFVs (Armored Fighting Vehicles ) were tractors with basic metal plates secured on , to give some shield to the driver and travelers . Lighter shatterproof cars soon became popular with all the combatants

The British was the leader in the innovation of the tank , even though the name tank ' was not coined as yet

. In February 1915 the Land ship commission was set up , the reason behind forming the committee was that in early 1915 , the combating on the Western Front had stalemated into stagnant trench combat . The number of deaths were rising in such big proportions that neither Germans , French or the British could go with the tactic to send their troops in no mans land only to be killed in a huge number by the machine gun fire , bombs or die in tangling into barb wires or even drowning in mud . A war with no fighting was not the generals wanted , so in the Allied Headquarters in France , a solution for this was being thought of (Battlefield debut of the tanks ,2007

A talented writer for the British Army , Lieutenant Colonel Ernest Swinton , saw first hand the initial battles and told the generals his opinion which was a Petrol tractor on a Caterpillar principal with hard steel plates be made with machine guns on top . The British army rejected his opinion of such a vehicle to be made . Luckily Winston Churchill , the First Sea Lord who had a little more imagination than his colleagues had read Swinton 's report . He loved what Swinton had come up with and in February 1915 a committee was set up known as the Land ship committee to look into the idea which Swinton had come up with . The committee put in charge Lieutenant W .E .Wilson of the Naval Air Service and William Tritton of William Foster and Company of Lincoln to construct a little land ship . All the work was done secretly and the new battle automobile was name Water tank based on the size and shape of fresh water tanks on the battlefield but than was shortened by the troops on the battlement to Tank . Jointly with the big development Committee (a committee which was given the task of Developing a committee ) a condition was created for an armored automobile capable of maneuvering at 4 mph , climbing a five feet high stockade , cross an eight feet wide gap , and equipped with machine guns and light cannon . A comparable plan was being pondered on by the Army General Head Quarters in France and in June the Land ship commission made a combined check project between the War Office and the Joint forces and the plan commenced

The premature work on shielding gun tractors showed promise . Earlier on 'big wheel ' plan seemed to be easy...