#boirault machine

[redarmyscreaming]

Boirault machine, a French WWI experimental barbed wire crusher

[thisdayinwwi]

The French Boirault Machine was an experimental landship or Tank. @tanksenc has a great write up on the machine: 

On Aug 20 1916 General Henri Gouraud “indicated he would have preferred further trials of an improved machine but these, sadly, were not to pass, and the design was abandoned by the military in favour of new tank designs which were becoming available to them." Observers during its trials noted that it moved about 1 km/h, managed to flatten a line of barbed wire, and crossed trenches 1.8 m wide.

The Boirault Machine predates the word "Tank" which actually comes from the British deception operation for its armoured vehicle program that labelled the vehicles "Water Carriers." Since government officials use initials "WC" wouldn't work so the British program was changed from "Water Carriers" to "Tank." WC is another word for the bathroom.

[makersley]

Boirault machine take 2 | San Michele | 13 Nov 1915

#OTD in #WW1 The French trial another stupid Boirault machine, Italian tactics evolve at Fourth #Isonzo

Fourth Isonzo Damn the rain, the mud, the rock, the enemy. Italian tactics on Mount San Michele are evolving, for a given value of “evolving”. It’s finally sunk in here that perhaps sending men to attack without any kind of organised artillery support is a bad idea. A three-hour bombardment is followed by a major push south and north of Mount San Michele, and at last there’s a success for the…

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[makersley]

Boirault machine | Battle of Festubert | May 18 1915

#OTD in #WW1 Ottoman plans to attack #ANZAC Cove, and a story about shell shock at #Festubert #Gallipoli100

It’s the turn of the French to trial a ridiculous impractical machine, the Ottomans prepare to attack ANZAC Cove, and a British sergeant has a story about shell shock.

Boirault machine

The French have just finished trialling another in their series of prototype landships. This time it’s a truly ridiculous construction called a Boirault machine, which looks like nothing so much as a giant…

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[madddscience]

The 1915 Boirault machine prototype, a French tank designed to bridge trenches on WWI's Western Front, but never put into practice.

[cutetanksdoingcutethings]

A WWI French trench crossing machine, considered an early ancestor of the tank and preceding the English Little Willy design by six months. Weird....