Product Description

In 1915 a machine christened Little Willie changed the way that wars were fought. Little Willie was a fully tracked armoured vehicle that could break a trench system. Its development was completed in December 1915, but by then it had already been superseded by an improved design, Mother. This was the first rhomboid tank, and the prototype for the Mark I which would influence a whole generation of tank building. This book details the development of the Mark I, and its surprise arrival in France in the middle of 1916 during the closing weeks of the battles of the Somme.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49561 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-25
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 48 pages

About the Author
David Fletcher was born in 1942. He has written a number of books and articles on military subjects and is currently the historian at the Tank Museum, Bovington, UK. He has spent over 40 years studying the development of British armoured vehicles during the two World Wars. Tony Bryan is a freelance illustrator of many years experience. He initially qualified in Engineering and worked for a number of years in Military Research and Development, and has a keen interest in military hardware - armour, small arms, aircraft and ships. Tony has produced many illustrations for partworks, magazines and books, including a number of titles in the New Vanguard series.

Customer Reviews

A Good study but leaves one wanting more
The book gives a good overview of the evolution of the different machines that culminated in the Mark 1. It leaves me wanting more information on the tank as the text feels a bit short. Presumably the author was limited in how much he could write. Somewhat annoyingly the text doesnt cover all the pages, theres usually a small picture in the top right of a page and nothing below it. I dont know how many extra words could have been fidded in but I'd say a fair few!

Unfortunatly there is no top down view of the tank for those interested in vehicle modeling, this may have been useful. Theres also not much detail in the pictures on the hydraulic steering at the rear of the early Mark 1s. The colour pictures are top quality and finely detailed. Still I think if your interested in early tanks this is worth having, while there is a lot on World War 2 tanks there doesn't seem to be as much on World War1 tanks.