Little Willie
In service 1915 (trials only) - 1916
The first completed tank in the world - a trials machine that never fought, built to prove tracks could cross a trench.
Built byWilliam Foster & Co., Lincoln
Development history
Built at Foster of Lincoln in the autumn of 1915 as the Number 1 Lincoln Machine and rebuilt with new Tritton tracks, Little Willie was the first complete tracked armoured vehicle. Its turret was never fitted and its short track base could not climb the German parapets demanded by the War Office, so Tritton and Wilson moved straight to the rhomboid layout that became Mother and then the Mark I. Little Willie survived as a test hulk and is the single most important surviving artefact in tank history, now at The Tank Museum at Bovington.
Notable actions
- None - trials vehicle