For the life of me, I could not take my eyes off of it. The thing, I really do not know how else to describe it, ambled forward with slow, jerky, uncertain movements. It came to a crater. Down went its nose, a slight dip and a clinging crawling motion, and it came up merrily on the other side. And all the time

as it slowly advanced, it breathed and belched forth tongues of flame, and the Huns, terrified

by its appearance, were moaned down like corn falling to the reaper's sickle. Presently it stopped.

The humming ceased.

The spell was broken.

We looked at one another and then we laughed.

How we laughed!

Officers and men were doubled up with mirth

as they watched the acrobatic antics of this mechanical marvel,

this Welshian wonder.

British Army Lieutenant, Jeffrey Malins, describing his first sight of a tank.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

Music The

The Episode 131.

This Wellesian Wonder I talked about the development of the internal combustion engine all the way back in episode 57 before the Great War began.

Remember, before the Great War began, good times.

The automobile was just coming into its own by 1914, and automobiles were still very expensive in Europe.

They were cheaper in the U.S. thanks to assembly line manufacturing.

Consequently, as you no doubt recall from the episodes on the early part of the war,

Great War armies mostly relied on railroads to move soldiers and supplies.

Railroads don't go everywhere, of course,

and they especially don't advance into enemy territory.

...