How The "Tanks" Got Name, Daily Racing Form, 1918-10-29

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HOW THE TANKS GOT NAME Just how the armored tractors used for the first time by the British against the Huns were given the name tanks is told for the first time by Horace Gaul a veteran of the Avar who is re ¬ turning to the front this time as a Knights of Columbus secretary secretaryI I was sent across with Canadian troops shortly after the outbreak of the war said Mr Gaul as a member of the Eighth Battalion First Divi ¬ sion the Little Black Devils In the front lines we used to get our supply of water from small tanks conveyed from the purifying plants to the trenches by motor cars In a few months we began to hear the sound of rivets being driven This went on day and night for months and when we asked what they were making they told us tanks For a year this went on and we began to think they must have had enough tanks made to carry all the water in the world worldOne One day there came a huge lumbering steel fortress on wheels It went right across No Mans Land and cleaned up a party of Huns Right then and there they were christened tanks by the men and the name has stuck to them ever since


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1910s/drf1918102901/drf1918102901_6_7
Local Identifier: drf1918102901_6_7
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800