Sir Nicholas Soames’s speech in Trafalgar Square on Thursday, 15th September to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first use of the tank in warfare at the Somme.

Tank Centenary

Thursday, 15^th September, 2016

I am very honoured to have been asked to say a few words today about these magnificent machines.

My grandfather if not completely the father was most definitely the midwife of this remarkable weapon of war which transformed the battlefield and indeed I had the honour to serve with the Royal Armoured Corps in the 11^th Hussars in Chieftain  Tanks.

On the 23^rd September, 1914 Churchill wrote a detailed memorandum from the Admiralty about the urgent need for a mechanical device to influence trench warfare.

In December 1914, Maurice Hankey the Secretary to the Committee of Imperial Defence circulated the work of Colonel Swinton at the War Office which had independently come to the same view.

On the 5^th January, 1915 Churchill responded urging immediate action; “It would be quite easy in a short term to fit up a number of steam tractors with small armoured shelters, in which men and machine guns could be placed, which would be bullet proof. Used at night, they would not be affected by artillery fire to any extent. The caterpillar system would enable trenches to be crossed quite easily, and the weight of the machine would destroy all wire entanglements.

“Forty or fifty of these engines, prepared secretly and brought into positions at nightfall, could advance quite certainly into the enemy’s trenches, smashing away all the obstructions, and sweeping the trenches with their machine gun fire, and with grenades thrown out of the top.”

By the end of that month Churchill having enlisted the help of the Duke of Westminster, who was an officer in the Armoured Car Division of the Royal Naval Air Service, and other officers, started to drive forward the plan with great vigour and gave £70,000 from the Admiralty Funds budget to kick start development.

No weapon was every brought to the battlefield with more impressive speed and secrecy than the tank.  The Procurement Department at the MOD should use this example as best practice!

Barely eight months after its first improbable outing at Foster’s of Lincoln, the tank took part in the Battle of the Flers-Courcelette.

So 100 years on from that day we should honour the memory of those who developed these extraordinary weapons and the immense sacrifice in two world wars by those who fought in tanks and changed the face of war.

No Government should forget the extraordinary power of the presence of armour on the battlefield and I commend the wonderful work done by the Tank Museum at Bovington to keep the importance of this remarkable history alive.