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How Did the Army "Tank" Happen to Come by its Name?

A new thermal barrier pipe coating developed by the Army Corps of Engineers improves safety for people who work near manholes by reducing the external temperature.

Pictured is an early British tank similar to those used successfully at the Battle of Cambrai during World War I in 1917. Photo courtesy of History of the World War by Francis A. March (Philadelphia, 1918).

After trench warfare began in World War I, the British army invented a new mechanical device that they wanted to keep under wraps until it was first put to use. They built 12 to 14 armored, gun-toting vehicles that moved on caterpillar tracks. Then they packed each vehicle in a big box and put them on ships headed for France, but they were made to look like water tanks headed to Russia. To keep the enemy from discovering the equipment, the British wrote "water tank" on the side of the boxes. The moniker has stuck. The armored vehicles became known as "tanks," and the U.S. Army still uses the name.

The Royal Navy sponsored the development of the tank as a "land ship," explained William Needham, a corrosion expert at NAVSEA who leads the Metrics, Impact, and Sustainment team for the DoD Corrosion Office. "The naval background of the tank's development also explains such nautical tank terms as hatch, hull, bow, and ports."

Pictured is a British tank used during World War I. Photo courtesy of The Nations at War by Willis John Abbott (New York, 1917).

"The tanks were first used in combat at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette at Flers on the Somme on September 15, 1916," Needham said. "They were first used successfully about a year later at the Battle of Cambrai, where 400 British tanks mounted an assault. American tank units first entered combat on September 12, 1918, against the St. Mihiel salient with the First Army; the tank brigade was commanded by Lt. Colonel George S. Patton, Jr."

William Needham, a retired Navy captain and corrosion expert at NAVSEA, offered this anecdote while addressing the DoD Corrosion Prevention and Control Integrated Product Team Forum at the Tri-Service Corrosion Conference in Denver, Colorado, on December 6, 2007. By the way, the original tank first used by the British Army during World War I is on display at the U.S. Army Ordnance Museum at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.