The Boirault machine (French: ''Appareil Boirault''), was an early French experimental

landship A landship is a large vehicle that travels exclusively on land. Its name is meant to distinguish it from vehicles that travel through other mediums such as conventional ships, airships, and spaceships. Military committees Landship Committee ...

, designed in 1914 and built in early 1915. It has been considered as "another interesting ancestor of the tank", and described as a "

rhomboid Traditionally, in two-dimensional geometry, a rhomboid is a parallelogram in which adjacent sides are of unequal lengths and angles are non-right angled. A parallelogram with sides of equal length (equilateral) is a rhombus but not a rhomboi ...

-shaped skeleton tank without armour, with single overhead track". Ultimately, the machine was deemed impractical and was nicknamed ''

Diplodocus ''Diplodocus'' (, , or ) was a genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaurs, whose fossils were first discovered in 1877 by S. W. Williston. The generic name, coined by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1878, is a neo-Latin term derived from Greek δι� ...

militaris''. It preceded the design and development of the English

Little Willie Little Willie was a prototype in the development of the British Mark I tank. Constructed in the autumn of 1915 at the behest of the Landship Committee, it was the first completed tank prototype in history. ''Little Willie'' is the oldest surv ...

tank by six months.

Background

The immobility of the

trench warfare Trench warfare is a type of land warfare using occupied lines largely comprising military trenches, in which troops are well-protected from the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery. Trench warfare became ar ...

characterizing the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

led to a need for a powerfully armed military engine that would be at the same time protected from enemy fire and could move on the extremely irregular terrain of battlefields. As early as 24 August 1914, the French colonel

Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne Jean Baptiste Eugène EstienneEstienne's forenames are frequently incorrectly given as Jean-Baptiste Eugène. He was christened with the three names Jean, Baptiste, and Eugène, but disliked the name Baptiste, and preferred to be addressed as Eug ...

articulated the vision of a cross-country armoured vehicle:Gudmundsson, p.38
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Development

First Boirault machine

One of the first attempts was made in France with the early experiment made with the Boirault machine, developed in 1914 by French engineer Louis Boirault, proposed to the French War Ministry in December 1914, and ordered for construction on 3 January 1915.Gougaud, p.104 On 19 January a commission, headed by Sub-secretary of State of Inventions

Paul Painlevé Paul Painlevé (; 5 December 1863 – 29 October 1933) was a French mathematician and statesman. He served twice as Prime Minister of the Third Republic: 12 September – 13 November 1917 and 17 April – 22 November 1925. His entry into politic ...

, was formed to evaluate the project. The objective of the machine was flattening barbed wire defences and riding over gaps in a battlefield. The machine was made of huge parallel tracks, formed by six 4x3 meter metallic frames, each with four transverse beams, so that it could also be described as a single track covering the entire width of the vehicle, rotating around a triangular motorized center, and driven via chains and rods by an 80 hp petrol engine. This device proved too fragile and slow however, as well as incapable of changing direction easily, as was indicated by a report on 17 May. The project was officially abandoned on 10 June 1915. Upon the insistence of the inventor, modifications were made, a new commission was formed and new trials organized on 4 November 1915, for the benefit of the Engineer Arm. The machine, loaded with nine tonnes of simulation weights, successfully flattened an eight metre wide barbed wire obstacle, overcame a funnel with a diameter of five metres and crossed a trench two metres wide. It reached a speed of 1,6 km/h. A second test on 13 November showed however that it was still extremely difficult to change direction. The whole assembly had to be lifted by a main jack, after which it could be turned for a maximum of 45° by hand from the outside or by a system of smaller jacks from the inside of the machine. Again the project was rejected, because of its visibility, noise, vulnerability, low speed and lack of manoeuvrability. Military historian Lieutenant-Colonel André Duvignac concluded that those that had baptised it ''Diplodocus militaris'' (after a giant sauropod

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

, well known at the period) "were not only poor humorists but also good judges".

Second Boirault machine

A new model was developed, more compact and lighter, with armour for the engine and the driver compartment. It was composed of six metal plates rotating around the core chassis, and had some level of steering control, allowing for a turning radius of 100 meters. Speed however was extremely low, at 1 km/h. The new model was tried by the Artillery Arm on 17 August 1916 at

Souain-Perthes-lès-Hurlus Souain-Perthes-lès-Hurlus is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France. First World War On 9 December 1915 at Souain, a former battlefield with rough terrain and trenches, and in the presence of General Philippe Pétain, a ...

, until complete abandonment of the project. General Henri Gouraud commented on the performance of the machine on 20 August 1916, explaining that it ran for 1,500 meters in flat terrain, at about 1 km/h. It managed to cross a

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

, flatten a line of barbed wire, and crossed trenches 1.5 and 1.8 meters wide, and a hole two meters in diameter. General Gouraud commented on the sheer strength of the machine, but its poor ability to properly steer itself:

Aftermath

The project was actually abandoned, as regular tanks were being developed. A few months before, in October 1914, the French arms manufacturer Schneider & Co. had already sent out its chief designer,

Eugène Brillié Auguste Eugène Brillié (1863-1940) was a French engineer, who invented the first French battle tank, the Schneider CA1. Biography Early years Brillié was born on 8 May 1863 in the 19th arrondissement of Paris. After his studies at the Éco ...

, to investigate tracked tractors from the American

Holt Company The Holt Manufacturing Company began with the 1883 founding of Stockton Wheel Service in Stockton, California, United States. Benjamin Holt, later credited with patenting the first workable crawler ("caterpillar") tractor design, incorporated ...

, at that time participating in a test programme in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. This Schneider program was met with approval by the French War Ministry and was merged with the Estienne plan, and a production order of 400 Schneider CA1, the first French tank to see the battlefield, was made on 25 February 1916.Gougaud, p.124

Notes

External links

''The French Boirault Machine'' by Tim Rigsby

by

Vladimír Socha RNDr. Vladimír Socha (born 1 January 1982 in Hradec Králové) is a Czechs, Czech writer, publisher, public lecturer and science promoter from the city of Hradec Králové (north-eastern Czech Republic). His main interest lies in dinosaur paleont ...

"''Engin anti-barbelés Boirault n°1,''"
restored film from about 1917 showing tests of Boirault machine number 1.

References

* Alain Gougaud ''L'Aube de la Gloire, Les Autos-Mitrailleuses et les Chars Français pendant la Grande Guerre'', 1987,

Musée des Blindés The ''Musée des Blindés'' ("Museum of Armoured Vehicles") or ''Musée Général Estienne'' is a tank museum located in the Loire Valley of France, in the town of Saumur. It is now one of the world's largest tank museums. It began in 1977 und ...

, * Bruce I. Gudmundsson ''On armor'' Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004, * François Vauvillier, 2008, "L'Aube du char en France — L'idée de l'engin du ''no man's land'' avant Estienne", ''Tank Zone'' 2: 20-31 {{DEFAULTSORT:Boirault Machine Tanks of France World War I tanks of France Trial and research tanks of France History of the tank