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Here's an interesting tidbit on a Wiki page about World War I tanks.

In 1912, A South Australian, Lancelot De Mole, submitted a proposal to the British War Office for a "chain-rail vehicle which could be easily steered and carry heavy loads over rough ground and trenches". De Mole made several more proposals to the War Office after 1912, in 1914 and 1916, with a culminating proposal in late 1917, accompanied by a huge one-eighth scale model, yet all fell on substantially deaf ears. De Mole's proposal already had the climbing face, so typical of the later World War I British tanks, but it is unknown whether there was some connection. Inquiries from the government of Australia, after the war, yielded polite responses that Mr. De Mole's ideas had unfortunately been too advanced for the time to be properly recognised at their just value. The Commission on Awards to Inventors in 1919, which adjudicated all the competing claims to the development of the tank, recognised the brilliance of De Mole's design, even considering that it was superior to the machines actually developed, but due to its narrow remit, could only make a payment of £987 to De Mole to cover his expenses. As an aside, De Mole noted in 1919 that he was urged by friends before the war to approach the Germans with his design, but declined to do so for patriotic reasons.
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Suppose the British, realizing that war was probably going to be inevitable at some point, accepts De Mole's tank proposal in 1912. Once the proposal is developed, give 2-3 years for the first vehicles to make it to the front. That would put late-WWI tanks on the battlefield as early as the end of 1914...and for only one side.

Could this end the war early (perhaps by Christmas) and prevent the stalemate? What would the ramifications be...and what would the ramifications have been had De Mole heeded his friend advice and sold the plans to the Germans?
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