The Hornsby Battle Wagon, 1910

[robertp6165]

From here...

From 1904 to 1909, David Roberts, the brilliant engineer managing director of Hornsby & Sons of Grantham, built a series of tractors using his patented 'chain-track' which were put through their paces by the British Army, a (small) section of which wanted to evaluate artillery tractors. At one point, in 1908, a perceptive officer remarked to Roberts that he should design a new machine with armour, capable of carrying its own gun. But, disheartened by years of ultimately fruitless tinkering for the Army, Roberts failed to take up the idea.

Lets assume that Roberts does take up the idea, and by 1910 develops an armored, tracked fighting vehicle. It won't be called a tank in this TL, so lets assume he calls it a Battle Wagon. It is basically equivalent to a World War One Whippet tank, has a speed of eight miles per hour, about 15mm of armor, and can be armed with either a Maxim Machine Gun or a Pom Pom gun (Pom Poms were mounted in armored cars during this period, so they could have been a likely armament for the proposed Battle Wagon). The weaponry is mounted in a revolving turret (the OTL Whippet, as it was produced during the war, did not have a turret, but the prototype did...so we can assume that the Hornsby vehicle is similar to the prototype in that regard).

Would the British army adopt it? If the conservative British army does not immediately adopt the vehicle, assume that the Hornsby Company offers it for sale abroad. What foreign powers might be interested in it? How would these vehicles affect World War One?

 

[Fearless Leader]

I doubt the British Army would adopt it pre-war, it MIGHT however generate interest abroad. I'd expect armoured vehicle research amongst the great powers to accelerate greatly. Both the German and Austro-Hungarian armies rejected similiar designs (The AH one strongly resembling a Sherman tank...) around the same time (1911 IIRC) they might put more effort into their domestic programs resulting in the CP having a small tank arm at the beginning of WWI (wouldn't affect too terribly much however).

So take this a bit further and WWI's already started both the Entente and CP (most likely Germany and Britain) have deployed tanks in 1915 at the latest. No "losenge tanks" in TTL due to the original battle tank's turret. The (most likely) light nature of the tanks makes it unlikely that they'll impact the early stages of the war any time soon. As the war progresses I'd expect to see battle wagon develop into a fusion of "losenge" and FT-17 tanks (turret +guns in sponsons) and get bigger and more heavily armored. I'd also expect that proper AT weapons get developed during the war.

One area it might affect would be the Eastern Front, as the Germans will probably send all their light battlewagons there (since they're ineffective on the West) and the Russians won't have much to counteract them. Perhaps the war ends sooner there. Anyhow perhaps this TL butterflys away US entry into WWI (With a POD in 1910 Roosevelt could die in 1911 on his african safari leaving Taft to win the Republican nomination and narrowly beat Wilson leading to a more isolationist USA) for the sake of being interesting let's say it does.

1918 rolls around and the Germans decide to launch their final offensive. In OTL they made significant gains due to their use of sub-machine guns and proto-blizkrieg tactics. In TTL they have the armor to make primitive Blitzkrieg tactics so lets say they use them and manage to force the Allies to the table. Germany wins WWI.

Anyhow that's just one way it could have happened. If the USA enters the war I'd expect the same result more or less. The only definite result of this POD would be far more advanced tanks by the end of WWI (which would just give the Germans an even bigger edge in WWII considering that the doctrine behind these advanced battlewagons wouldn't be nearly as developed and probably on the same level of OTL. No Pz 1's that's for sure!)

 

[MerryPrankster]

Hmmm...I might put this in my Afrikaner TL, as another excuse to have more advanced technology.