On September 6, 1915, a prototype tank nicknamed Little Willie rolls off the assembly line in England. Little Willie was far from an overnight success. It weighed 14 tons, got stuck in trenches and crawled over rough terrain at only two miles per hour.

When were tanks first used?

Tanks were used in battle for the first time, by the British, on 15 September 1916 at Flers-Courcelette during the Battle of the Somme.

Who invented the tank in ww1 and when?

The very first tank to be built in the world was the No. 1 Lincoln Machine which was designed by Sir William Tritton (1875-1946) and Lieutenant Walter Gordon Wilson (1874-1957). It was known as “Little Willie” and was designed and constructed between August and September of 1915.