# What is the history of tanks?

An episode of [History for Kids / History's Not Boring: The Kids History Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1852047160), 15 Oct 2026, 11 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2555342/episodes/19928928-what-is-the-history-of-tanks.mp3

Have you ever wondered how massive metal machines weighing as much as five elephants first rolled onto the battlefield? Get ready to explore the wild and rumbling history of tanks! Rewind over 500 years to find out how the famous artist Leonardo da Vinci designed the very first tank—shaped like a giant wooden turtle! Then, travel to the muddy trenches of World War One, where the British built top-secret armored vehicles to cross No Man's Land. Discover why they tried to trick enemy spies by calling these mighty weapons "water tanks," a clever code name that stuck forever! You'll meet "Little Willie," the slow but mighty first prototype, and learn what it was like for brave soldiers crammed inside these booming, super-hot metal boxes during battle. Plus, find out the hilarious and totally true reason why every modern British tank comes with a built-in electric tea maker! Join Mira and Finn as they uncover the clanking, crushing, and fascinating history of the world's most famous armored vehicles!

## Transcript

[0:00] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Histories Not Boring by Kidopoly.com.
[0:04] SPEAKER_00: I'm Mira.
[0:05] SPEAKER_00: And I'm Finn! Today's episode is a special request from Alan, who was born in China, now lives in Canada, and asked all about the history of tanks.
[0:16] SPEAKER_00: This one is for you, Alan.
[0:18] SPEAKER_00: Also, a very happy 8th birthday to Phil in Australia, who plays rugby league for the Berry Magpies.
[0:25] SPEAKER_00: Have a brilliant birthday, Phil! And a huge hello to seven-year-old Austin from Oarfield, Pennsylvania, who listens every day.
[0:34] SPEAKER_00: If you haven't already, tap follow wherever you're listening so you never miss an episode.
[0:40] SPEAKER_00: Today, we are talking about machines that can weigh over 70 tonnes and crush cars like they are empty soda cans.
[0:48] SPEAKER_00: The Mighty Tank.
[0:51] SPEAKER_00: But how did these rolling metal fortresses even begin?
[0:54] SPEAKER_00: You might be surprised, Finn.
[0:56] SPEAKER_00: The story involves the guy who painted the Mona Lisa, top secret water carriers, and soldiers drinking tea.
[1:03] unknown: Haha!
[1:04] SPEAKER_00: I cannot wait.
[1:05] SPEAKER_00: Let's roll right into it.
[1:08] SPEAKER_00: We have to rewind over 500 years.
[1:11] SPEAKER_00: Before engines even existed, the famous inventor, Leonardo da Vinci, dreamed up a tank in 1487.
[1:18] SPEAKER_00: Wait, da Vinci?
[1:20] SPEAKER_00: He designed a tank back in the days of knights and castles.
[1:23] SPEAKER_00: He sure did.
[1:25] SPEAKER_00: In a 1482 letter to the Duke of Milan, he promised to build impregnable, protected wagons to smash enemy ranks.
[1:33] SPEAKER_00: What did his design look like?
[1:35] SPEAKER_00: Did it have caterpillar tracks like modern tanks?
[1:38] SPEAKER_00: Nope.
[1:39] SPEAKER_00: He drew plans for a giant wooden vehicle shaped like a turtle shell, reinforced with heavy metal plates.
[1:46] unknown: Haha!
[1:47] SPEAKER_00: A metal turtle! If there were no engines, how did it move?
[1:51] SPEAKER_00: Eight very strong men had to sit inside and turn massive cranks to spin the four wheels.
[1:57] SPEAKER_00: That sounds exhausting.
[1:59] SPEAKER_00: Did it have any weapons on it?
[2:01] SPEAKER_00: Yes.
[2:02] SPEAKER_00: His sketches showed an array of up to 32 light cannons, pointing out in every single direction.
[2:08] SPEAKER_00: So did the Duke build it and conquer the world with an army of metal turtles?
[2:14] SPEAKER_00: Actually, it was never built.
[2:16] SPEAKER_00: And his drawings had a major flaw.
[2:18] SPEAKER_00: The gears were arranged backwards.
[2:21] SPEAKER_00: Backwards?
[2:22] SPEAKER_00: What does that mean for the tank?
[2:24] SPEAKER_00: If they tried to turn the cranks, the wheels would fight each other and it wouldn't move an inch.
[2:30] SPEAKER_00: Some historians think Da Vinci, who hated war, made the mistake on purpose so nobody could actually use it.
[2:37] SPEAKER_00: That is pretty clever.
[2:39] SPEAKER_00: So when did real, working tanks finally show up?
[2:43] SPEAKER_00: Fast forward to 1914, the start of World War I.
[2:47] SPEAKER_00: Millions of soldiers were stuck in hundreds of miles of deep, muddy trenches across Europe.
[2:53] SPEAKER_00: And the space between the trenches was called no man's land, right?
[2:57] SPEAKER_00: Filled with barbed wire and danger.
[3:00] SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
[3:01] SPEAKER_00: The armies desperately needed a machine that could drive right through the wire and roll over the trenches safely.
[3:08] SPEAKER_00: Time for the turtle to return, but with an engine this time.
[3:12] SPEAKER_00: Close.
[3:13] SPEAKER_00: In 1915, the British government formed a secret group called the Landships Committee to build an armoured vehicle.
[3:20] SPEAKER_00: So what did the Landships Committee build first?
[3:23] SPEAKER_00: Did it actually work?
[3:24] SPEAKER_00: In August 1915, they built a prototype and gave it a very non-scary name.
[3:31] SPEAKER_00: Little Willy.
[3:33] SPEAKER_00: Little Willy?
[3:34] SPEAKER_00: How big was this Willy?
[3:36] SPEAKER_00: It weighed 16 tonnes with armour that was 10 millimetres thick, but it crawled along at a blazing 3.5 miles per hour.
[3:45] SPEAKER_00: That is slower than I walk.
[3:47] SPEAKER_00: Did it work in the trenches?
[3:49] SPEAKER_00: Not really.
[3:50] SPEAKER_00: Little Willy was too short to cross wide trenches, and it was top heavy so it could tip over easily.
[3:57] SPEAKER_00: But it proved the engine and tracks worked.
[3:59] SPEAKER_00: What happened next?
[4:01] SPEAKER_00: They needed something bigger.
[4:02] SPEAKER_00: Exactly! They built a massive machine called the Mark I.
[4:07] SPEAKER_00: It was 26 feet long, weighed 28 tonnes, and looked like a giant squashed diamond.
[4:13] SPEAKER_00: 28 tonnes?
[4:15] SPEAKER_00: That is as heavy as five elephants.
[4:18] SPEAKER_00: Why did they make it a diamond shape?
[4:20] SPEAKER_00: The rhomboid, or diamond shape, let the heavy metal tracks run all the way around the outside of the body.
[4:27] SPEAKER_00: Did that help it cross the battlefield without getting stuck?
[4:30] SPEAKER_00: Yes.
[4:31] SPEAKER_00: It could climb up steep muddy banks and slide over trenches up to nine feet wide.
[4:36] SPEAKER_00: Wait, if they called the group the Land Ships Committee, why do we call them tanks today?
[4:42] SPEAKER_00: Secrecy! The British did not want enemy spies knowing they were building giant rolling weapons.
[4:49] SPEAKER_00: A top secret mission.
[4:51] SPEAKER_00: What cover story did they tell people?
[4:53] SPEAKER_00: They told the factory workers at William Foster and Company that they were building motorised water carriers for soldiers in the desert.
[5:02] SPEAKER_00: So they literally called them water tanks.
[5:04] SPEAKER_00: And the secret code name just stuck forever.
[5:07] SPEAKER_00: Finally, on September 15, 1916, the secret was revealed at the Battle of Flairs Courselette in France.
[5:16] SPEAKER_00: The first tank battle in the history of the world.
[5:19] SPEAKER_00: How many did they send in?
[5:21] SPEAKER_00: They planned to send 49 of these metal monsters into battle to crush the enemy lines.
[5:28] SPEAKER_00: But remember, they were brand new technology.
[5:30] SPEAKER_00: Did they break down?
[5:32] SPEAKER_00: Yes, terribly.
[5:34] SPEAKER_00: Only 32 made it to the starting line, and only 18 actually managed to go forward and fight.
[5:41] SPEAKER_00: Oh wow! What was it like for the guys driving them during the battle?
[5:45] SPEAKER_00: It was an absolute nightmare! It took a crew of eight men crammed inside, and the massive engine was right in the middle of the room with them.
[5:54] SPEAKER_00: It must have been boiling hot and super loud.
[5:57] SPEAKER_00: The heat was unbearable, and the engine was so deafening they had to communicate by banging wrenches on the metal walls to signal each other.
[6:05] SPEAKER_00: That is insane! Did the tank have shock absorbers for all those bumps?
[6:10] SPEAKER_00: Zero suspension.
[6:12] SPEAKER_00: Every time they hit a crater, the crew slammed against solid steel walls.
[6:16] SPEAKER_00: Some even wore special chainmail masks to protect their faces from flying metal splinters inside.
[6:23] SPEAKER_00: Chainmail masks like medieval knights.
[6:26] SPEAKER_00: Did the enemy run away when they saw them?
[6:28] SPEAKER_00: Absolutely! Imagine sitting in a muddy trench and suddenly a 28-ton beast comes rumbling through the fog, effortlessly crushing the barbed wire.
[6:39] SPEAKER_00: One soldier even said their weapons were like matchsticks against the tank's thick armor.
[6:43] SPEAKER_00: Even though they moved at just half a mile per hour across the bumpy craters, those 18 tanks proved that armoured warfare was the future.
[6:52] SPEAKER_00: After that first battle, everything changed.
[6:55] SPEAKER_00: By the end of the war, Britain had manufactured around 2,600 tanks.
[7:01] SPEAKER_00: Did other countries start making their own tanks too?
[7:04] SPEAKER_00: Yes.
[7:05] SPEAKER_00: In 1917, France built the Renault FT.
[7:09] SPEAKER_00: It was a massive game changer because it was the very first tank to have a spinning turret on top.
[7:15] SPEAKER_00: A spinning turret?
[7:17] SPEAKER_00: You mean the gun could turn in a full 360-degree circle without turning the whole tank?
[7:23] SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
[7:24] SPEAKER_00: It only needed a crew of two people.
[7:26] SPEAKER_00: And that design was so brilliant that basically every modern tank today still uses it.
[7:33] SPEAKER_00: Okay, but you promised me a story about soldiers drinking tea.
[7:36] SPEAKER_00: When does that happen?
[7:38] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[7:39] SPEAKER_00: Let's jump to World War II.
[7:41] SPEAKER_00: British tank crews often had to stop, get out of their tanks, and boil water over little improvised fires to make their tea and hot food.
[7:51] SPEAKER_00: That sounds incredibly dangerous if enemies are hiding nearby.
[7:55] SPEAKER_00: It really was.
[7:56] SPEAKER_00: In fact, they realised that about 37% of tank crew casualties happened when they were outside the vehicle making food.
[8:05] SPEAKER_00: Oh no! So what did the military do to fix it?
[8:08] SPEAKER_00: In 1945, they invented the boiling vessel.
[8:12] SPEAKER_00: It is a special electric water boiler installed right inside the tank.
[8:18] SPEAKER_00: No way.
[8:19] SPEAKER_00: Every single British tank comes with a built-in tea maker.
[8:22] SPEAKER_00: Yes, from the Centurion tank back then to the modern Challenger 2 today, they all have a boiling vessel, so the crew can safely make hot tea and food without ever stepping outside.
[8:35] SPEAKER_00: A rolling metal fortress equipped with an electric tea kettle?
[8:39] SPEAKER_00: That is the most British thing I have ever heard.
[8:41] SPEAKER_00: Alright, Finn, time for the quiz! Are you ready?
[8:45] SPEAKER_00: Okay, I am ready.
[8:46] SPEAKER_00: Hit me with your best shots.
[8:48] SPEAKER_00: First question.
[8:50] SPEAKER_00: Who designed a turtle-shaped, hand-cranked tank concept way back in 1487?
[9:00] SPEAKER_00: Next one.
[9:02] SPEAKER_00: What was the funny name of the very first working tank prototype built in 1915?
[9:11] SPEAKER_00: Question 3.
[9:13] SPEAKER_00: Why did the British call these giant armoured vehicles tanks?
[9:21] SPEAKER_00: Here's number four.
[9:23] SPEAKER_00: What was the name of the first battle in history where tanks were used in combat?
[9:31] SPEAKER_00: Last question.
[9:33] SPEAKER_00: What special built-in machine do British tanks have inside them to make hot drinks safely?
[9:43] SPEAKER_00: Great job! Let's go through the answers.
[9:47] SPEAKER_00: The answer to question one is Leonardo da Vinci designed the turtle-shaped tank.
[9:53] SPEAKER_00: For question two, the first working prototype was called Little Willy.
[9:59] SPEAKER_00: Number three, the answer is they called them tanks to trick enemies into thinking they were just making water carriers.
[10:08] SPEAKER_00: Question four.
[10:09] SPEAKER_00: Tanks were first used at the Battle of Fleurs Coursolette in France.
[10:15] SPEAKER_00: And the final answer is British tanks have a boiling vessel installed inside so they can make tea.
[10:22] SPEAKER_00: From Da Vinci's giant wooden turtle to 28 tonne metal beasts and then built-in tea makers.
[10:30] SPEAKER_00: History is absolutely wild.
[10:33] SPEAKER_00: It really is.
[10:34] SPEAKER_00: If you loved learning about the history of tanks today, please leave us a five-star review.
[10:39] SPEAKER_00: Just scroll down and tap the stars.
[10:42] SPEAKER_00: And please follow this show so you never miss a new episode.
[10:46] SPEAKER_00: Oh, and we have sister shows too.
[10:49] SPEAKER_00: Science and philosophy is not boring, and math is not boring.
[10:53] SPEAKER_00: Go give those a listen and a follow as well.
[10:56] SPEAKER_00: Want your name on the show, just like Alan, Phil, and Austin?
[10:59] SPEAKER_00: Send us an email at hello at kidopoly.com.
[11:03] SPEAKER_00: Thanks for exploring with us, everyone.
[11:06] SPEAKER_00: See you next time on History's Not Boring.
[11:09] SPEAKER_00: Bye.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.