McNaier’s Armored Truck

United States of America (1919) Armored Truck – None Built On 29th March 1919, Joseph Treanor McNaier submitted a patent design for a centrifugal gun. This was no ordinary firearm and was not merely a design for a weapon in isolation. When he filed his design on 2nd April, McNaier was proposing a new way …

Blacksher Armored Automobile

United States of America (1916) Armored Car – None Built In 1916, there was one war sucking up all of the attention – the war in Europe, which was seeing the largest European empires battling it out at extreme costs. The USA did not enter the war until April 1917, and, in the meantime, already …

Lauterbur’s Tractor

United States of America (1918) Tank – None Built At the start of 1918, WW1 was by no means waning in terms of combat or intensity. The war had, to that point, been characterized in the public mindset by the slaughter in Belgium and France. This picture was one of trench lines of men just …

Lyon’s Electric Gyro-Cruiser

United States of America (1916) Landship – None Built “Suppose Great Britain’s giant navy could now come up out of the sea into the plains of northern France and, mounting itself upon wheels, dash in single line formation at express train speed upon one single, unsuspecting and strategic point of Germany’s hundreds of miles of …

Roy / Lzarnopyski Infantry Fort

United States of America/Austro-Hungarian Empire (1919) Infantry Fort – None Built World War One was, by 1918, the largest and most costly war in terms of lives in the history of mankind. Starting in 1914, the war finally ended officially in June 1919, with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, although, with the signing …

Ford 3-man Light Tank

United States of America (1918) Light Tank – 1 Built The USA was a mess in WW1. War had broken out in Europe between the major world powers, killing hundreds of thousands and spreading to a front from the North Sea to Switzerland, also covering Northern Italy, the Balkans, Africa, and beyond. Yet, in the …

Tracklayer Best 75

United States of America (1916) Mock-up Training Tank – 1 Built America was not involved in the bloody slaughter on the first years of war on the Western Front not arriving until the summer of 1917. Political pressure in the United States had very much sought to avoid becoming embroiled in the war which most …

C. L. Best Tractor Tank (‘Best Tracklayer 75’)

United States of America (1916) Mock-up Training Tank – 1 Built In the weeks and months following the tank being unleashed on the battlefields of France by the British in September 1916, the tanks generated enormous amounts of public interest and fascination. It was not until November 1916 that photographs were available from which the …

Holt Caterpillar G-9

United States of America (1916-1917) Tank Mock-up – 1 Built Tanks first came to the public consciousness with the British unleashing them at Flers-Courcelette on 15th September 1916. It was some time before pictures of them started to appear in the media and, in the meantime, various artistic renderings of this new weapon of war …

Holt’s ‘America First’ Tank

United States of America (1916) Tank Mock-up – 1 Built? Tanks first appeared on the battlefields of Europe on 15th September 1916 at Flers Courcelette, during a British attack on German trenches. Whilst their use was by no means decisive, they showed that not only did the concept of a tracked armored vehicle work but …