Alternate names for the Tank?

Sir Chaos

Banned
Rumblers?

Or, since the early ones are going to be very slow, Crawlers?

Turtle?


Of those suggested so far, my favorite is "Cataphract".
 

Delta Force

Banned
MattII said:
The military were the ones pressing for it, and the ones insistent on security.
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True, but most military projects are given names that have absolutely nothing to do with what the system actually does or even looks like. The military could have decided to give them a different code name or cover story that isn't as popular, or even one that isn't suitable as a name.

The latter maybe, but the former only ever had that name AFAIK.
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It took a few years for the term battlecruiser to be settled upon. From Wikipedia:

"The Invincible-class ships were formally known as armoured cruisers until 1911 when they were redesignated as battlecruisers by an Admiralty order of 24 November 1911. Unofficially a number of designations were used until then, including cruiser-battleship, dreadnought cruiser and battle-cruiser."

Also, keep in mind that the name of something can have a subtle effect on its use. For example, a "dreadnought cruiser" or "super cruiser" might have been less likely to have been put in the line of battle than a "battlecruiser".
 

MattII

Delta Force said:
True, but most military projects are given names that have absolutely nothing to do with what the system actually does or even looks like. The military could have decided to give them a different code name or cover story that isn't as popular, or even one that isn't suitable as a name.
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'Tank' was totally inappropriate for what they actually were, but the name stuck.
 

Saphroneth

Banned
Delta Force said:
It took a few years for the term battlecruiser to be settled upon. From Wikipedia:

"The Invincible-class ships were formally known as armoured cruisers until 1911 when they were redesignated as battlecruisers by an Admiralty order of 24 November 1911. Unofficially a number of designations were used until then, including cruiser-battleship, dreadnought cruiser and battle-cruiser."

Also, keep in mind that the name of something can have a subtle effect on its use. For example, a "dreadnought cruiser" or "super cruiser" might have been less likely to have been put in the line of battle than a "battlecruiser".
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I believe at some point Fisher (possibly) referred to "Invincibles" as a type, in the same terms as Dreadnoughts. Could have meant ship class, could have meant ship type.
 

Delta Force

Banned
MattII said:
'Tank' was totally inappropriate for what they actually were, but the name stuck.
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The name came from a cover story about them being portable water carriers for service in Mesopotamia. Suppose they had chosen something else though in an attempt to conceal the purpose of the vehicles in plain sight? Tanks could have been called gun motors or tractors so people would think they were simply for moving things around behind the lines instead of being weapons themselves.
 

BlueTrousers

I have British 'armoured tracklayers' and 'landcruisers', Imperial German 'Kampfwagens' and Russian 'vodovoznyye', that is, 'water carriers'. The latter since they were banned from developing fighting vehicles after losing a different WW1.
 

MattII

Delta Force said:
The name came from a cover story about them being portable water carriers for service in Mesopotamia. Suppose they had chosen something else though in an attempt to conceal the purpose of the vehicles in plain sight?
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That was the idea behind my suggestion of 'tractors', disguising the purpose. Alternatively, you could use 'kitchen' (shortened to 'kitch') of 'cooker' (shortened to 'cook'), which is in the same vein as 'tank'.
 
Cook

Cook

Banned
The Mole:
The+British+Tanks+1915-19.pdf+-+Adobe+Reader.jpg



Named after its inventor Lance de Mole:

KeJaVO.jpg
 
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