The Origin of the Word Tank

I have been reading this book called "The Prize- The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power." It is a history of the oil industry from its humble beginnings in different parts of the world to become a commodity which played a significant role in determining the history of the world.

While reading about how Oil played a key role in determining the military strategy in the early 20th century, I read about how the First World War turned around with the introduction of the "Tank" by the British. Today the Tank is almost syonumous with the image of that beast of a armoured vehicle that pops into our heads. But when you think about it - "Tank" is not a very obvious choice of name for this military innovation. Why then is it called Tank?

During the First World War after the French successfully stopped the German advance by using an army of "taxis" ( yes soldiers transported by taxis for the first time) the war had gone into a stalemate of trench warfare for a couple of years. During this time a British War Fiction writer, Colonel Swinton had the idea that an armored vehicle powered by an IC engine could be the answer.

At this time, a man named Winston Churchill was the First Lord of the Admiralty. A few years earlier he had championed the cause of the introduction of Fuel Oil for ships of the British Navy. When he heard about the Swinton's idea he championed the cause and called upon the army to begin research to develop this vehicle. But the highly traditional Army did not take this idea seriously. As a result Churchill decided to fund this research from the Navy's funds. Some of the initial names given to the vehicle were "LandCruiser" and "Land Ship" - to indicate the fact that it was the Navy developing this weapon. Later on, in order to keep the development secret, the project was given the codename - "Cistern" and "Reservoir" - since the product when kept under wraps could be mistaken for Cisterns. Eventually the name "Tank"stuck.

I chose to delve a touch further. Why was Tank - a container for water -called Tank? Apparently there is a strong linkage to the Hindi/Marthi/Gujarati word - Tankh, Tanka etc. Apparently the Portuguese carried this word to Europe as Tanque in the 17th century. From the West coast of India to the battlefields of western europe - a long journey the Tank has made.