What Happened to Giant Land Ships?

The romance of sailing ships, their history, beauty, and deadly journeys are the stuff of myths and legends.

But there is another history, an almost forgotten one, concerning what have been called Land Ships.

Recalling the elegance of dirigibles and ocean liners, the same ideas were applied to proposed Land Ships.

Land ships did not achieve the success of those that plied the oceans or skies, but their history is nonetheless fascinating.

Land Ships Evolution

The Land ship as we know it today did not develop in antiquity due to technological limitations.

However, the "Siege Engine' used in warfare came very close to the concept of a land ship.

"The Siege Tower was a type of medieval siege engine constructed to protect assailants when approaching the walls of a fortification.

Siege towers were usually rectangular and had four wheels. Their height was roughly equivalent to that of a wall, or even taller to allow for archers. Because they were made of wood and therefore flammable, a lot of siege towers were covered in iron or fresh animal skins.

A siege tower housed spearmen, swordsmen, pikemen, archers, and crossbowmen. because of their size, these towers were frequently the first target of defending catapults..." from the article: Medieval Siege Tower

World War One

"It is one of the ironies of military history that the first operational tank was created under the auspices of the Royal Navy. At the same time, it is consistent with the special role of the Royal Navy as the dominant arm of the British services. This fact made a peculiar mark on the fledgling tank program, which designated these vehicles as “landships” until the nickname “tank” had caught on..." from the article by Michael Fassbender - British Landship Tanks in World War I

What Happened to the Giant Land Ships?

Video from Found And Explained

The Military Application

Could Land Battleships exist ?

Relations, Cases, Myths and Possibilities

"Popular Science article, 1917. As USA entered the war and lacked everything including tanks, PopSci published an article about the idea of... putting old pre-dreadnoughts on tracks (or wheels in this case). We must remember that the idea was not that outlandish back in 1917. After all, the only significant fiction about the matter has been HG Wells famous "land ironclads" that our friends at Tanks Encyclopedia already treated in HG Wells Fictional Tank and the famous German ww2 "Land Kreuzer" designed by an U-Boat officer.

The relations between the navy and first tanks is going a long way and particularly strong during WW1. In the UK, Winston Churchill was first lord of the admiralty, but after he was demoted after the disaster at Gallipoli and served for some time on the western front, came back through the "land battleship committee" with tank projects that were essentially driven by the navy, including by the use of barbettes (Mark I and successors) and light naval guns. Both allies were looking forward naval fleets and classifications to find an equivalent on land, from the "cruiser tanks" to the massive breakthrough tanks assimilated to battleships. The French FCM were for example built in a naval yard..." from the article: Could Land Battleships exist ?

Science Fiction Land Ships

Sand Crawler - Star Wars

EXT. ROCK CANYON - SANDCRAWLER

"Eight dwarfs, or JAWAS, as they’re sometimes called, carry Artoo out of the canyon to a huge sandcrawler – a tank-like vehicle the size of a two-story house.

They place the robot in a small bin on one side of the crawler, and a mechanical arm promptly lifts the bin, dumping the unconscious Artoo into the back of the giant tractor. The filthy little Jawas scurry like rats up small ladders and enter the main cabin of the behemoth transport. Several windows light up in the cockpit area toward the front of the crawler followed by the loud scream of powerful engines. The enormous sandcrawler turns and lumbers off toward the magnificent twin suns, now slowly setting over a distant mountain range. [Scene 23, 1]

Part tank, part building, the Jawa sandcrawler draws a distinctive silhouette against the desert horizon of Tatooine. At once distinctly alien, yet perfectly at home.

As with several of the vehicles for the first film, the Jawa sandcrawler started life not as a concept drawing, but as one of the conceptual models made by Colin Cantwell, the 2001 model maker who was brought in to help sell the film to the studios. His version however had a radically different guise than the one that made it to the silver screen..." from the article: The Jawa Sandcrawler

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