Tanks for the memories...
H.G. Wells was a thinker...and he (like Jules Verne) became a literary giant by putting those thoughts on
paper...long before they entered the realm of reality. Wells leaned more towards fantasy than Verne did, but nevertheless, some of his work partially unveiled the shadows of the future. The Land Ironclads, a short story by Wells,
predicted the use of the armored fighting vehicle, or "tank" years
before it made its appearance in WWI.
Previous to The Great War, there were armored "wagons" and sundry metal plated vehicles used on a limited basis (particularly in the Anglo-Boer War and the American Punitive Expedition into
Mexico) but nothing that compared to what Wells imagined and developed in this work.
Originally published in The
Strand Magazine in December of 1903, it stands as a testament to what was
to come upon the battlefield of tomorrow.