Landship Committee

Established in February 1915 by First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, the Committee was composed mainly of naval officers, politicians and engineers.

Churchill on 5 January 1915 disclosed the Committee notion to Prime Minister Herbert Asquith by letter in which he wrote:[3] The question to be now solved is not the long attack over a carefully prepared glacis of former times, but the actual getting across of 100 or 200 yards of open space and wire entanglements.

The caterpillar system would enable trenches to be crossed quite easily, and the weight of the machines would destroy all wire entanglements.

advance into the enemy's trenches, smash all obstructions, and sweep the trenches with their machine gun fire.The committee started with only three members: d'Eyncourt, as chairman; Flight Commander Thomas Hetherington of the Royal Naval Air Service Armoured Car Squadron; and Colonel Wilfred Dumble of the Naval Brigade.

The committee's activities were concealed from Kitchener at the War Office, the Board of the Admiralty, and the Treasury, all of whom were expected to block the project.