The immobility of the trench warfare characterizing the First World War led to a need for a powerfully armed military engine that would be at the same time protected from enemy fire and could move on the extremely irregular terrain of battlefields.

[1] In January 1915, the French vehicle and armaments manufacturer Schneider & Co. sent out its chief designer, Eugène Brillié, to investigate tracked tractors from the American Holt Company, at that time participating in a test programme in England, for a project of mechanical wire-cutting machines of the Breton-Pretot type.

[2] On 16 June, new experiments followed in front of the President of the French Republic, and on 10 September for Commander Ferrus, an officer who had been involved in the study (and ultimate abandonment) of the Levavasseur tank project in 1908.

[3] Finally, a Baby Holt caterpillar was demonstrated at Souain on 9 December 1915, to the French Army, with the participation of commandant Ferrus, lieutenant Charles Fouché, General Philippe Pétain.

The length of the Baby Holt however appeared to be too short to bridge German trenches, justifying the development of longer caterpillar tracks for the French tank project.