The invention of the tank is usually credited to Sir Ernest Dunlop Swinton, a British military officer and author. But the real credit might belong to Australian soldier Lance de Mole, who apparently came up with the idea for the tank in December 1914 (although he might have been working on it as early as 1912). He subsequently designed an armored vehicle with chain wheels, allowing for easy steering while traveling off-road and over trenches. De Mole immediately submitted his plans to the British War Office, which rejected them, believing the concept to be impractical. He would present his idea again in 1915 and 1917, only to see it rejected both times, although his third attempt did secure him a grant of £987 to offset his expenses. Swinton would eventually develop his own plans for the tank after seeing a tractor with a gun on it in 1914, though the British Army would not start working with them until 1916. If they had adopted tanks when De Mole first suggested, they might have ended World War I a few years earlier.
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