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To John Boyd tanks are snowmobiles. That may seem a little odd, but hear me out. John Boyd the father of the OODA loop said “To discern what is going on we must interact in a variety of ways with our environment. ... 1/
We must be able to examine the world from a number of perspectives so that we can generate mental images or impressions that correspond to that world” - Boyd also encouraged mentally “pulling things apart (analysis) ... 2/
and putting them back together (synthesis) in new combinations to find how apparently unrelated ideas and actions can be related to one another” (Quotes from Frans Osinga’s excellent book on Boyd & OODA). 3/
Boyd suggests approaching a problem from multiple angles to bring together a solution that is both new, novel and yet ideal for solving the problem. So... snowmobiles? Well what are snow mobiles? Think about a ski slope, a down hill slalom skier whizzes past. 4/
So you take their ski’s. Next your in Florida and you see a chap cruising in his fishing boat, it has an outboard motor. You can use that so you filch it. Next you see someone riding a bicycle, this gives you an idea. TAKE THE BIKE. 5/
Next you’re in poundland, you amble through the toy section and there’s this crane toy that has rubber band tracks, AH-HA! You say. Then you buy it, because it’s only a quid. 6/
So you look at the haul. You grab the ski’s and replace the bikes front wheel, then you wedge the outboard motor into the bike’s fame, you like the bike’s handle bars so they stay where they are. 7/
Then comes the rubber band tracks, well, you hook them up to the engine for power and round the back wheel as an axle, and hey presto! You have a Boydian Snowmobile. 8/
Boyd actually used this analogy in some of his talks to underline what he meant by destruction and creation in his thinking (analysis and synthesis).
So if these are snowmobiles, how are they tanks? 9/
So if these are snowmobiles, how are they tanks? 9/
Well in the Great War there was a problem with the defensive being more powerful than the offensive. The men and arms cannot traverse the battle field without being destroyed, hence the situation on the Western Front. So the allies start to think about this. 10/
How do we get across the open ground?
So imagine this, you’re First Sea Lord and to unwind you read a bit of H G Wells. Land Ironclads, great read, its about battleships on land, you love it. You’re reading this onboard HMS Dreadnought. 11/
So imagine this, you’re First Sea Lord and to unwind you read a bit of H G Wells. Land Ironclads, great read, its about battleships on land, you love it. You’re reading this onboard HMS Dreadnought. 11/
After this you inspect a large arable farm in Lincolnshire, you see a most modern American tractor traversing the land. It has these strange caterpillar like tracks. 12/
Next you go to a dockyard to see the dismantling of some of the old armoured cruisers, their 6pdr guns are getting lifted off as an aircraft wheels overhead. 13/
All this gives you an idea, you crib the designs off H G Wells, you order your man to use some of Dreadnought’s deck plating to make it out of, you take the tracks off that tractor and you slap those on… ah the aircraft’s engine will drive those tracks! 14/
Now it needs some guns too… those naval 6pdrs! They’ll do!
Congratulations, you now have a tank. 15/
Congratulations, you now have a tank. 15/
So you see, in actuality the whole design process of building the first operational tank is very boydian in nature.
I may have been a little creative in nature with how things happened but a lot of that happened.
Churchill was FSL and was interesting in breaking the dealock. 16/
I may have been a little creative in nature with how things happened but a lot of that happened.
Churchill was FSL and was interesting in breaking the dealock. 16/
H G Wells story was inspirational to those thinking on how to get accross no-mans-land and those tracks were from new American agricultural vehicles. The early tanks did use long barreled surplus naval 6pdrs 17/
And the mk. VIII was to use the Liberty V12 in anger.
This was the first time that all this had come together in a package and an effective one it was too!
This just goes to show that Boyd is both staggeringly applicable and a man who would see tanks as snowmobiles! 18/18
This was the first time that all this had come together in a package and an effective one it was too!
This just goes to show that Boyd is both staggeringly applicable and a man who would see tanks as snowmobiles! 18/18
