The Tank, Heavy, TOG 1 was a prototype British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 heavy tank

Heavy tank

A heavy tank was a subset of tank that filled the heavy direct-fire role of many armies.Heavy tanks have usually been deployed to breakthrough enemy lines, though in practice have been more useful in the defensive role than in the attack...

 produced in the early part of the Second World War in the expectation that battlefields might end up like those of the First World War and was designed so it could cross churned up countryside and trenches. A single prototype was built but interest faded with the success of the Churchill tank

Churchill tank

The Tank, Infantry, Mk IV was a heavy British infantry tank used in the Second World War, best known for its heavy armour, large longitudinal chassis with all-around tracks with multiple bogies, and its use as the basis of many specialist vehicles. It was one of the heaviest Allied tanks of the war...

, another cross country performance design, and the mobile war that was being fought.

History

In July 1939 the Special Vehicle Development Committee was drawn up for future tank designs suitable for Great War conditions under Sir Albert Stern; who had been on the original Landships Committee

Landships Committee

The Landships Committee was a small British war cabinet committee established in February 1915 to deal with the design and construction of what would turn out to be tanks during the First World War...

 and head of the Tank Supply Depot during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. The committee included others who had been instrumental in the development of the tank during the Great War: former Director of Naval Construction

Director of Naval Construction

The Director of Naval Construction was a senior British civil servant post in the Admiralty, that part of the British Civil Service that oversaw the Royal Navy. The post existed from 1860 to 1966....

, Sir Eustace Tennyson d'Eyncourt, General Swinton, engine designer Harry Ricardo

Harry Ricardo

Sir Harry Ricardo was one of the foremost engine designers and researchers in the early years of the development of the internal combustion engine....

, the gearbox and transmission expert Major W G Wilson

Walter Gordon Wilson

Major Walter Gordon Wilson was an engineer and member of the British Royal Naval Air Service. He was credited by the 1919 Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors as the co-inventor of the tank, along with Sir William Tritton....

. Unsurprisingly they got the nickname "The Old Gang" (hence, the initials TOG were applied to their design).
Together they proposed the development of a heavy tank design, which they entrusted to another of the first tank's developers and builders of the first tank, Sir William Tritton of Foster's of Lincoln.

Designed with trench crossing abilities to the fore and the capability to carry infantry as well, the design was a large hull with side doors supported on broad tracks, with a small turret on top. The prototype TOG I was delivered in October 1940. After problems with the electro-mechanical drive, it was converted to hydraulic drive, a process that took until May 1943 after which it was called TOG 1A. The prototype was sent to Chobham

Chobham Common

Chobham Common is a area of lowland heath a globally rare and threatened habitat, in Surrey, England. It was formerly a freehold owned by the Earl of Onslow, and purchased for £1 an acre by Surrey County Council in 1966...

 and then seems to have disappeared into history.

See also

• Super Heavy Tank