The giving of individual names to British armoured cars and tanks isa tradition going back to the earliest times when first they were used in combat. In France, before the end of 1914, a number of Commander Samson's Royal Naval Air Service armoured cars had already been given the names of some of the unit's recent battle honours. The development of tanks owed much to the inspiration of the Royal Naval Air Service—it should be remembered that one of the alternative names for Mother, the direct prototype of the first tanks to enter service, wasH.M.L.S. (His Majesty's Land Ship) Centipede. Naval Volunteers together with men from many units of the Army helped to man the tanks of the Heavy Section, Machine Gun Corps—Heavy Section was renamed Heavy Branch in November 1916—when it first saw action on 15 September 1916. Most of the tanks at this time bore individual names prefixed by H.M.L.S.

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