A high tech hunt is being carried out on the British Army base at Bovington Camp in Dorset to find a unique piece of military history – the buried remains of the world’s first tank, known as Mother.
Mother was developed in 1915 to break the stalemate in the trenches of World War One, but was believed to have been melted down and recycled on The Tank Museum site in 1940, during the scrap metal drives of World War Two.
The hunt for Mother, the prototype tank, pictured here in 1915
A treasure hunt like no other
But now evidence has come to light that Bovington Army personnel may have secretly buried Mother and three other historic tanks to save them from the scrapyard – and Tank Museum volunteer Staff Sergeant Anthony Cherrett has started a treasure hunt like no other.
Anthony Cherrett is leading a crowdfunding drive and has raised £9,000 so far to employ a team of archaeologists who hope to find evidence of a buried tank on the old driver training ground at Bovington.
But Bovington Camp covers four square kilometres, of which a quarter was the driver training ground in the 1940s, and much of it is restricted heathland potentially with unexploded ammunition still in the ground.
So now Anthony, colleague Craig Joynes and experts from Cotswold Archaeology have started using the funds raised so far to carry out drone flights over the area.
Although the first sessions came back negative and dreadful December weather postponed the second phase, the search team is still very hopeful of finding Mother early in 2026.
The hunt has just begin for a buried tank on military ground at Bovington
“Drones were the best solution”
Anthony Cherrett said:
“Operation Mother is a project pulled together by a small team of history enthusiasts led by myself and embarking on a remarkable journey to locate and recover one of the most legendary artifacts in armored warfare history, believed to be buried near Bovington, the spiritual home of the tank.
“So far we have raised enough money to do an initial scan of a quarter of the area that we believe Mother may have been buried in, north of the driver training area as it was in 1940.
“We are still fundraising, but we wanted to get the project under way and scan at least one part of the area, so we went out with Cotswold Archaeology and flew three different types of drones which use laser light, magnetic fields and ground penetrating radar to scan the land.
“It’s not the perfect technology to get the work done really, but drones were the best solution given the restrictions placed on the area by the landowner, which is a site of special scientific interest as well as a military zone.”
Staff Sergeant Anthony Cherrett, left, with The Tank Museum’s director Chris Price and Craig Joynes
“The search has only just begun”
Anthony added:
“We had planned to get back out on Friday 19th December 2025, but we had to cancel after the amount of rain that came down the day before, so we will have to reschedule early in the New Year.
“We want to go out when conditions are perfect, the worst thing would be to finish scanning the target area without finding Mother and still have a nagging doubt that we could have done it better.
“We had no spikes in the data so far which would indicate a large metal object in the area we have scanned, but we would have been pretty lucky to find her first try right? For me personally the search has only just begun.
“It would be insane if we actually find her, because it’s not just a tank, it’s everything else she led to, the machine that broke the stalemate of the First World War. We just hope we can bring her back home.
“Our ultimate aim is to find and recover her and get her back into the Bovington Tank Museum, next to Little Willie, where she belongs.”
Wooded heathland in a military zone at Bovington Camp is where Mother could have been secretly buried in 1940
Changed how wars would be fought
Mother, also known historically as HMLS (His Majesty’s Land Ship) Centipede or Big Willie, was built in Lincoln in 1915 as the first fully successful prototype of what would become the modern tank.
After a series of trials, including one at Hatfield House with King George V present, the design went on to inspire the Mark I tanks deployed on the Western Front in 1916.
Those early tanks did not win the war on their own, but they permanently changed how wars would be fought, and war historians regard Mother as one of the most significant military artefacts of the 20th century.
After World War One, Mother was transferred to Bovington Camp, where she was displayed alongside other early tanks at what would eventually become the Tank Museum, but disappeared in the early 1940s.
The drone team is waiting to go out again at Bovington to continue the search
Secretly buried to save her
The long standing official explanation is straightforward – Mother was scrapped during World War Two as part of Britain’s nationwide salvage drives to collect huge quantities of metal for the war effort.
Countless historic artefacts were lost during that period, and Mother was widely assumed to be among them.
But at Bovington a different story persisted, that Mother had not been destroyed at all, but secretly buried somewhere on the training area to save her from the scrappers.
The problem was that no one could say exactly who had done it, where it had happened, or even whether the story had any factual basis, until Anthony Cherrett took an interest in the mystery.
Did staff at Bovington bury Mother and three other historic tanks to save them from scrap?
Bury a tank during lunch
After months of research, his team unearthed a letter in the Tank Museum’s archives written by Lieutenant Colonel N Dillon about the wartime activities of a friend who had been based at Bovington.
The letter read:
“Major Bill Brannon found the scrap metal staff beginning to demolish some of the old tanks. It was noon, and they knocked off for lunch.
“Meanwhile, Bill organised a towing tank and pulled out four of the oldest tanks and buried them in the driving area. These four included Mother and Musical Box, all happily still with us.”
As far fetched as it sounds to bury a tank during a lunchbreak, the huge driver training area would have been full of enormous predug holes, to allow trainees to practise driving tanks in rough terrain.
Anthony Cherrett and Craig Joynes appeared on a World of Tanks Christmas livestream to promote Operation Mother
“Only the first chapter in a long story”
Anthony Cherrett said:
“Dillon was stationed at Bovington, knew Major Brannon personally, and is already credited with helping save several First World War tanks that survive today.
“His letter strongly suggests that Mother was not scrapped, but deliberately buried in the driver training area.
“Our plan is to scan the whole of the driver training area. Our first search didn’t reveal any sign of Mother but that doesn’t mean she isn’t out there, far from it. This is only the first chapter in what was always going to be a long and complex journey
“In reality, I can’t put this to bed until I scan the entire area, but that does come with a financial burden and I have to raise the money to fund it.”
Another drone prepares to head out over the military zone at Bovington Camp
“We are determined to rescue her”
Anthony added:
“If it had been any other tank in the world it may not have been worth the effort, but she is the first ever and there is no tank more important than her, so we absolutely had to go out and search.
“If she is found, we would need permission from the landowner to dig a hole and dig her out, which I’m sure they will, given the historical significance that find would have.
“But it won’t be me, or the British Army, digging it up, it will be archaeologists and it will be done in a methodical manner to make sure she is not damaged.
“They won’t risk a quick excavation in case Mother collapses in on herself, this team has recovered military aircraft and tanks before, and know what they are doing. It’s likely to be a two week effort to get her out – but if she is there, we are determined to rescue her.”
Anthony Cherrett, who volunteers at the Tank Museum, won’t rest until the mystery of Mother is solved
Further information
- Keep up with latest developments at Operation Mother’s Facebook page
- Operation Mother is being financed through the GoFundMe appeal
