Cultivator No. 6

Cultivator No. 6
Front view of a Cultivator No. 6, 25 July 1941
Type	Experimental assault vehicle
Place of origin	United Kingdom
Production history
Designed	1939
Manufacturer	Ruston-Bucyrus
Specifications
Weight	130 tons
Length	77 feet 6 inches (23.62 m)
Width	7 feet 3 inches (2.21 m)
Height	10 feet 5 inches (3.18 m)
Engine	Two, Davey, Paxman and Co Diesel engines 600 horsepower (450 kW)
Speed	3.04 miles per hour (4.89 km/h) on surface

Cultivator No. 6 was the code name of a military trench-digging machine developed by the British Royal Navy at the beginning of World War II. The machine was originally known as White Rabbit Number Six; this code name was never officially recognised, but it was said to be derived from Churchill’s metaphorical ability to pull ideas out of a hat. The codename was changed to the less suggestive Cultivator Number Six to conceal its identity. The name was later changed to N.L.E. Tractors.Winston Churchill sometimes referred to the machine as his mole and the prototype machine was dubbed Nellie. It was lightly armoured and carried no weapons. It was designed to advance upon an enemy position largely below ground level in a trench that it was itself excavating. On reaching the enemy's front line, it would serve as a ramp for the troops and possibly tanks following in its trench.

Cultivator No. 6 was an enormous machine and was planned to be built in substantial numbers. The overall weight was 130 tons and the length was 77 feet 6 inches (23.62 m). The machine's development and production was enthusiastically backed by Winston Churchill and work on it continued well past the point when there was no obvious use for it. In the end, only a small number of machines were constructed and none were used in combat. In his memoirs, Churchill said about it: "I am responsible but impenitent".

After the outbreak of World War II, on 3 September 1939 the day Britain declared war on Germany, Winston Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty and a member of the War Cabinet just as he had been during the first part of World War I. There followed a period during which the western allies watched Germany and Russia devour Poland, but with very little aggressive action being taken. The only significant fighting was at sea.

Britain despatched an expeditionary force to France where they took up positions on the northernmost portion of the French border with Belgium. A line of fortifications known as the Maginot Line helped to defend France's border with Germany and much of the allies' effort went into extending these defences to the north. Trenches were dug, barbed wire was stretched out and pillboxes were built, but hardly a shot was fired in anger. This period became known as the Phoney War. To the British and French public, this was a conflict between professional fighting forces and there was little appetite for an all-out ideological war.