'Lost' AA Milne poem on tanks found in Bovington archive Published duration 26 October 2016

image copyright The Tank Museum image caption The poem was written to be performed at a military fundraising event in 1918

A "forgotten" poem by Winnie the Pooh author AA Milne celebrating the tank has been discovered in archives.

The work, found in an officer's papers at the Tank Museum in Bovington, Dorset, was penned for a military fundraising event in 1918.

Milne, who worked for a British propaganda unit, paid tribute to "The wonderful Tanks" which could "flatten a wood / If the cover's too good".

The British invention was first used in 1916 at the Battle of the Somme.

image copyright The Tank Museum image caption The poem pays tribute to "the wonderful Tanks" including "the Mark lll / Which can swim in the sea."

The poem was written six years before the first incarnation of Pooh Bear in 1924.

It was discovered in a box of papers that once belonged to Hugh Elles, the first commander of the Tank Corps.

Research assistant Sheldon Rogers, who made the discovery, said it was written to be performed at a show in support of the Tank Corps Prisoners of War Fund.

He said: "Although the [show] programme had been catalogued, the significance of its contents had been overlooked and no-one seemed to have any knowledge of this poem."

Mr Rogers said the work was "clearly propaganda" for the tank, whose "guns rat-tat-tat, / As it opens on Fritz, / And he runs like a rat".

He said it also praised "the men who sit tight in the Tanks", ending "You'll remember them? / THANKS!"

The poem will be put on display at the Tank Museum.

AA Milne

Born in 1882, Alan Alexander Milne began his writing career as a Cambridge undergraduate, contributing to the student magazine Granta

From 1903, he worked in London as freelance writer, becoming an assistant editor at Punch magazine

During World War One, Milne served as an Army signalling officer in France before being invalided out with trench fever

In 1916 he was recruited by the military propaganda unit M17b to contribute news reports and articles supporting the war effort

Discharged in 1919, he achieved success as a playwright, specialising in light comedies

Winnie the Pooh first appeared in Punch magazine in 1924