Okay since nobody did a serious answer, here we go:

tl;dr: its a translation/interpretation error.

The first documented forms of chess are all “war machines” of their time the tower was a Charioteer.

When chess hits Europe someone translated charioteer with tower. Idk why, maybe because the used figures looked like a tower.

And a charioteer move on a battlefield would be a storming through everything in one direction.