The general impression of the war tank is that of a huge juggernaut
going, solemn and irresistible, over any sort of obstacle; but there
seem to have been tank crews who did not regard the lumbering monsters
worshipfully. They pinned their faith and devotion to the lighter and
nimbler type of machine that could jaunt along at eight miles an hour
and revolve on its own axis. The _Scientific American_ had a special
correspondent in France who reports somewhat jerkily the talk of an
American tank-man who had a working acquaintance with the small, and to
him decidedly preferable, type of fighter. The tank-man is quoted:
“Yes, you read a lot in newspapers about tanks. But no American tanks
saw any action in France. There were three battalions of American tank
troops that saw action; one with heavy tanks, with the British, and
two, with light tanks, operating in the Argonne and the St. Mihiel
actions. Some troops, too, if I do say it who shouldn’t! No, you’ll
have to get some one else to talk about the heavy tanks; don’t know
anything about them and don’t want to. Light tanks for me, every time.
Yes, I’ll tell you about them if you are interested.
“We used Renault tanks—light ones. Whiffet tanks some people call them.
Weigh about seven tons and have two men for a crew. Fast? Too fast;
faster than there’s any use of them to be, really. That was one of our
troubles, running away from our infantry. No sense in having tanks that
can get out of touch with the men they are supposed to precede and
blaze a trail for! Those little Renaults can go eight miles an hour
over good ground, and infantry is lucky if it goes two!
“Two men, one of them is the engineer and the other the pilot. Some of
the tanks have machine guns and some one-pounders; only one gun to a
tank you know—those little fellows aren’t battleships. We started in
with 216 tanks. They cost about $10,000 each. Motor not unlike a good
automobile motor; four-cylinder, about 40 horsepower. Indeed the tank
has a lot of automobile mechanism about it. Those Renaults have four
speeds forward and reverse.