TANKS.
The tank, more than any other weapon born of the great war, may be
called the joint enterprise of the three principal powers arrayed
against Germany--America, France, and Great Britain. An American
produced the fundamental invention, the caterpillar traction device,
which enables the fortress to move. A Frenchman took the idea from this
and evolved the tank as an engine of war. The British first used the
terrifying monster in actual fighting.
There is a common impression throughout America that the British Army
invented the tank. The impression is wrong in two ways. The French
government has recently awarded the ribbon of the Legion of Honor to
the French ordnance officer who is officially hailed as the tank's
inventor. His right to the honor, however, is disputed by a French
civilian who possesses an impressive exhibition of drawings to prove
that he and not the officer is the inventor. As this is written a
lively controversy over the point is in progress in France. Wherever
the credit for the invention belongs, the French were first to build
tanks, building them only experimentally, however, and not using them
until after the British had demonstrated their effectiveness.
In the second place, it was not the British Army which adopted them
first in England, but the British Navy. The tank as an idea shared the
experience of many another war invention in being skeptically received
by the conservative experts. The British Navy, indeed, produced the
first ones in England; but to the British Army goes the glory of having
first used them in actual fighting and of establishing them in the
forefront of modern offensive weapons.
Brought forth as a surprise, the tanks made an effective début in the
great British drive for Cambrai. Later the enemy affected to scoff
at their usefulness. The closing months of the tanks' brief history,
however, found them in greater favor than ever, and they were used by
both sides in increasing numbers.
Up to the beginning of the summer of 1917 there was little accurate
information in this country regarding the tanks. Somewhat hazy
specifications then began to come from Europe about the designs of the
different tanks at that particular time in use on the battle front, but
these specifications were exceedingly rough and sketchy, consisting in
the main of merely the fact that the machines should be able to cross
trenches about 6 feet wide, that each should carry one heavy gun and
two or three machine guns, and that their protection should consist of
armor plate about five-eighths of an inch thick.
[Illustration: THREE-TON TANK.
Weight, 5,800 pounds; crew, two men (one gunner, one driver); power
plant, two Ford motors, geared together, each motor driving one track;
speed, nine miles per hour; climbing ability, 45°.]
[Illustration: SIX-TON TANK.
This machine is practically a copy of the French Renault tank
and carries two men (one driver, one gunner). About half of
these tanks were equipped with 37-millimeter cannon and about
half with machine guns. Certain of these tanks also made with
wireless apparatus substituted for the turret of the fighting
tanks. Power plant, one Buda 4-cylinder motor; speed, five to
six miles per hour; grade capacity, 45°; weight, 15,000 pounds.]
With these facts as a guide, two experimental machines were decided
upon, and work on them was begun immediately. With these machines
it was determined to test the relative advantages of a specially
articulated form of caterpillar tractor with wheeled traction, making
use of very large wheels, and to develop the possibilities between the
gas-electric and steam systems of propulsion.
In September, 1917, decision had been made to supply the American Army
with two types of tanks--one the large size, typical of that used by
the British and capable of containing a dozen men, and the other a
smaller one patterned after the French two-man model and known as the
Renault. In September one of our officers charged with tank production
was dispatched to Europe for a more intimate study of the machines
used abroad and for the purpose of getting more detailed information
respecting the merits of the various types of tanks, as well as to make
arrangements for sending specimens here.
The decision to equip the American forces in Europe with tanks of two
sizes was made only after thorough and somewhat protracted conferences
with British, French, and American officers in Europe. Complete
drawings and samples of the small tank were obtained from the French
and shipped to this country. As all of the drawings were made in
accordance with the metric system of measurements, it was necessary
before anything could be done toward actual production to remake the
drawings, as the machine shops here were not equipped to use the metric
system.
The large British tank had been successful in its operations on the
battle front, but its very decided limitations, recognized by British
authorities, caused our officers to think it best to redesign the large
tank in preference to copying the existing big British tank with its
limitations.
General "fighting" specifications for the big tank were laid down by
the British general staff at the conference at British headquarters
at which American officers were present. It was agreed that this big
tank, known as the Mark VIII, should be of Anglo-American design and
construction. Arrangements were made for producing 1,500 of this type.
To do this, Great Britain and the United States entered into a working
agreement that provided for England to furnish the hulls, guns, and
ammunition, while the United States was to furnish the power plant and
driving details of the monster. Roughly speaking, each tank would cost
about $35,000, of which $15,000 represented the American part of the
job, on which some 72 contractors were at once engaged. About 50 per
cent of the work on these tanks had been completed when the armistice
was signed, and the first units were undergoing trials.
It was confidently expected that all of the 1,500 contracted for
would have been completed by March, 1919. While these Anglo-American
tanks were in the process of construction there were also being built
here 1,450 all-American tanks of the large English type, and for this
all-American tank 50 per cent of the work had also been done at the
signing of the armistice.
In December, 1917, a sample French tank of the Renault type reached
this country along with detailed drawings and a French engineer.
Much difficulty then ensued in getting American concerns to take on
production of this machine, because of the difficult nature of its
manufacture. Considerable time, too, was taken up in changing the
drawings from the French metric dimensions to the American dimensions,
and this involved redesigning many parts.
In the manufacture of the armor built for the Renault type of tank
the French made no attempt to adhere to simple shapes, and for this
reason practically a new source of supply for this kind of armor had
to be developed. Contracts for 4,440 of the Renault type of tanks
were finally made. The approximate cost of each one of these machines
was $11,500. Manufacturing activities for the various parts had to be
divided up among more than a score of plants, so that many plants were
turning out parts for these machines, while the assembling was done at
only three plants, which also made a portion of the parts.
The three assembly plants were the Van Dorn Iron Works, of Cleveland,
Ohio; the Maxwell Motors Co., of Dayton, Ohio; and the C. L. Best Co.,
also of Dayton.
Finished machines of this type started to come through in October. When
the armistice was signed 64 of these 6-ton Renault tanks, each designed
to carry two men and a machine gun, were completed, while up to the end
of December the number of those finished amounted to 209, with 289 in
the process of assembly. There is every reason to believe that had the
armistice not been signed, the entire original program would have been
completed by April.
During the summer and fall of 1918 our tank program had been augmented
by the development of two entirely new types of tanks. One was a
two-man tank weighing 3 tons, built by the Ford Motor Co. and costing
in the neighborhood of $4,000. This tank, mounting one machine gun, has
a speed of about 8 miles an hour. Of this type 15 had been built; and,
up to the 1st of January, 1919, 500 were to have been finished, after
which they were to have been turned out by the Ford Co. at the rate of
100 a day.
[Illustration: SIX-TON TANK BEING MOUNTED ON A 10-TON TRAILER.]
[Illustration: VIEW OF 35-TON TANK. SHOWING THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY
OF WAR, PRESIDENT OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS, AND ARMY OFFICERS
INSTRUMENTAL IN DESIGNING THIS MACHINE.
The tank has 400 horsepower, a speed of 6 miles an hour, and can climb
a 45° grade. It carries a crew of 11 men and is equipped with two
6-pounders and seven machine guns.]
The other new tank developed was a successor to the French Renault,
designed for production in great volume. This tank was to carry three
men, instead of two, as the original Renault machine, and mount two
guns, one a machine gun and the other a 37-millimeter gun. Some Renault
tanks were equipped with 37-millimeter cannon instead of machine guns.
Cost of production of this machine would have been very much less than
that of the original Renault, while the weight of the machine would
have been substantially the same and its fighting power much greater.
An outlay of about $175,000,000 was projected in the tank program, but
this, of course, was greatly reduced upon the signing of the armistice.
This outlay would have included, besides the cost of the machines,
expenses at various plants for increased facilities for operation.
-------------------------+----------+----------+-----------+----------
| | Quantity | Quantity |
Item. | Quantity | accepted | accepted | Floated
| ordered. | Nov. 11, | Jan. 31, | to Nov.
| | 1918. | 1919.[23] | 11, 1918.
-------------------------+----------+----------+-----------+----------
Tanks: | | | |
6-ton | 4,440 | 64 | 291 | 6
Mark I | 1,000 | | |
3-ton | 15,015 | 15 | | 10
Mark 8 A. A. components | 1,500 | [24]1 | 1 |
Mark 8 U. S. complete | 1,450 | | |
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[23] Immediately upon signing of the armistice, production was slowed
down as rapidly and as much as possible.
[24] Approximately 50 per cent of the production work on components for
these 1,500 tanks had been completed by Nov. 11.