WAR TANKS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19163, 21 November 1927, Page 12

WAR TANKS.

FIRST HANDBOOK ON TRAINING. (molt OTJB OTOI COBEEBEOHDMIT.) LONDON, October 4. Much experience both in war and peace has now been accumulated on the use. of tanks and armoured ears. The first handbook dealing with this branch of service has just been issued by the Stationery Office under the title of "Tank and Armoured Car Training.^' "This volume," a prefatory note states, "deals with the tank situation as it exists at present. It is issued provisionally, as experiments and trials in mechanisation are in progress, and considerable developments are to be expected. Such developments will materially alter the contents of this manual." It is further explained that "What is aimed at now is the establishment of a common doctrine on broad principles, which shall meet the needs of the moment and allow free play for thought, experiment, and trial." The employment of armoured fighting vehicles (AJW.'s as they have been designated for brevity) is considered throughout the book primarily from the point of view of a war of the first magnitude, in which the enemy is presumed to be equally well armed. In peace time the Royal Tank Corps is divided into Tank Battalions and Armoured Car Companies, but in time of war " Salvage Companies " will be added. ''The armoured car and the tank/' it is stated, "represent different stages in the development of the same idea, viz., the production of a weapon combining (1) fire power, (2) mobility, (g) protection. As a result they have many characteristics in common. "The outcome of progress in the elimmation of the present disabilities in both types of 'AF.V.V may be the evolution of a single type, combining the best qualities of both."