GERMAN TANKS

Evening Star, Issue 23679, 12 September 1940, Page 3

GERMAN TANKS

SOME AMPHIBIOUS? TRANSPORT PROBLEM BRITISH EXPERIMENTS Tanks, transported in submarines, may bo used by tho Germans in their invasion ot Britain. Tho possibility is discussed by the British tank expert, Major-general J. F. C. Fuller, iu tho ‘ Spectator.’ He reveals that after the last war tho British Army experimented with tanks that floated themselves ashore, and that in 1931 a British firm manufactured an efficient amphibian tank, propeller-driven. Though it may seem strange, nevertheless it is a fact that tho first tank operation over planned was naval in character; it was to use the Mark 1. tank of 1916 in a landing operation on tho Flanders coast (General Fuller wrote). Though it came to nothing, a year later this project was revived, vast preparations being put in hand to carry it out. This operation was to coincide with our attack at Ypres directly lloulers was occupied, when tanks were to ho landed between Nieuport and Osteud. As Roulers was never taken, this second scheme was abandoned like the first; yet, as wo are to-day threatened by invasion, it is of some interest to examine the problem as it faced us 23 years ago. Between the points selected for the landing the water was shallow, the beach was wired and flanked by a sea wall some 20ft high, which was capped by a heavy granite coping-stone. Beyond it were the enemy’s guns and machine-guns in great strength, and still farther inland were innumerable dykes and canals. This, then, was what the Mark IV. tank—a crude machine weighing 30 tons—was asked to do; to land from tho sea, mount the sea wall at a slope of about one over two, climb over the coping-stone which projected two feet outwards from the wall, destroy the enemy’s machineguns, and then haul up guns, lorries, tractors, and scores of tons of ammunition and supplies. The initial landing was to take four minutes, HUGE PONTOONS DESIGNED. To carry it out huge pontoons—some 600 ft Jong—carrying tanks, troops, guns, vehicles, and stores, were to be pushed by two monitors to the beach. Ouoe grounded, the leading tanks, each equipped with a ramp fixed to its nose, were to crawl off their pontoons, and up the sea wall. Then, directly the forward end of the ramps struck the coping stone, they became detached, when the tanks, which had wooden spuds fitted to their tracks, walked up them like a cog wheel moving along a ratchet. It was a clever scheme and the first of its kind. Though such an operation is still feasible, from the naval point of view it would be vastly simplified could the tank float itself ashore. Once the war was over experimental work in water-crossing machines was carried on by Colonel Philip Johnson, C.B.E. (head of the Tank Design Department), because I was of opinion that, as all our foreign operations of war must in their initial stage take the form of landings, a true amphibian tank, if it could be produced, would prove invaluable. This resulted in the introduction of an experimental floating machine, the medium D—which required no caissons. In 1921, if I remember rightly, it propelled itself by means of its tracks across Fleet PondThen came economy and it was abandoned. Before this foolishness—one of scores . which dogged our tanks, and for which quite recently we have paid dearly—put an end to the water-crossing machine, I accentuated its importance in a lecture given at the-Royal United Service Institute on February 11, 1920. in which I said: . “ Let us all, this time, get into our astral shells, for this is a naval as well as a military question. We see a stretch of weary sand—it is the Baltic coast. We see curious ships racing through the Skagerrack. They are now standing out a mile or more from the shore, for the water is shallow. There is a rumbling sound, then from their prows squat objects splash . into the water—they are moving rapidly towards the beach, from the water they crawl on to the sands; they are tanks, and Warnemunde, 150 miles from Berlin, is ours. ... , . . „ «( Prom the surface tank-earner Hie next step is the submarine tank-carrier —a kind of sea-serpent which spews monsters on to the beach. What would Olans Magnus think of this, he who wrote of sea-serpents fashioned of skin and blood? Think now what such possibilities mean to us islanders. No louder will our sailors belong to the Great Silent Fleet, but to a fleet which belches war on every strand;' which vomits forth armies as never did the horse of Troy, and which- will swallow them up again if the land appears unpropitious and carry them safely home beneath the ocean. Think of the naval bases seized and the landing places protected. Think of the Channel which separates us from Europe. It has been called a ‘ ditch ’—it may become a veritable tube railway for hostile armies.” “ NOT AN INVENTIVE RACE.” Whether the Germans are prepared for such a mechanised under-water attack I doubt, because, in spite of all their thoroughness, they are not an inventive race. This is proved by the fact that their entire tank tactics in this war have been evolved from British origins, which we had not the wisdom to develop. Yet the fact remains that, in 1931, Messrs Vickers-Arrastrong designed and put on the market an efficient amphibian light tank, which could move itself through water by means of a small propeller; therefore, Germany may well have such a machine. Fifty or more could easily bo transported in a specially-built vessel of the whaler type, and in a calm sea launched on to an enemy’s coast. But such a vessel demands command of the sea; yet, when this is not possible, these weapons could easily be transported in fast motor boats. Whether this will be attempted no man can say, but it is a possibility which we should examine and, prepare against. Nevertheless, one thing is fairly certain—namely, that should a mechanised invasion be attempted no medium or heavy tanks will be landed until command of the sea is won. Therefore, it is the light tank—amphibian or non-amphibian—which we must be prepared to meet, and no light tank yet made is proof against existing anti-tank fire.

For ns this definitely simplifies our defensive preparations, because, seeing that recently we have lost so much equipment in France, were it possible for our enemy to land tanks of a more formidable nature, our power to resist him would certainly be lessened.