TANK CORPS NOW.

Hokitika Guardian, 6 March 1920, Page 1

TANK CORPS NOW.

PROBLEM OF NEW ARMY ESTIMATES. LONDON, Jan. 2. There is no little anxiety among Tank officers as to the iuture of the corps to which they belong. It is being reduced to a mere skeleton force, and the weapon which it uses, the Tank, is not being steadily developed and improved. It must be remembered that the Tanks constructed and used in the war were very imperfect and primitive contrivances. They were uniformly under-engined, because of the immense demands of the Air Service., and not until Liberty engines became available at the close of the fighting was it possible to give them the power necessary for good speeds. Even the Liberty engine is not the best conceivable for use in Tanks. There should be no difficulty now in constructing new and improved machines which have all the good qualities of the old Tanks with much better armour and far higher speed.

WHAT THE TANKS DID. Suoli Tanks would to a great extent replace both infantry and cavalry and would thus prove a paying investment. German Infantry officers who had to face our very rudimentary Tanks in

the war have confessed the utter impotence of infantry against them and the demoralising effect produced by their appearance. Lieut Kurt Hesse, for example, has told us that our Tank attacks caused the collapse of the German troops, who fled shrieking in panic. He has also said that if the Germans had possessed Tanks iu any number they would have reached Amiens in March 1918 and

have won the war. (fpe of the necessary improvements is the introduction of self-starters in the engines. Many of the old Tanks

were lost owing to the impossibility of restarting the engines after a slight breakdown or hit, as the efforts of four men were needed to get the old type of engine going—and four men were often unavailable.

The future of the Tank will depend largely on the new Army Estimates now being framed, and whether a hold Tank policy is adopted in them.