TANKS AND GAS.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 June 1926, Page 1

TANKS AND GAS.

AVAR OF THE FUTURE

LONDON, April 16

In the April number of the Journal of the Royal Artillery an interesting opinion and forecast of tho future of the guns in the mechanisation of the army are given by Colonel H. llowanRobinson, the principal staff officer at Peshawar.

He says that the eventual mechanisation of an army that may have to engage in European warfare is certain. Once war has begun, and tho whole resources of nations are thrown into tho struggle tho rate of mechanisation will be very rapid. Progressing on the lines of our existing policy, and in tho absence of war, we shall, say, in 15 years’ time, have mechanised the whole of our horse, field and medium artillery—that is, the guns of all these branches will be dragon-drawn. During that time the mechanisation of the rest of the annv will have proceeded apace. Neither bayonet nor sabre will then be decisive weapons; they will have been supplanted respectively by the slowmoving tank and the fast-moving tank. Infantry and cavalry will still exist, hut only as auxiliary services, for the attack and defence of tank harbours, for action in ground naturally unsuited or rendered unsuitable for tanks, infantry being brought up in omnibuses to occupy, with protected Hanks, villages, woods, and river lines, elsewhere, cavalry being used as ground scouts to tanks in difficult country and for protective and; independent action in country not passable by tanks. Generally speaking, the battle will then have lost many of the attributes of present land warfare, and will closely resemble a naval action. On the subject of a possible fusion of the two corps of artillery and tanks Colonel Eownn-Robinson says that once future policy is definitely settled it should work on clear-cut lines. It may tie decided to raise a battalion of tanks every year, and that every third year the funds for the formation shall be found by the disbandment of a brigade of artillery—or whatever the financial equivalent in guns may be. Let these brigades in turn bo transferred wholly to the mechanised army, and become Artillery Battalion No I, Artillery Battalion No. 2, etc., field and medium artillery units manning tanks, which contain guns and horse artillery, armoured cars or quick-moving tanks. In this way the high professional value of the services of the officers and men of tho old army will be retained, and the spirit and tradition of the Royal Artillery will be born again in new surroundings.