AMERICAN ARMY

Shannon News, 12 June 1928, Page 2

AMERICAN ARMY

PROCESS OP MECHANISATION.

The United States is apparently on the eve of a big advance towards army mechanisation and a real programme of tank production, writes Captain B. 1-L Liddeil Hart, in the Daily Tele-' graph. In the ■American Army there are now under test the first models of a-two-man tank called the ,:: Light T," which can travel over 20 niilos an hour, and is light enough to be moved long distances-by roai.l ,on ordinary motor lorries. Large masses could thus be concentrated rapidly' at any point of a battle-front.

American troops in the war, for want of supplies, had small acquaintance with tanks, and were dependent for such as they had upon their Allies.

The armistice cut off in bud a vast project for building thousands of."Liber-. • ty" tanks for the 1919 campaign, and ■ with the rapitl reversion to peace conditions the development of armoured fighting vehicles was practically halted, except for experiments on a ' small scale. And this, as so often with official experiments, stultified itself by x seeking the ideal. The two models planned for 1919' had been the heavy Liberty, or Mark VIII of 40 tons, and .a'-light. 7-ton modrcl similar to the French Renault. The . new ideal was to,produce a 15-ton.ma-chine combining the advantages of both and adding speed. The desire ;for invulnerability steadily augmented the weight until it reached 23J tons, and the desire for obstacle-spanning capacity increased the length of it until it reached 21$ft. Still unsatisfied, the technical experts tried to reconcile road and cross-coun-try /qualities, and produced several Christy wheel-ciun-track machines. And as the practical soldiers were. equally emphatic for nothing short of perfect reliability, the American Army remained devoid of tanks and faithful to the delusion that flesh and blood—unarmoured infantry —could still overcome machine guns. The advent to power of-more pre-gressive-minded soldiers, notably Ma-, jor general R., H. Allen, as Chief of Infantry, has given a new impulse to ■' mechanisation.

The new authorities, instead of wasting more time on ideals, decided to concentrate on the development : of a light tank of under 7 tons, capable of being carried to the battlefield on the ordinary 5-ton commercial lorry.

This machine has a cross-country, .speed of 16 miles an hour, a road speed of 22 miles an hour, and a radius on; one fill of petrol of 80 miles. It carries in a turret with all-round traverse, a machine-gun and a 33 m.m. gun. The crew consists of a driver anda firer. This type of light tank, which counters] the anti-tank weapons by speed and dispersion of the target—due to numbers and cheap production —is undoubt-. cdly the future standard pattern to which all countries, our own included, : are trending. And we have at least : the benefit of a good start, if fully exploited, in our funded experience.