Originality Is Seen As Key To Success In Tank Warfare

Taranaki Daily News, 2 September 1942, Page 3

Originality Is Seen As Key To Success In Tank Warfare

By Our Special Observer.

Experiences of the past provide lessons for current campaign in Egypt.

Renewal of activity in Egypt lends added interest to a cable from Cairo a few days ago in which a correspondent stated as one ground for confidence in the outcome of the then impending fight that "we have profited from the defeat at Knightsbridge and the Acroma fighting and different tank tactics will be employed." This is something which has occasioned much thought in military circles at London because it is recognised that both the strategy and tactics of tanks are in process of change. In other words both the tasks assigned to the tanks in pres-ent-day mobile warfare and the methods used to carry out these tasks have evolved and are still evolving. Emphasis on Fire Power. One well informed correspondent at London, the military expert of the Christian Science Monitor, declares that it is beginning to be admitted there that one of the reasons of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's success in Libya was that he grasped this fact quicker and more completely than did the British generals in the field. One of the most important _ new developments in tank fighting is greater emphasis on fire power. Anything less than 75 millimeters such as are carried in the American General Grant tanks is now plainly outdated and there is reason to believe . that even seVenty-fives will be considered too small. The latest German tanks carry a heavier cannon. Furthermore it is now wellknown that the Grant was handicapped by an imperfect method of mounting the seventy-fives so that they couldn't be aimed in the side arc laterally. Accompanying this new emphasis on heavy fire, power is the greater insistenee on speed. Rapid mobility of armoured forces appears to be gaining rather than losing in importance. The

culmination of greater. speed with heavier fire power necessarily implies less emphasis on armour. Slogging Matches Over. In fact, the lessons of the Libyan battle seerri to imply that the day of "slogging" . matches between heavily armoured tanks may be over. The tendency now is to conceive of tanks as supermobile heavy artillery intended not only for use against other tanks but also against all other motorised vehicles, supply columns, and infantry, as well as against fortified positions and strong points. In fact, some experts believe that the present trend is definitely toward stressing the artillery function of tanks and that future land battles may include a "moving barrage" laid by lines of slowly advancing tanks equipped with heavy guns. t ... This is a far cry from the originaJ spearhead use of tanks made by the Nazis in early blitzkrieg days. It is unlikely, however, that flying column tactics will be abandoned entirely. On the contrary, it is expected to be combined with the use of tank artillery. Rommel's Ambush. In Russia as well as in Libya both sides have been making much greater qse lately of heavy mobile ariti-tank guns. Thiese are not only used against tanka as when Field Marshal Rommel ambrished British tank forces with his 88 mUlimeter. .cohibined anti-tank and antiaircraft gun. They also have been used specially by the Russians in co-operation with tanks. As part of these new tactical developments, it is now acknowledged .. that tanks must be better protected by reconnaissance . forces. The answer is being sought partly in the use of reconnaissance aircraft, and partly in the development of fast lightly armoured ,re^ connaissince vehicles which precede heavy tank columns and keep them ih-. formed of enemy whereabouts and tank' strength. These are only a few of the changes which' appear to be goirig on' .in tank strategy and tactics. The opinion of experts is that tank battles of the future will be won not only by the biggest and best machines, but by the general who makes the most original " use of his weapon. V '