There is no race-horse that can keep up with an automobile, no deer that can out-run a locomotive. A bicyclist can soon tire out the hardiest of hounds. Why? Because animals run on legs, while machines run on wheels. As wheels are so much more speedy than legs, it seems odd that we do not find this form of locomotion in nature. There are many animals that owe their very existence to the fact that they can run fast. Why hasn't nature put them on wheels so that when their enemy appears they can roll away, sedately, instead of having to jerk their legs frantically back and forth at the rate of a hundred strokes a minute? But one thing we must not overlook. Our wheeled machines must have a special road prepared for them, either a macadam highway or a steel track. They are absolutely helpless But it is not always possible or practicable to build a road for the machines to travel upon, and it is necessary to have some sort of self-propelled vehicle that can travel over all kinds of ground. Some time ago a British inventor developed a machine with large wheels on which were mounted the equivalent of feet. As the wheels revolved, these feet would be planted firmly on the ground, one after the other, and the machine would proceed step by step. It could travel over comparatively rough ground, and could actually walk up a flight of stairs. We have a very curious walking-machine in this country. It is a big dredge provided with two broad feet and a "swivel chair." The machine makes progress by alternately planting its feet on the ground, lifting itself up, chair and all, pushing itself forward, and sitting down again. Although many other types of walking-machines have been patented, none of them has Years ago it occured to one ingenious man that if wheeled machines must have tracks or roads for their wheels to run on, they might be allowed to lay their own tracks. And so he arranged his track in the form of an endless chain of plates that ran around the wheels of his machine. The wheels merely rolled on this chain, and as they progressed, new links of the track were laid down before them and the links they had passed over were picked up behind them. A number of inventors worked on this idea, but one man in particular, Benjamin Holt, of Peoria, Illinois, brought the invention to a high state of perfection. He arranged a series of wheels along the chain track, each carrying a share of the load of the machine, and each mounted on springs so that it would yield to any unevenness of the ground, just as a caterpillar conforms itself to the hills and dales of the surface it creeps over. In fact, the machine was called a "caterpillar" tractor because of its crawling locomotion. But it was no worm of a machine. In power it was a very elephant. It could haul loads But we are getting ahead of our story. To start at the very beginning, we must go back to the time when the first savage warrior used a plank of wood to protect himself from the rocks hurled by his enemy. This was the start After gunpowder was invented, the idea of armor for men began to wane, because no armor could be built strong enough to ward off the rifle-bullet and at the same time light enough for a man to wear. The struggle between arms and armor was then confined to the big guns and the steel protection of forts and war-ships. But not so long ago the machine-gun was invented, and this introduced a new phase of warfare. Not more than one rifle-bullet in a thousand finds its mark on the battle-field. The Boers in the battle of Colenso established a record with one hit in six hundred shots. In the excitement of battle men are too nervous to take careful aim and they are apt to fire either (C) Underwood & Underwood British Tank Climbing out of a Trench at Cambrai In the Russo-Japanese War, the Russians played havoc with the attacking Japanese at Port Arthur by using carefully concealed machine-guns, and the German military attachÉs were quick to note the value of the machine- (C) Underwood & Underwood Even Trees were no Barrier to the British Tank Press Illustrating Service The German Tank was very heavy and cumbersome At first the only means of combating the machine-guns seemed to be to destroy them with shell-fire; but they were carefully concealed, and it was difficult to search them out. Only by long-continued bombardment was it possible to destroy them and tear away the barbed wire sufficiently to permit of a charge. Before an enemy position was stormed it was subjected to But this resulted in notifying the enemy that a charge was ere long to be attempted at a certain place, and he could assemble his reserves for a counter-attack. Furthermore, the Germans learned to conceal their machine-guns in dugouts twenty or thirty feet underground, where they were safe from the fire of the big guns, and then, when the fire let up, the weapons would be dragged up to the surface in time to mow down the approaching infantry. It was very clear that something would have to be done to combat the machine-gun. If the necessary armor was too heavy for the men to carry, it must carry itself. Armored automobiles were of no service at all, because they could not possibly travel over the shell-pitted ground of No Man's Land. The Russians tried a big steel shield mounted on wheels, which a squad of soldiers would push ahead of them, but their plan failed because the wheels would get stuck in shell-holes. A one-man shield on wheels was tried by the British. Under its shelter a man could steal up to the barbed wire and cut it and even crawl up to a machine- * * * * * And here is where we come back to Mr. Holt's mechanical elephants. Just before the great war broke out, Belgium—poor unsuspecting Belgium—was holding an agricultural exhibit. An American tractor was on exhibition. It was the one developed by Mr. Holt, and its remarkable performances gained for it a reputation that spread far and wide. Colonel E.D. Swinton of the British Army heard of the peculiar machine, and immediately realized the advantages of an armored tractor for battle over torn ground. But in the first few months of the war that ensued, this idea was forgotten, until the effectiveness of the machine-gun and the necessity for overcoming it recalled the matter to his mind. At his suggestion a caterpillar tractor was procured, and the military engineers set themselves to the task of designing an armored body to ride on the caterpillar-tractor belts. Of course the machine had to be In war, absolute secrecy is essential to the success of any invention, and the British engineers were determined to let no inkling of the new armored automobiles reach the enemy. Different parts of the machines were made in different factories, so that no one would have an idea of what the whole would look like. At first the new machine was known as a "land-cruiser" or "land-ship"; but it was feared that this very name would give a clue to spies, and so any descriptive name was forbidden. Many of the parts consisted of rolled steel plates which might readily be used in building up vessels to hold water or gasolene; and to give the impression that such vessels were being constructed the name "tank" was adopted. The necessity of guarding even the name of the machines was shown later, when rumors leaked out that the tanks were being built to carry water over the desert regions of Mesopotamia Probably never was a military secret so well guarded as this one, and when, on September 15, 1916, the waddling steel tractors loomed up out of the morning mists, the German fighters were taken completely by surprise. Two days before, their airmen had noticed some peculiar machines which they supposed were armored automobiles. They had no idea, however, that such formidable monsters were about to descend upon them. The tanks proceeded leisurely over the shell-torn regions of No Man's Land, wallowing down into shell-holes and clambering up out of them with perfect ease. They straddled the trenches and paused to pour down them streams of machine-gun bullets. Wire entanglements were nothing to them; under their weight steel wire snapped like thread. The big brutes marched up and down the lines of wire, treading them down into the ground and clearing the way for the infantry. Even trees were no barrier There were two sizes of tanks. The larger ones aimed to destroy the machine-gun emplacements, and they were fitted up with guns for firing a shell. The smaller tanks, armed with machine-guns, devoted themselves to fighting the infantry. British soldiers following in the wake of the bullet-proof tank were protected from the shots of the enemy and were ready to attack him with bayonets when the time was ripe. But the tanks also furnished an indirect protection for the troops. It was not necessary for the men to conceal themselves behind the big tractors. Naturally, every Hun who stood his ground and fought, directed all his fire upon the tanks, leaving the British infantry free to In the meantime the French had been informed of the plans of their allies, and they set to work on a different design of tractor. It was not until six months later that their machines saw service. The French design differed from the British mainly in having the tractor belt confined to the wheels instead of running over the entire body of the tank. It was more blunt than the British and was provided at the forward end with a steel cutting-edge, which adapted it to break its way through wire entanglements. At each end there are two upward-turning skids which helped the tank to lift itself out of a hole. The larger machines carried a regular 75-millimeter (3-inch) field-gun, which is a very formidable weapon. They carried a crew of one officer and seven men. Life in a tank is far from pleasant. The heat and the noise of machinery and guns are terrific. Naturally, ventilation is poor and the fumes and gases that accumulate are most annoying, to say the least. Sometimes the men were overcome by them. But war is war, and such discomforts had to be endured. (C) Underwood & Underwood The Speedy British "Whippet" Tank that can travel at a speed of twelve miles per hour (C) Underwood & Underwood The French High-Speed "Baby" Tank When the Germans began their final great drive, it was rumored that they had built some monster tanks that were far more formidable than anything the Allies had produced. Unlike the British, they used the tanks not to lead the army but to follow and destroy small nests of French and British that were left behind. When the French finally did capture one of the German tanks, which had fallen into a quarry, it proved to be a poor imitation. It was an ugly-looking affair, very heavy and cumbersome. Owing to the scarcity of materials for Courtesy of "Automotive Industries" Section through our Mark VIII Tank showing the layout of the interior with the locations of the most important parts in the fighting compartment in the engine room It was then that the British sprang another surprise upon the Germans. After the big fellows had done their work, a lot of baby tanks appeared on the scene and chased the German infantry. These little tanks could travel at a speed of twelve miles an hour, which is about as fast as an ordinary man can run. "Whippets," the British called them, because they were like the speedy little dogs of that name. They carried but two men, one to guide the tank and the other to operate the machine-gun. The French, too, built a light "mosquito" tank, which was even smaller than the British tank, and fully as fast. It was with these machines, which could dart about quickly on the battle-field and dodge the shell of the field-guns, and which were immune to the fire of the machine- When the Germans retired, they left behind them nests of machine-guns to cover the withdrawal of their armies. These gunners were ordered to fight to the very end. They looked for no mercy and expected no help. Had it not been for the light tanks, it would have been well nigh impossible to overcome these determined bodies of men without frightful losses. Since America invented the machine-gun and also barbed wire, and since America furnished the inspiration for the tank with which to trample down the wire entanglements and stamp out the machine-guns, naturally people expected our army to come out with something better than anything produced by our allies. We did turn out a number of heavy machines patterned after the original British tank, with armor that could stand up against heavy fire, and we also produced a small and very speedy tank similar to the French "baby" tank, but before we could put these into service the war ended. The tanks we did use so effectively at St.-Mihiel and in the Argonne Forest were supplied by the French. |