Evening Star Newspaper, February 22, 1931, Page 79

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. €, FEBRUARY 22, 1931. Gigantic Land Cruisers In Another War Death-Decling, Ten-Ton, All-Steel Tank Now Being De- monstraied for United States UrmyEngineers—Machine Is Said to Be at Least Ten Years Ahead of Its Time. BY HARRY GOLDBERG. HE United States Army is now testing the most powerful land weapon in- vented for warfare. It is an armored tank—a juggernaut of steel—which has no equal in the world. Its 338-horsepower engine will carry its 10 tons abreast of the most powerful passenger cars on the open road, turning up 80 and even 100 miles an hour, if necessary, on a pavement. In eight minutes or better the crew of three men loops two flexible steel tracks around the wheels on each side, and the machine is off across country at 45 miles an hour, rolling barbed wire flat, riding easily in and out of shell holes and crushing machine-gua nests, while the bullets patter harmlessly against its tough steel sides. The walls will turn machine-gun bullets even up to .30-caliber at pointblank range, and no obstacle of trench warfare has yet been devised which this speeding mass of steel cannot sur- mount and crush by weight of armament or gunfire. Welded sides, carefully fitted doors and peep- holes seal the crew’s compartment against gas. The monster can cruise for hours in a fog of poison gas while the men are perfectly safe pgainst death by suffocation. While not amphibian, it has sufficient power and buoyancy on its track to pass over swampy muck and then climb its way out to solid earth and ride steep hills in high. The new tank is no lightweight *when it comes to carrying lead as well as mass for destruction. It can be arranged to accommo- date two or three machine guns, a four-inch mortar, or one of the famous 75-millimeter guns, and it will carry a magazine of 200 shells for this dangerous weapon. PTHIS American tank was built by J. Walter Christie, inventor of th: front-wheel drive, eight-wheel chassis and other motor innova- tions. He is an old-timer in the building of racing cars who turned to mechanized fighting machines at the outhreak of the war and spent almost a million dollars of his own and his friends’ money devising the forerunners of this wicked engine for the War Department. Christie’s neighbors in Linden, N. J. think his plant is manufacturing some kind of a tractor, and when 4 one of his steel monsters being put its paces in the e facl they assume it is >5ting machine. So arvest it is meant to garner is the men of enemy armies who might be reckless enough to attack this country and pit human flesh against a racing metal fortress. Christie's machine is 10 years ahead of its time, according to Capt. L. D. Tharp, the War Department’s expert on the ground during the recent demonstrations. “The advent of a light tank with such speed and efficiency,” said Capt. Tharp, “means the rapid development of an entirely new type of warfare.” “The combat heads of every military force in the world are thinking today in terms of mechanized warfare. Experts who have a vision of mechanical developments foresee the day when infantry and cavalry as we have known them for centuries will disappear en- tirely. “Soldters in the sadcdle or on foot will never be able to survive the storm of shell and rifie fire or the rapidly moving armament which will be thrown upen poorly protected human flesh by the machine guns of a mechanized army. “The study of statistics of the World War gives striking evidence of the superiority of fighting with these steel mechanisms. Every square mile of ground taken by infantry cost 14,000 casualties; captured by combined attacks of tanks and infantry, 1,200 casualties. Every square mile taken by tanks alone resulted in only 53 casualties. “The plans of thcse who are urging rapid motorization of armizs involve battalions, regi- ments and armies of tanks of all kinds. It is the new mobiity and speed of a war machine This New Tank Is: Capable of a speed of forty-five miles an hour in the “rough.” Able to do better than cighty miles an hour on paved roads. Innune from gas attacks. Armed with 75-millimeter gun. FIlexible over all kinds of country. Built to lay down a gas attack. Designed to replace cavalry, be- cause of its mobility. of this kind which makes it possible for the first time to introduce combat features which formerly have been paper speculations. “Tanks have been handicapped by the neces- sity of climbing hills at low speed in low gear, Modern anti-tank defense relies heavily on the inability of tanks now in the hands of fighting forces to roll up a slope fast enough to avoid anti-tank gunfire, This new tank, with its to send against them and maneuver almost at will across the length and breadth of the United States. “In any national emergency the country already equipped with such tanks would have a tremendous advantage, because if no plant was available it would take from one and a half to two years to gettanks in the field, and by that time the nation unprepared would be crushed. “In discussing the combat uses of the Christie tank, after witnessing an earlier model in action arcund Camp Meade last year, we were im- pressed by the fact that flexibility and power J. Walter Christie, inventor, at the controls of the new Army tank which may revolutionize warfare. enormous reserve in its 12 cylinders, is so powerful that it can charge up hills in high gear. Even though defensive gunfire has im- proved since the World War, the best of the new weapons will have difficulty in hitting a low-slung fort that travels across the country at 45 miles an hour. “The United States Government has been searching for a tank of this caliber. This is the first tank I have seen so far which com- bines such speed with power and I am recom- mending that it become part of the United States Army standard equipment. “Outside of an opposing tank the machine has only one real enemy—a bombing plane which can upset it and tear it apart if the plane lands a bomb almost directly on the tank. But it will be a rare bomber that can hit a cruising tank romping at high speed across an open country and zigzagging its way across the enemy defenses with a fleet of our airplanes in support. “OUR borders are vulnerable points in the defensive system of the United States. In the present state of our combat forces 1,000 such tanks landed across our borders could destroy any force we would find it possible of the chassis have made possible its adaptation to almost every type of combat use. “It has been the practice to load tanks into trucks and transport them to the field of action, with the speed limited to four or five miles an hour. To organize such a motor transport for these fighting engines in large numbers means a huge expense, difficulty in getting the use of the trucks needed by other branches of the service and the use of men, motors and supplies for the sole purpose of carrying tanks from point to point. The present vehicle, how- ever, will go anywhere under its own power at the speed of a railroad train. “In the past cavalry has been used for mobility and shock. A cavalry charge is made at the speed of seven miles an hour, so it is easy to see that a battalion of tanks will out- run, outshoot and outshock any cavalry that ever fought. “Tanks in force can swing around into the enemy’s rear, destroy all communications and supplies and utterly demoralize the front lines. And, of course, tank regiments are essential protection now against enemy aircraft and enemy tanks. “Foot soldiers can no longer be expected to do effective work without the co-operation, sup- port and preliminary work on the part of the tanks, which must be in the van, breaking down enemy resistance after a devastating bar- rage and supporting the infantry in exploiting every success to the limit. We are entering into a period of development in which airplanes and tanks will do all the heavy fighting and the infantry will only go into action to mop up and consolidate the positicns already taken as the mechanized forces sweep on ahead. “Speed is a prime factor in this work, as it enables the tank to keep going and dodging shellfire long after slow-moving motors have been put out of action by artillery. Army tests show that artillery cannct do effective work against a swiftly moving tank. “A fast motor of the Christie type ean mount the 75-millimeter guns and anti-aircrait weapons and also searchlights. Its adaptabile ity to move anywhere it might be needed multi- plies its usefulness in these fields.” According to the inventor, the new tank de« rives its power from the design of its 12-cyle inder engine, which has plenty of reserve power for emergencies and will pull up to 12 tons at high speed. Its flexibility over ali kinds of country is due to the ingenious axle on which the wheels are mounted and the clever spring- ing which takes up the shock of holes, ridges and trenches. Everybody has seen a crank handle swing loosely from the front of a car. Imagine such a handle swinging from the ordinary axle. And the wheel, instead of riding on the stationary axle, is slipped onto the handle. The wheel will then move as far up or cdown as the handle will swing. UCH is the movement of the wheel on the Christie tank, except that a coiled spring holds the wheel and tends to pull it back to it$ normal position on level ground. Thus the wheels will ride up and down over the roughes§ terrain with great freedom while the meotor drives them at racing speed. Another innovation is the fact that the armored body of the tank is divided into come partments, with the motor at the rear and the driver, gunner and ammunition passer in front. With the motor in a separate compartmeng at the rear the men in front are able to see, maneuver and shoct with greater efficiency. Vents in the body enable the motor to suck in its cooling air without filling the forward end with fumes and smoke. As the front is shut off from the motor, it can be made airtight and will easily carry an oxygen tank with a 24-hour supply for three men in the event that it becomes necessary to charge through a gas screen and maneuver in the lethal atmosphere. Capt. Tharp said that the Army officers who are studying the possibilities of mechanized warfare are constantly uncovering new fields in which a standardized chassis of such weigh# and mobility can be used to increase the Army's effectiveness. The new chemical warfare mortar, a weapord of unusual power, would find many new uses, he pointed out, if given the mobility across country which this machine will provide. Tong of casualty-producing chemicals could be car« ried into the enemy lines. “One hundred men with 50 of these ma- chines,” said Capt. Tharp, “could launch a gas