A BACKGROUND OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 136, 5 March 1941, Page 8

A BACKGROUND OF THE WAR

Britain’s Tank Forces GROWING STRENGTH The decisive victory of the Army of the Nile provides a timely opportunity to discuss some of the recent developments in British armoured formations, which have struck such swift and vital blows in the Western Desert, says a special correspondent of “The Times.” There the vast areas of open ground, with its gentle slopes and steep escarpments, similar in some ways to English downlands, are rather better suited to tank manoeuvre than much of the country in Europe which up to now, apart from skirmishes on the North-West Frontier, has been its only battleground. The natural enemies of the tank are the swamp, the river line, amd mountain ranges, but in the. desert the main problems for armoured vehicles would be a lack of features, the hard wear on their tracks through sandstorms, and even mirage. The greatest problem of all in such a rapid advance, and one that has been brilliantly overcome, is, of course, the maintenance of fuel and water supplies. Lead Recovered

The bold stroke of the armoured forces in Libya Is comparable with anything the Germans achieved’in Flanders with a far greater weight of metal and, above all, plenty of experience behind them. One of the most glowing chapters in the story of Britain’s war effort will be the development of her armoured formations into the most formidable fighting weapon in the Army. It will tel), of the recovery of a lead that the country relinquished many years ago, amd, though there is a long road to travel before the leeway in numbers is made up, British organization and strategy have the inestimable advantage of having learned from the enemy’s methods, just.as the Germans themselves found out in the Polish campaign that their armour was too thin and were able to spend last winter thickening it. Senior officers express delighted astonishment at the way tank production has come on, and there are now models on the stocks far beyond anything yet seen In armour and gun-power. One aspect of this enormous expansion that is not wholly satisfactory, though there has been a marked improvement lately, concerns the selection of personnel. It is not certain that the most is being made of the manpower available when recruits from the normal intakes are sent to armoured formations for training. Mechanically minded men who grow to love their machines are clearly essential. Training Of Personnel Commanders, again, are anxious that having gone some way toward the training of their units they should be left to complete it. In many instances they have been requested by the Ministry of Labour to send back into industry men of various trades who by the nature of their peacetime calling are invaluable to armoured formations. The modern tank in some ways is a more complicated piece of machinery than the aeroplane, and everything de pends on the training of its personnel as a crew. Each of the four men in it must be able at a pinch to discharge the tasks of the others. It might happen, for instance, that the wireless operator or gunner would have to drive the tank out of action —and, apart from considerations of personal safety, a heavy tank costs £25,000. At the training centres men straight from civilian life are taught to be soldiers as well as skilled specialists in “ a course that lasts only 16 weeks. One saw them in small, syndicates grouped round their instructors, studying all the endless detail of the modern engine, learning to be fitters so essentia: to the life of the tank, or, again, learning to shoot from model turrets — they are made to oscillate like a tank —in miniature ranges, using air guns and pellets till the day arrives when they take their machines on to the outdoor ranges and send the tracer shells of their two-pounders, or bursts from the Besa machine-guns, screaming into the targets. The British gunner is taught to fire on the move, whereas the German usually fires from a stationary position. Types Of Tanks

The Royal Armoured Corps falls roughly into two types of formations, both taking part in the present operations in Libya—the self-contained, highly mobile armoured division, and the slower, more heavily armoured. Army Tank Brigade, which operates with infantry. Various changes are now being made in the light of experience in France, and the tendency is for the distinction between the two to become less pronounced. The fast cruiser tank of the armoured division will be given thicker plating; the infantry tank, with its skirt of armour protecting the tracks will become more mobile. In any case, the light cavalry tank, extremely fast but thinly armoured, is already obsolescent, and experts-raUy more and more to the opinion that a standard type of heavy tank is best suited to both branches of the Corps. At first the armoured division took on the traditional role of Army cavalry in reconnaissance, and the provision ot a protective screen for the infantry, but that Is largely modified. It now has its own support group, in which all arms and ancillary services are included, and its mission is to strike hard and swiftly deep in the enemy’s lines, racing through breaches in the front or working round the flanks, just as the force engaged in (Libya has done. Both the infantry .tank and the cruiser are armed with an anti-tank two-pounder and a Besa machine-gun, and the machine of the future is .likely to carry a gun of still greater muzzle velocity. Each carries a crew of four, and wireless communication is maintained throughout dowu to the individual tank, though signalling lamps and flags are there for use in an emergency.

Tanks In France Neither type of tank had. a fair test in France. The armoured division arrived on the Somme incomplete and was frittered away piecemeal in attacking heavily-prepared positions, a type ot attack for which it was never intended, in response to urgent appeals from the French. We had comparatively few Infantry tanks in the field, and, apart from the counter-attack on Arras, they were always on the defensive.

It is significant, however, that the armour of not one of these tanks was ever pierced by a German shell, and in one action the remains of two battalions held up an entire Ponzer division from midday to dark and knocked out about 20 of the enemy. A good deal was heard at the time about German Juggernauts of 70 or even 100 tons, but it is improbable that they had a tank of more than 36 tons in the field. No tribute is too high to pay to the skill and spirit of daring possessed by the commanders and crews of this growing British army of steel giants. It. is not for nothing that the first tank was made in England.