THE NEW TANKS.

Evening Star, Issue 19407, 16 November 1926, Page 6

THE NEW TANKS.

It is a mournful reflection on the intelligence of humanity that while disarmament conferences are held at Jong intervals with the greatest difficulty, the improvement of armaments is rapid and continuous. All the weapons of warfare have participated, and are still participating in it. The small village of Camberley, near Aldershot, in Surrey, was the scene of grim manoeuvres one day last week, when the oversea Prime Ministers who are attending the Imperial Conference were treated to a demonstration of the powers of the latest tanks. It was the worst day of the year for weather, with driving rain, and the mud might have rivalled that of Flanders in which British soldiers were fighting from eight to twelve years ago. But the mud made no obstacle for these improved instruments of destruction. The change made in a century from George Stephenson’s “ Rocket ” to the express locomotive of the present day seems to have been paralleled in a few years by their proud development. The tanks which were used first in the third stage of the Battle of the Somme, ten years ago last September, wore a bad surprise to the enemy, but they were only the germ of their modern successors. Thirty-two tanks were employed on that first occasion, and only nine of them actually operated in advance of the infantry. Nine did “clearing-up” work behind the advancing troops, five were ditched, and nine broke down. They were cumbrous, difficult to steer, provided a poor range of, vision for their occupants, and were most vilely ventilated. They were so slow, also, that the infantry were instructed to adjust their pace to the speed of the tanks—thirty to fifty yards a minute over good ground, and not more than 15yds a minute over a broken surface. At that snail’s pace they lumbered into action, but they were still effective enough, in the offensive in which New Zealanders boro a gallant part, for all the positions attacked with their aid to be taken. Something very different are the new monsters which the Prime Ministers witnessed —“ twenty-mile an hour tanks, with five gun turrets, which swished and slithered over the practice ground with hideous agility.” The spectacle was afforded also of oneman tanks, “doing thirty miles an hour on tiny scooter wheels, then, with a movement of the lever, dropping on to a caterpillar belt which enabled them to turn in their own length, while the driver, with his other hand, cut a swathe with machine gun bullets.” Finally a display was given in which the tanks “almost joyously leapt over great log obstructions, and playfully pushed over brick walls and majestic pine trees, while behind came tractor-hauled batteries to drive home the thrust. A fleet of Mark I. light taffies flashed down the hillside and (toppled .oyer growing pine trees aa If

they were toys out of froah’s Ark.” A really bright suggestion was made by one overseas visitor, that such tanks would pay for themselves in a month clearing bush for new settlers, and Mr Coates has extended it by pointing out the uses which they might have in clearing a path for the starting of hydro-electric and irrigation works iff rough country, with saving of the expenditure on roads. Those possibilities certainly should be studied along with the tanks’ military potentialities, which might seem to have been already sufficiently developed if competition were less constant in that field.