AUSTRALIAN TANK

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 12 January 1944, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN TANK

ABANDONMENT OF £4,000,000 PROJECT INDUSTRIAL GAINS AND LOSSES ; Australia’s decision to slop the manu- ! | facture of tanks is symptomatic of the | swift changes in the design of weapons ' and altered strategic and tactical needs brought about by the fluidity of mod--1 ern warfare, writes Edward Axford, ' in the “Sydney Morning Herald.” It fits into the pattern of a major ' industrial switchover involving the transfer of 20,000 workers from the ' t production of war weapons of which ’ the Allies have an abundance to new | types of more urgently needed military 1 equipment. Abandonment of the costly tank • project is a useful illustration of the startling production changes which shifting battlefield requirements are ’ forcing upon the United Nations in the fifth year of the war. | Australia spent £4,000,000 on the ■ production of tanks, built nine large ’ annexes for the assembly and manu- ‘ facture of component parts, and - trained 2,000 men for work in the tank ‘ arsenals. Before the Army decided it wanted no more locally built armoured fighting vehicles, a number of Australian cruiser tanks had been produced—heavily armoured tanks, streamlined, ) ] with low silhouettes, and powerfully • j gunned. They were the fastest tanks t of their weight in the world, and : they possessed a greater range of ; action than any other cruiser-weight , tank in service in Australia. DECLINE OF THE TANK 1 This tank had all the features which } i-h e Army wanted. It received its death-blow because by the time it came off the assembly lines in any , numbers the stock of the tank the ' world over was rapidly declining. On the world’s battlefields —in Russia, . North Africa, Italy, and New Guinea ; —massed tank-attack guns had got its measure. By the end of the fourth year of the war the tank had become the ■ biggest casualty among weapons. ; Tanks are still used by the British, ; American, Russian, and German armies, ■ but in smaller numbers. When de- • fences have been breached by artillery and a path cut by infantry the tanks : pour through, like the cavalry of the Napoleonic wars. In New Guinea Aus- ; tralians are employing them to blast Japanese strongpoints. But they can no longer be used as the spearhead of invasion forces, as the Germans used them in Poland and France. The Russians put tanks in their proper place ; when they first massed their guns and tank-attacking infantry in depth. In the words of “The Cavalry Journal”: “The dominance enjoyed by armoured forces on the battlefields of 1939 and 1940 is over. It is another example of the old story of fire-power versus armour. Fire-power always wins in the end.” | TANKS CAME TOO LATE | The decision to build tanks in Australia was reached in 1940, immediately after the Dunkirk evacuation. The plan was to produce on a mass production basis a powerful Australian-design-|ed cruiser tank for use by Australian : armoured forces in the Middle East. Primarily, the production of tanks in Australia was stopped because the Australian Army moved in 1942 from the desert to the jungle. Australia’s experience is also America’s experience. By July, 1943, the United States and Canada between them turned out 60,000 tanks, and military commanders were beginning to wonder what they could do with them all. i The closing down of the Australian project inevitably had a depressing effect on a wide range of heavy industries. Seven large tank annexes in New South Wales and two big plants in Victoria are now idle. The 2,000 men who, a few months ago, were building in these fine modern factories one of the worlds best tanks are now being transferred. For most it means little more than crossing the road to the I parent factories from which the annexes " ere operated. Men employed in es- | sembling tanks have gone back to the locomotive works from which they were I originally transferred. Men engaged in the casting of tank hulls and turrets go back to the steel foundry - from which they were recruited. The parent factories have other Government orders creating a keen labour demand. FATE OF FACTORIES Very little of the expensive machinequipped can be used for other purposes. What will become of the factories themselves? No one has so far ventured to answer. No doubt some will be adapted to the manufacture and assembly of new types of aircraft, particularly heavy bombers. Others could be taken over by manufacturers embarrassed by over-crowd-ing in existing workshops. For once Australia is suffering from a surfeit of factory space. LASTING ADVANTAGES It is disappointing for the scientists, draughtsmen, designers, technicians, and workmen who built the first Australian tanks to se their labours apparently wasted, but modern war is like that. No one questioned the correctness of the decision to build tanks in 1940, when the need was desperate and oversea supplies were unobtainable. Technical experience gained in making tanks has brought Australia very close to maturity in the automotive engineering industry. After tanks it should be relatively easy to make motor cars and trucks.