MOTORISATION IN ARMY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17061, 20 September 1929, Page 3

MOTORISATION IN ARMY

FIRST REGIMENT EQUIPPED INFANTRY TESTS IN TJ.S.A. WASHINGTON, July 2<i. The United States Army’s first fully-equipped motorised infantry regiment will be ready for an extensive series of tests beginning on August 1, according to tlie War Department. Xut a. single horse or mule will be used by 1 lie regiment., and tin: men will ride in lorries on long marches. Machine-guns and other infantry weapons will be carried, by motor vehicles. During the series of experiments, the motorised unit will he sent on long marches over all lands of roads and across fields to test the advisability of equipping other reiginents with motor vehicles rather' than horses find moles. An appropriation of £28,000 has been expended in the purchase of equipment. Lorries, cross-country cars, trailer rolling kitchens, motor-cycles, and gastank trucks make up the main motorised equipment now being assembled for delivery to the organisation. Motorisation enthusiasts would have liked to have seen the regiment equipped with armoured cross-country vehicle bodies mounted on the light lank chassis developed two years ago. Development work on a cross-country car operating on a tank chassis is under way, but vehicles of this type have not been tested yet.