A CHEAP TANK

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19475, 15 December 1925, Page 8

A CHEAP TANK

POSSESSING REMARKABLE AGILITY A ONE-MAN MACHINE. WOULD HAVE BEEN USEFUL AT GALLIPOLI. LONDON, Dec. 13. Tho “Daily Telegraph’s” military critic reveals an important military invention by Major Martel, uf tho Royal Engineers, who served with the Tiank Corps during the war. This consists of a one-man tank, which has astonishing agility. Major Martel conceived the idea at the beginning of 1925. He built a trial machine in his own gar•agu during his spare time. Tho Morris Motor Car Company is now constructing three machines—one one-man and two two-men tanks. They are constructed mainly of tho ordinary cur components, costing £4OO. The machine has been tested remarkably. Embarked aboard a niaval launch, fitted with a sloping ramp attached to ! the stern, the launch ran inshor-3 as far 'as possible and anchored, and let down ithc ramp, whereupon the one mun tank . “ waded” ashore on to a mud and shingle beach triumphantly. ' The critic adds that ihe success of 'this amphibious operation opens up a wide vista. Those remembering the i Gallipoli landing can only mourn its birth date was J 925 instead of 3915. The machine is only four feet wide, eight feet long and five feet high, and can go almost anywhere that it is possible to pack an animal, through woods, or hill tracks, over soft marshy ground ’whereon the pressure is only two pounds to the square inch.