Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
At the end of the 19th century, the United States entered a period of rapid development in all areas: industry, science, education, and culture.
The army and navy of that era provided the US a solid defense against any possible invader. The sheer vastness of the oceans that separate the
continent from the rest of the word also provided an imposing fortification that deterred any foreign power from launching an attack on North America.
For a significant period of time, the United States maintained a safe distance from the politics and conflicts that rose and fell throughout Europe.
That situation changed with the start of World War I.
After several incidents that culminated in the sinking of American trade ships, President Wilson requested Congress’s support in joining the war.
On April 4th, 1917, the United States Senate approved a resolution for the US to join World War I and later confirmed by the house of representatives on April 6th.
On July 13, 1917, General John Joseph Pershing arrived in Europe along with the first units of American Expeditionary Forces.
This commander took part in the Apache and Sioux conflicts from the Spanish-American War of 1898, and a struggle with rebels led by Pancho Villa.
The near-static trench warfare in Europe was quite different from what the American military had expected, but Pershing clearly realized how important
it was for the army to make the most of mobility and firepower.
It's no surprise that he is credited, at least in part, for the creation of the US armored forces.
The formation of the United States Armored Corps occurred on January 26, 1918. It consisted of two parts: the tank corps of the American
Expeditionary Forces in Europe and the so-called Tank Service of the National Guard, which was renamed to be a corps soon after.
The proposal to organize the infrastructure for manufacturing armored military vehicles was well received by the United States Army.
In 1915, a businessman by the name of Lowe presented the design for a 30 ton tank based on the “Willock” tractor.
And in 1917, another tractor company, Holt, introduced a vehicle quite similar to the Britain’s “Little Willy” tank created by the designer William Tritton.
Another curious project was introduced by the “Pioneer” tractor factory from Minnesota.
This vehicle was nicknamed “The Skeleton” because of its chassis design.
The Skeleton’s tracks were put on the metal frames with tube bridges, instead of the hull itself.
The small rectangular body of the tank, designed for two crew members, was mounted between the frames.
Up to this point, the United States Military had lost enthusiasm for the tank building program.
As a result, when General Pershing proved that it was necessary to have a standing armored corps, the military began to buy foreign built vehicles. In
September of 1918, American tanks made their combat debut near San Michele, a town south of Verden. The 344th and 345 Tank Battalions, driving
Renault FT’s, were commanded by Lieutenant Colonel George Patton during this battle.
The structure of armored forces for the US Military centered on using light and heavy tanks.
The light tank fleet was composed of the sturdy and battle proven French Renault FT.
This six ton vehicle had one of the most advanced designs in the world at that time.
The layout for the FT later became the poster child for what a classical tank armament and arrangement should consist of: a main gun located in a
rotating turret, a rear mounted engine compartment, and a controls compartment in the front.
The Americans planned to put 3,500 vehicles of this type into service.
A portion of them were supposed to be built in France and the rest to be manufactured in the United States. The production license was purchased by
the Van Dorn Iron Works, Maxwell Motor Company, and the C.L. Best company.
The Americans made several modifications to the Renault FT’s design.
They improved the driver’s visibility, the amount of armor protection, and replaced the Renault engine with an American-made Buda engine.
The American version of the FT was designated the M1917. It could be armed with a 37mm cannon or a machine gun.
The heavy tank corps was to be armed with a Mark VIII Liberty, a jointly designed vehicle created by American and British engineers.
This tank was a typical rhomboid shaped vehicle with fairly wide tracks covering the hull.
The vehicle weighed about 39 tons and was armed with two 57mm Hotchkiss cannons. The support armaments were five or seven rifle caliber machine guns.
The crew was somewhere between eight and ten members for this 10 meter long tank.
The Liberty was the end of the line for the rhomboid shaped concept in Britain.
This design direction may have been developed further, but since the FT became the trendsetter of tank design, the short lived “rhomboid age” had come to a quick end.
The Mark VIII did not see battle in World War I.
The Americans made roughly 100 of those vehicles between 1919 and 1920, and the Liberty remained the only heavy tank in the US Army until 1930.
After the end of WW I, the US could no longer afford to sustain an armored corps, so the forces were disbanded in 1920.
The US Army did not have any significant armored forces for the next 20 years. There was only a small budget to maintain a few existing vehicles still in service.
The American command considered the M1917 obsolete in just a few short years. At which point they began research into a light tank of an improved design.
Rock Island Arsenal Specialists in collaboration with the James Cunningham, Son and Company introduced a T1 vehicle project in 1924.
This small seven ton tank had an unconventional design with the turret in the back of the vehicle and the engine in the front.
It was to be armed with different types of 37 mm cannons and 7.62 mm machineguns.
Over the lifespan of the project, five different models of the T1 Cunningham were released.
All of them were found to have design flaws and were ultimately rejected by the military.
The T1E4 and T1E6 modifications, the last of the Cunninghams, were built in the hope of correcting the faults of their predecessors.
A few of the design elements from the British ‘Vickers Six Ton’ tank were used in their development.
The designers managed to achieve improved mobility with the same armament, but due to serious transmissions issues the tank was never mass produced.
For seven more years after the close of the Cunningham light tank program, the Americans tried to design more new light-weight vehicles.
The Т2 LT tank, built with Vickers-style suspension, was tested along with other models.
It was supposed to be armed with machine guns or automatic cannons of a small caliber.
The T2 did not see mass production, but the experience gained while it was designed helped build a small series of M2 light tanks – a light machine gun tank with a new type of chassis.
On December 29, 1938, the Americans started the mass production of M2A4 light tank, and shortly thereafter put it into service.
This modification was armed with cannons in addition to machine guns.
The new vehicle was mobile and relatively fast while having armor comparable to that of American medium tanks of that time.
The mass production of the M2A4 continued up to the spring of 1941. The production process attempted the French method by using cast hulls and turrets.
The method was deemed unacceptable, and in the end the engineers returned to relying on welds and rivets.
In parallel with the design and production of the T1, the Americans were developing a medium tank that would be superior to light tanks in terms of
defense and would surpass the Liberty designs in mobility.
This medium tank was to carry the designation M1921.
It weighed 23 tons and was armed with a 57mm cannon in a rotating turret.
This cannon would allow for the complete destruction of an enemy light tank with the direct hit of an HE shell.
This was proven to be the case when an M1917 was used for some target practice.
Despite these features and after seven years of development, the vehicles were never placed into production.
A lighter model was being tested as well, the 15 ton T2 medium tank.
This vehicle was also built by the Cunningham company using a design scheme similar to that of the T1.
It had a top speed of 25 mph while on a smooth roadway, was armed with a 47 mm cannon and machine guns.
In fact, at that time, it was arguably the best tank developed by the Americans.
However, the price of development was too high to justify during the Great Depression.
This caused the United States to once again review its armored warfare concept.
It was determined that the mechanized units were supposed to be equipped with light, mobile, and cheap vehicles.
A remarkable engineer named Christie tried to introduce his designs at this time, but received quite a cold reception from the military.
By 1934 the US Military was so annoyed with Christie that they were ready to put anything into service just to refuse the brash engineer.
In April of 1934 captain Reyri introduced a project using Christie’s suspension, bearing four machine gun sponsons and a new 37mm cannon in a rotating turret.
The military saw promise in the vehicle, but gave up the Christie suspension and replaced it with a newly designed one, similar to that of the M2 light
tank and much cheaper in production costs. This vehicle became known as the T5.
After a long series of improvements, in December of 1937, the first prototype was built with a wooden turret.
In about a year’s time, the tank was equipped with a steel turret and sent to Aberdeen for testing.
The tank was protected by 25mm of armor and was powered by an air-cooled Continental engine. It was capable of achieving speeds of 31 mph while on a highway.
It was armed with a 37mm cannon and several machine guns. The tank’s turret and hatches had several openings for firing personal weapons.
In 1939 the M2 was officially put into service. Rock Island Arsenal was responsible for producing the vehicle.
Just when things seemed settled, the World War II exploded in Europe, and once again the US took time to reconsider their armored warfare practices.
After committing to the war, giving up the safety of staying overseas, the Americans begun development on even more vehicles.
From this next wave of innovation sprung the M3 medium tank, but that’s a tale for another day�