El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1918-07-19
u. 8. TANKS To
WORRY GERMANS.
Treat En- Rough" Corps
Has Latest in Land Bat
tleships; Secretly Built.
By FREDERIC J. HAsKIN

Washington, D. c.. July 19.-Ofd-
GERS wearing the latest tank model on
their collars as insignia, are busy re-
cruiting husky young Americans TO
man the land ships Of the United
States army The tank corps is the
newest branch Of our rapidly expand
ing land force. but it is not going TO
( be the smallest, nor yet the least i'm
! portant
1 The tank corps came into existence
! i'm February as small part Of the
} engineer corps. Within a month It
I was advanced TO the status Of an in
Z dependent corps Of the army. its i'm
/ portauce manifested by the heavy at
mosphere Of secrecy which surrounded
/ its development
Treats En- Rough.
The tank unit is popularity known
: as the treat EN- rough corps and IL
! includes men from almost every trade,
Z business and profession Soldiers OF
/ fortune. bank presidents. and mechan-
] ical engineers inhabit the same tank
and the same bunk at the training
| camp College men and mechanical
! engineers have been enlisted in large
] numbers because tank corps officers
/ believe that men highly trained along
! technical lines and men Of good edu-
/ cation are needed if the tank corps is |
7 to be a success
Men from Europe and all parts Of
/ the United States join the corps. An
. American engineer from Java and an
other American from Russia dropped
[ into the recruiting office at Washing
ton the other day Both had come 10
America TO enlist as "tankers' and
had crossed on the same ship. neither
knowing the others destination
Methods Change Frequently.
In tank fighting, as in trench war I
fare, methods are constantly chang I
ing Tanks are now being used in I
making trench raids and are proving ]
Just as efficient in this work as in I
tearing open barbed wire and locating I
the enemy with well aimed bullets /
and shells.
The moving fort made its dramatic !
entrance into the war in Septem Der. ]
1916. Armored automobiles had been /
used as gun mounts from the begin
limitations. These cars were most
satisfactory on level roads. but when
it came TO steering them through the I
humpy. shell torn ground between
the trenches. they were acknowledge
a failure. Early in 1916 the British,
using the American tractor as a basis,
evolved in secret a cum bersome, fan
tastic monster Of steel and iron known
70 the Workmen as Big Willie. Little
While and Mother were also con-
structed- Men sworn TO secrecy were
trained TO run them in a camp care
fully guarded from espionage Finally
a fleet of his majesty's land ships, as
they were officially designated, was
stealthily carried TO France by trains
and ships and deposited on the Somme
front TO the amusement Of the Brit
Ssh soldiers and the terror and dis
gust Of the Germans
First L. :. Tank Is America"
Hra las =
given names. a list OF French tanks
reads like a menu card-Creme &c
Menthe, Champagne Cognac and CAFE
an Lait are some OF them a5rlusn
sponsors meme loWaf9 suSn 7. la- -,
as DeadWoOd Dick and Daredevil The
practice Of naming the tanks has
been adopted in this country. our
first made in America tank, 45 ton
affair, is christened America
The Germans have alternately
jeered, denounced. and feared the
moving fortresses OF the allies. Ger
man newspapers at first protested
in eloquent editorials against the
Darbarous tanks, termlnE II Illegal
Failing 10 Danish the tanks by their
prorestations, the army set out 70
capture one Of the monsters with
view TO studying It's CONSTRUCTION
But the tank proved elusive game
one machine caught near German
lines was blown 70 atoms by the
Eventually. the Germans did capture
rather dana ged srecimen and pa
raded IL through the streets OF Ser
lin as a trophy
German efficiency promptly repro
duced German version OF the cap
-ured tank. Thereafter when CyclopsI
OF Creme de Meuthe went acros 10 cut
up barbed wires, the Germans would
.rot out a Kaiser or Deutchland ana
tank combat would be staged The
al
the tank so important place IN the
fighting organization as the allies
have The German tank is larger than
that OF the British OF French
Are Well CamOuflaged.
The British tank travels at rate
lf about Is yards a minute. Like
All the tanks it is mounted on rolling
racks which lay an endles road as II
advances Heavy armor plating en-
Eases the body in a sheath tnvulner-
able TO bullets and grenades, nut
which may be damaged seriously Dy
artillery fire. From the front ana
.urrets at the sides project the
mouths Of machine guns and rapid
ire guns mounted so that they can
-evvolve and cover a wide angle me
'front.' Of the fort slants Up steep
.ngle, thus making IL possible for the
machine to climb IS degree lncllnes
md crawl out Of shell holes Incl
.inaI touch TO the tanks grOtesqueI
iuuearauce IS a coat OF GdL44o lA-eE go
Of green yellow and brown
pots guaranteed to give the 1913
model dinosaurs the harmless aspect
u a fallen tree trunk
The cloud Of mystery that envelopes
he new American tanks is almost as
hick as that which protected the
irst British tanks during their deVeL-
.pueut Details Of their mechanism,
he number Of tanks building or TO be
luilt-these are matters which rank
,orps officers dismiss briefly as Con
idential.' One thing is certain the
.merican tank is a tractor with the
Celebrated caterpillar glide and arm
red exterior bristling with guns
from its exterior view It is not IN
Ike its predecessors. but within il IS
combination Of the best features OF
he tanks Of the allies nodded by
american ingenuity and invention
ato a new machine-the American
ank
German Empress Neeps
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