The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1920-09-18
Under. WATER TANKS
= READY AT ARMlSTICE
Frenchman Invents Sub-huvial
Tank Which Carries Troops.
- Across Streams
(!By Henry WOODY
UNITED Press Correspondent

=
Paris, = Sept. -: (By Mail -
Thanks to submarine tanks - or
rather sub-fuvial ,tanks-rivers
which in the past have constituted
one of the greatest handicaps to ad-
vancing armies viii in future Wars
no longer an obstacle.
The army which thinks it can
place itself in safety by getting be-
hind a wide river and blowing up the
bridges will have some disappointing
and fatal surprises in store for It.
These are the declarations of Gen.
eral Estienne, who as father of the
French tank" during the war j., still
at the head of that service in the
French army. - -. ~, 2,~ =. :.
AS matter of fact, had not the
armistice put an end to operation
when 1t did in the fall Of 1918. and
|had the French been obliged to5carry
1.-The campaign into German territory,
1.-The Rhine would have been crossed
Thy Sub-fluvial tanks, and the BRIDGE
heads wrested from the Germans
with with this new form Of warfare.
| General Estienne declares that as
early as the spring of 1918, when
the campaign for that year involved
the possibility or necessity Of cross
ing the Rhine, the French had al
Iready undertaken and solved the
problem of 3sub-fluyial tanks E'.'rc' :.
1.-THE idea is already several years
old, General Estienne declared. Sat
the moment OF our advance III 191 8,
1T VASTLY means Of anphibiOus tanks
that we counted on forcing passage
ct !: the Rhine and capturing the
bridgeheads on the other side.
Thanks to them we would have been
able suddenly to burst into the mid
die Of the enemy1in the most unex-
pected fastion and pulverize every
thing within range. 1t is very easy
to comprehend the Importance of
such a method or attack.
1.-THE methods we have studied and
perfected will permit of the use of q
very heavy assaulting car. These
weigh about twice as much as an
equal volume of water. Fitted with
caterpillar crawlers like the land
tanks they will lend themselves to
surmounting all of the obstacles that
may be encountered in river beds.
The material as we'll as the moral ef-
feet of these sub-fluvial monsters on
the enemy would be terrible. ~~
'They are also far more practical
than pontoons which have been used
to date. = The latter are mere'T hap
hazard ways of getting across a riv-
| err, are easily spotted by the enemy
and easily shelled. With the sub
fluvial tank. however, emerging from
the water at "a point |unabled to be
determined in advance, the enemy
will nave no way Of replying. Two,
ten and even twenty such assaulting
! cars issuing suddenly from a rivers
bed would be sufficient to break up
any Bfidgehead or anySriver defense.
| The! tank. both amphibious and
for land use, constitutes the great
arm of future wars. We are still
Ignorant of it's full possibilities, but
it constitutes the coup de grace for
the cavalry and permits of close zip
lfgh ting which will render again pos
sible decisive battles like those OF
Austerlitz.,. 49,, as s;As%%
! + ''But it is especially the amphib-
| ious tank cooperating with airplanes
overhead that in the future will open
up the passage Of rivers and force
fighting in the open such as the re.
cent war did mot see .s6t2r5.s; e. & ~