Evening star., 1931-02-22

vi Stcct-WLlICI
has no equal in the world
It's 338-horsepower engine will carry its 10
tons abreast of the most powerful passenger
cars on the open road turning up 80 and even
400 miles an hour if necessary, on a pavement.
In eight minutes or better the crew of three
men loops two flexible steel tracks around the
wheels on each side, and the machine Is of
across country at As miles hour, rolling
barbed wire fiat, riding easily in and out of
shell holes and crushing machine-guR nests,
while the bullets patter harmlessly against its
tough steel sides.
The walls will turn machine gun bullets even
up to .30-calber at pointbank range, and no
obstacle of trench warfare has yet been devised
which this speeding mass of steel cannot sur
mount and crush by weight of armament
gunfire.
welded sides, carefully fitted doors and peep
holes seal the crews compartment against gas.
The monster can cruise for hours in fog Of
poison gas while the men perfectly safe
against death by suffocation.
While not amphbian, it has sufficient power
and buoyancy on its track to pass over swampy
muck and then climb its way out to solid earth
and ride steep hills in high.
The new tank is no lightweight when it
comes to carrying lead as well as mass for
destruction. 1t can be arranged to accommo-
date two or three machine guns, four-inch
mortar, or one of the famous 75-millimeter
guns, and it will carry magazine Of 200 shells
for this dangerous weapon.
THIS American tank was built by J. Walter
Christie inventor of the front-Wheel drive
eight-wheel chassis and other motor innova-
tions He is an old-tiner in the building of
racing cars who turned to rnechanized fighting
machines at the outbreak of the war and spent
almost q million dollars Of his own and his
friends money devsing the forerunners of this
wicked engine for the War Department.
Christie's neighbors in Linden, N j., think
his plant is manufacturing some kind of a
tractor, and when they see one of his steel
monsters being pat through its PAGES in the
field back OF the facs1ry they assume 1t is
some queer kind OF harvesting machine So
it is but the harvest it is meant to garner is
the men of enemy armies who might be reckless
enough to attack this country and pit human
flesh against racing metal fortress.
ChriStieS machine is 10 years ahead OF its
time, according to Capt. L. D. Tharp, the War
Departments expert on the ground during the
recent demonstrations.
"The advent of a light tank with such speed
and efficiency" said Capt. Tharp. means the
rapid development of an entirely new type of
warfare"
THE combat heads of every military force
in the world thinking today in terms of
mechanized warfare Experts who have q
vision Of mechanical developments foresee the
day when infantry and cavalry as we have
known them for centuries will disappear en-
tirely.
SOLDIERS In the saddle or on foot will never
be able TO survive the storm of shell and rifle
6re or the rapidly moving armament which will
be thrown upon poorly protected human flesh
by the machine guns of mechanical army.
1.-The study of statistics of the World War
gives striking evidence OF the superiority OF
fighting with these steel mechaniSms. Every
square mile of ground taken by infantry cost
$4,000 casualties captured by combined attacks
of tanks and infantry, 1900 casualties Every
square mile taken by tanks alone resulted in
only So casualties.
1.-The plans of these who are urging rapid
motorization of armies involve battalions, regi
ments and armies of tanks of all kinds. It Il
the new mobility and speed of a war machine