Evening star., 1933-01-01
ARMY ABOUT READY.
TO DISCARD HORSES
Truck Drawn Battery Meets
Most Exacting Tests
Satisfactorily.

New developments made in mschan-
ized Field Artillery, the War Department
announced yesterday, portend the ulti-
mate relegation of the Army horse TO
the limbo
In the comercial field the relative
value of horses and motors was settled
long ago in favor Of the latter. Yet
in the military world, for want of a
model vehicle able to traverse all types
Of terrain, the horse still manages to
hold his own. Now, with the develop
ment Of the Arrny's latest truck-drawn
battery of Field Artillery the Artillery
horse is destined to disappear under
the same process of mechanization that
has doomed the cavalry steed
Experiments conducted by the Field
Artillery Board at Fort Bragg N c.,
with a truck-draWn battery of 75-milli-
meter guns have about convinced the
War Department of its efficiency as
well as its cheapness of operation. In
these experiments the vehicle used was
a standard commercial 1l2-ton truck
Given Exacting Tests.
This truck drawn battery has been
subjected to a daily grind of the most
exacting tests that could be devised for
It in deep sand, marshes and timber
land OF the Fort Bragg reservation since
June / last. Every type of problem
which would, in the time Of war, fall
to the lot of such a unit has been
assigned the battery Most of the tests
have been conducted by cross-country
routes where no roads have ever existed.
In order to ascertain the practicable
ity OF such unit in Winter maneuVers,
the battery will leave Fort Bragg Janu-
ary 3 for q months test in the vicinity
OF Fort Ethan Allen, Vt. 1t will reach
Washington under its own power jan
uary and remain two days so that
War Department officials might inspect
1t at Fort Myer II is scheduled to
reach Fort Ethan Allen January TO-
After these maneuvers the battery will
return to Fort Bragg, and during
February will be driven to Fort Sill,
Okla, where 1t will be delivered to
battery Of the 1st Field Artillery for
further tests on the Mexican border.
The outstanding characteristics of the
test battery is that all of its 16 auto
motive vehicles are standard, commercial
trucks and station wagons. With the
exception OF certain mechanical modi-
flcations found necessary, the trucks
and station wagons are the same as
are found in unlimited quantity on
the streets and highways of every
community.
Permanent Adoption Likely.
In the event Of national emergency.
the potentiaities Of this type OF artil-
lery appear unlimited. Apparently, the
War Department announced, the entry
of the Field Artillery into the CONNER
cial truck field prefaces a permanent
adoption Of this type of transport The
remainder Of the program Of the test
of the experimental battery will be an
epoch-making period for this arm of
the service and one filled with intense
interest for the commercial truck man
ufacturer
A horse-drawn battery marches at
the rate of about miles per hour
and can go, under ordinary circum-
stances, 80 miles In a day. A tractor.
drawn battery cannot march much
faster than miles per hour, although
it can sustain a longer marching day
than the horse-drawn battery. While
the crawler type tractor can negotiate
most Of the cross country problems, its
low rate of speed renders it unsatisfac-
tory in these days Of pneumatic tires
and high-speed transport
The light truck drawn battery has
proved its superiority by maintaining
speeds eight times as great as the road
speed Of either a horse-drawn or
tractor-drawn battery. It has about
the same cross-country ability and
costs about half as much to maintain,
the War Department report stated.
In its march from the Baltimore
quartermaster depot. the truck drawn
battery made the 387 miles to Fort
Bragg in IS hours of driving at an
average speed Of 26 miles per hour. 1t
consumed 90 quarts of oil and 434 gal
Ions of gasoline. At cents per vehicle
mile 1t is computed the cost of the trip
was about $495. 1t would take a horse
drawn battery 20 days to make the
same trip at a cost Of over $4,000,
according to the report.