Evening star., 1943-07-21
Present Tank Models
Believed Obsolete
Due 10 New Weapons
By CARTER FIELD.


The tank is obsolete. Some new
feature may develop which will start
the warning nations again on tank
construction, but the present models
are simply not wanted. Curiously
enough, while the best antitank
weapons were developed in the
United States, it was the Russian
high command which first decided
that it didn't want any more tanks.
In fact it was the Russian can
collation. of orders in this country
for 1000 tanks which was the first
intimation we had that the tank
was through-at least for the pres
ent. This cancellation, incidentally,
caused the first of the important
"cutbacks" which were so misin-
terpreted throughout the country.
Here was the Government crying
for more and more war production,
and here were idle plants, which had
been constructing tanks. Actually,
we are still making some, but it
would have been better, the Army
now admits privately, if we had
abruptly terminated all tank making
at the same time the Russians cam
celed, and diverted the precious steel
to other purposes. Ships, for in
stance. There seems to be no limit
to the amount of steel our shipbuild-
ers are able to use.
A,,.r CoJ,,o~ DrnhIo,~.
Just two weeks more than year
ago in one of these dispatches it was
stated that Army ordnance had
found the answer to the tank" and
that some of these answers" were
then enroute Russia. No attempt
was made in that dispatch to dis
close the nature of the answer"
The writer, as a matter of fact, was
not told then what it was, and could
not have printed it if he had been.
Actually the answer was twofold-
the bazooka and the new antitank
gun. Of these, of course, the second
it considered the more important,
but the bazooka took great deal
of usefulness out of the tank.
What the bazooka did was to pro-
vide infantry with light weapon
capable of destroying a tank-de-
stroying it with one quick shot which
not only put the tank out of busi-
ness, but burned every one in it to
death instantly. That ended the
value of tanks against ground troops
without armored protection, If, of
course, the ground troops had a
supply of bazookas handy.
The whole evolution of the tank
up to that time had been in size,
weight of armor and fire power
With bigger guns, a new tank could
knock out whole feet of old ones.
AS they grew bigger the game of the
big new tanks was to stand off. hull
down on the horizon, and blast the
lighter tanks to bits.
Armor Dispensed With.
The next logical step was an anti
tank gun bigger than any gun car
ried by tank. and therefore able
to fire at the largest existing tank
before the tank got close enough to
fire its own cannon. Because of the
difficulty of maneuvering in sand
and mud, tank big enough to
mount large enough cannon re-
suited in the antitank gun, which
simply dispensed with the armor on
the theory that if it could get shot
at its opponents they wouldn't be
able to fire back
BY that time the tanks were fight
ing each other so far away that air.
plane spotting was necessary, rather
upsetting the popular conception of
tanks crashing into each other.
All this does not mean that all of
the tanks we now have will be
scrapped. From time to time some
will be found very useful, especially
in mopping-up operations. But there
IS no more begging for more and
more tanks. In fact. If you really
want to see a tank come off the as
sembly line, you had better hur-
~ up.
tReleas sed by the Bell Syndicate Inc)