Evening star., 1950-07-30

How soon this 47.5-ton chun
the front and in what numbers
close military secret.
But when the Patton-whose
1945 dash across France-does go
into action in the Far East it
will pit against the Cotton Joseph
Stalin-the pride of the Red
army-the very best that Amer
can brains and military engineer
ing ingenuity has been able to
develop since World War II.
For the Patton is not a resur-
rection of something we used in
the last war. something we took
out of mothballs in a hurry to
meet an emergency. 1t is brand
new piece of hard-hitting ord
nance which carries to even
higher peaks of perfection the
best that we were able to put in
the field before the war ended
in 1945.
American production lines are
already turning out Patton tanks,
not in the mass quantities which
will be needed before we finally
defeat the forces of communism
but at least in quantities to start
the production lines rolling. And
once assembly lines start rolling
they can be stepped up more cas-
lily than if they had not yet been
started
The Patton tank-known in the
military vernacular as the M-46-
is vast improvement over the
Pershing (M-26) with which we
ended World War II. It embodies
radical developments, principally
internal, which provide increased
speed with increased weight.
The Pershing weighed As tons,
was capable of a top speed of 25
miles an hour and mounted a 90
nm. gun. The Patton, by COM
parison, with it's AIS tons is cap
able of 80 miles an hour and also
mounts a Comm. gun. Both have
crew of 5 men and are rated as
medium tanks.
Much Better Than Pershing
From these statistics it would
appear that the Patton is just
little better than the Pershing, and
that it's performance and striking
power were somewhat less than the
Russian behemoth. But to get an
understanding of what the Pat
ton is, the complete revamping of
its interior must be considered.
In the first place it has an 300
horsepower air-cooled engine
which compares with the 500
horsepower water cooled power
plant with which the Pershing was
equipped.
This engine, which is one of a
whole family of air-cooled en-
gies to which the Army is con-
verting as rapidly as it can, was
developed as the answer to the
Army's need for a power plant
which could operate not only in
the coolest Arctic regions but also
the hottest desert areas. It is
equally unaffected by extreme
ranges of hot and cold climates.
While turning out greater power it
actually takes up less space, be-
cause of the fact that it needs no
cumbersome water-cooling system.
Still on the technical side is the
application of wobble- stick control,
identical in principle with the old
joy stick on airplanes. This truly
amazing use of the stick control
in a ground vehicle gives the Pat
ton a degree of maneuverability
which is possessed by no other
tank in general use today.
The tank driver pushes the wob-
ble-stick forward, steps on the gas
and gets where he wants to go
with the speed of an automobile.
Suddenly he finds himself running
into enemy artillery or other tanks
for which he might become a tar
get. A shift of the wobble-stick,
right or left, sends the tank to
one side or the other without de-
lay. To reverse quickly, the driver
simply pulls the wobble-stick back
and the tank whips back as fast
as it was going forward.
Controls Improved
Gone are the old dual levers,
one for each track, which made
the Pershing something less than
maneuverable vehicle. The Pat
ton can turn on a dime. This
was proved at the Aberdeen Prov
ing Ground, where a recent DEM
onstration with Sherman tank
(M-4-35 tons and Is m.p.h.-
the Patton ran rings around it's
lighter companion.
Coupled with the air-cooled en-
gine and wobble-stick control are
improvements in the hydramatic
transmission (torque converter)
which carry the fluid drive princi-
pie to higher points of adaptable
ity for tanks.
The Patton normally mounts
the same caliber gun-.9O-mm.-
as the Pershing, but this, too,
has been vastly improved over
the Pershing model. It is a
heavier and harder hitting gun.
with higher muzzle velocity than
its predecessor.
Its ammunition is improved, in
Guiding both squash and pene-
trating (armor- -piercing) types.
Squash ammunition is one of the
more recently developed types
The projectile carries soft head
when it hits the target,