Tank Maneuvers Controlled by Radio (Dec, 1930)
Tank Maneuvers Controlled by Radio
Developments in the mechanization of the army is the installation of radios in tanks for the transmission and receipt of orders. Control of tanks in action, since they were first introduced by the British during the World war, has been at once an important and difficult task, hitherto performed by officers who walked beside the tank and signalled with flags—a duty both dangerous and unsatisfactory. Modern tanks are now being equipped with radio, the company and section commanders having both receiving and short-wave transmitting sets, while the other tanks
are only equipped to receive. The illustration shows a tank company advancing to clear the way for the infantry. The tank in the foreground is cut away to show the driver and the company commander seated in the turret. The commander has spotted the camouflaged pillbox in the left foreground and is sending an order by radio to the tank on his right to turn and smash the emplacement. Tanks shown here are armed with machine guns, other types are equipped with small cannon.
Future combat systems?
By all means let’s put the commander in a lightly armored, easily identified, vehicle.
So…who (or what) is “AMSCO”? Closest I could find was some steel company in TX, with a really crappy website design…
Brilliant… until your enemy gets radios too.
Andrew L. Ayers: OK, at the risk of you hinting I’m some boring know it all, they are a very old (1916) Canadian foundry that manufactured tank treads at one time
http://www.amscocast.co…
Go Canada!
There’s a “Whippet” tank at CFB Borden that looks something like these, only actually smaller and lighter.
AMSCO should have cast their name in reverse, muddy fields would be full of advertising after the tanks went through…
Interesting, many attribute Nazi Germany’s widespread use of radio in tank warfare as one of their pivotal advantages over the French and British in the blitzkrieg.
LightningRose -> the company commander’s tank isn’t any different from the other tanks and it isn’t particularly lightly armoured for its times.
Actually the idea of using radio to control tanks originated with Gen. J.F.C. Fuller and plan 1919. Had WWI continued for another year he planned for a spring offensive in which radio equipped armoured units supported by aircraft would break through followed by infantry. Heavily fortified areas where to be avoided and dealt with by aircraft.
Many of the principles Hans Guderian proposed in “Achtung! Panzer” where copied directly from published descriptions of Fullers plans.
those are representing Renault FT tanks, or “6 ton light tanks”, used by the U.S. Army up until 1939. They were built in the thousands in WW1. The French still hjad 1500 in use (mostly in reserve) in 1940. The Brits experimented with radio contolled armoured units in 1927 and 1928, but so upset with Old Guard with their success in War Games, the units were disbanded.