History
Royal P. Davidson in 1915 commanded a special fleet of eight military vehicles on a convoy from Chicago to San Francisco to evaluate their performance. [5] The vehicles he designed for military use were built by Cadillac. [6] The column included a reconnaissance scout vehicle with instruments for observation, two wireless radio communications vehicles, field cooking vehicle complete with fireless cookers, a hospital vehicle with operating tables and an X-ray machine, a balloon destroyer, a quartermaster's car and the first fully armored military vehicle. [4] War Department personnel representing the government went with the convoy to give reports on the performance of the vehicles. [7] Some of the vehicles had rapid fire machine-guns and searchlights. Five were eight-cylinder vehicles. [8] The Davidson-Cadillac fully armored military vehicle was capable of 70 mph (110 km/h) when the roads allowed. [9] It was America's first military fully armored vehicle. [10]
The reconnaissance scout vehicle was equipped with military rifles, map tables, instruments for making maps on the spot, a dictating machine, instruments for observation for seeing behind walls, altitude indicators, and range and elevation finders. The radio wireless communication vehicles came with telescope masts mounted on the running board. They came with generators to generate the normal current of 110 volts. One of these radio vehicles came with a rapid fire Colt automatic machine gun. It also had a powerful electric searchlight with a heliograph shutter. The vehicles with the field kitchen and hospital were mounted on an eight-cylinder chassis of a 145-inch (3.7 m) wheelbase. Cooking was done using an electric cooker that did not produce any visible fire. The armored vehicle came with bullet-proof steel. It had loopholes for firing out with rifles. It also had a rapid fire Colt automatic machine gun. It came with winch equipment so it could be pulled out of mud. The balloon destroyer vehicle came with a machine gun making it the first American anti-aircraft vehicle. [11]
Davidson had these military vehicles built to convince the government that a mechanized army was the way to go. Davidson and some of his school cadets drove the fully armored vehicle along with seven other support vehicles for 34 days from the Northwestern Military and Naval Academy in the Chicago area to the Panama Pacific Exposition being held in San Francisco in 1915. The first military convoy across the country received much publicity from many newspapers nationwide. The military vehicles were shipped back by train to the Academy in Highland Park when the exposition was over instead of being driven back, since Davidson achieved his goal of demonstrating to the United States Army and the government that a mechanized army was the technology of the future. Davidson's Automobile Corps [12] convoy of the 8 specially designed military vehicles were driven by the cadets of the Northwestern Military Academy as an escort for the Liberty Bell to the Panama Pacific Exposition on the Lincoln Highway in 1915. This was the last time the Liberty Bell traveled from its home for any exposition. [13]
A military armoredcar is a lightweight wheeled armored fighting vehicle, historically employed for reconnaissance, internal security, armed escort, and other subordinate battlefield tasks. With the gradual decline of mounted cavalry, armored cars were developed for carrying out duties used to be assigned to light cavalry. Following the invention of the tank, the armored car remained popular due to its faster speed, comparatively simplified maintenance and low production cost. It also found favor with several colonial armies as a cheaper weapon for use in underdeveloped regions. During World War II, most armored cars were engineered for reconnaissance and passive observation, while others were devoted to communications tasks. Some equipped with heavier armament could even substitute for tracked combat vehicles in favorable conditions—such as pursuit or flanking maneuvers during the North African Campaign.
The M551 "Sheridan" AR/AAV was a light tank developed by the United States and named after General Philip Sheridan, of American Civil War fame. It was designed to be landed by parachute and to swim across rivers. It was armed with the technically advanced but troublesome M81/M81 Modified/M81E1 152 mm gun/launcher, which fired both conventional ammunition and the MGM-51 Shillelagh guided anti-tank missile.
The M26 Pershing was a heavy tank/medium tank of the United States Army. It was used in the last months of World War II during the Invasion of Germany and extensively during the Korean War. The tank was named after General of the Armies John J. Pershing, who led the American Expeditionary Force in Europe in World War I.
The M3 Stuart/Light Tank M3, was an American light tank of World War II. An improved version of the tank entered service as the M5 in 1942 to be supplied to British and other Commonwealth forces under lend-lease prior to the entry of the U.S. into the war. Afterwards, it was used by U.S. and Allied forces until the end of the war.
The Duryea Motor Wagon was among the first standardized automobiles and among the first powered by gasoline. Fifteen examples were built by the Duryea Motor Wagon Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts, between 1893 and 1896. Their enterprise followed the first commercially available automobile which was patented by Karl Benz on January 29, 1886, and put into production in 1888.
The T28 Super Heavy Tank was an American heavily armored tank/self-propelled gun designed for the United States Army during World War II. It was originally designed to break through German defenses of the Siegfried Line, and was later considered as a possible participant in the planned invasion of the Japanese mainland.
The M3 half-track was an American armored personnel carrier half-track widely used by the Allies during World War II and in the Cold War. Derived from the M2 half-track car, the M3 was extensively produced, with about 15,000 standard M3s and more than 38,000 variant units manufactured.
A gun truck is an armored vehicle with one or more crew-served weapons, typically based on a commercial vehicle. Gun trucks often have improvised vehicle armor, such as scrap metal, concrete, gravel, or sandbags, which is added to a heavy truck.
The Cadillac Gage Commando, frequently denoted as the M706 in U.S. military service, is an American armored car designed to be amphibious. It was engineered by Cadillac Gage specifically for the United States Military Police Corps during the Vietnam War as an armed convoy escort vehicle. The Commando was one of the first vehicles to combine the traditionally separate roles of an armored personnel carrier and a conventional armored car, much like the Soviet BTR-40. Its notable height, amphibious capability, and waterproofed engine allowed American crews to fight effectively in the jungles of Vietnam by observing their opponents over thick vegetation and fording the country's deep rivers.
The 37 mm gun M3 is the first dedicated anti-tank gun fielded by United States forces in numbers. Introduced in 1940, it became the standard anti-tank gun of the U.S. infantry with its size enabling it to be pulled by a jeep. However, the continuing improvement of German tanks quickly rendered the 37 mm ineffective and, by 1943, it was being gradually replaced in the European and Mediterranean theaters by the more powerful British-developed 57 mm gun M1. In the Pacific, where the Japanese tank threat was less significant, the M3 remained in service until the end of the war, but some 57mm guns were issued.
The M1117 Guardian, also denoted Armored Security Vehicle (ASV), is an internal security vehicle based on the V-100 and V-150 Commando series of armored cars. It was developed in the late 1990s for service with the United States' Military Police Corps. The first prototypes appeared in February 1997 and serial production of the M1117 commenced between 1999 and early 2000.
The Stingray, sometimes known as the Commando Stingray, is a light tank produced by Textron Marine & Land Systems division. It was specifically designed to use as many existing components of other American armored fighting vehicles as possible to keep costs down. The Stingray was a private venture project aimed at foreign countries. As of 2020, Textron has kept the Stingray name registered.
The King Armored Car was manufactured by the Armored Motor Car Company (AMC). It was the first American armored vehicle, and was ordered by the United States Marine Corps in 1915 for testing before being used by the 1st Armored Car Squadron, which consisted of eight cars. The 1st Armored Car Squadron was the USA's first formal armored unit.
The Davidson-Duryea gun carriage was a 3- and 4-wheeled armed armored vehicle manufactured in 1898 and 1899 for military use.
The Davidson Automobile Battery armored car was a further development of the Davidson-Duryea gun carriage, but with steam power. It was built by Royal Page Davidson and the cadets of the Northwestern Military and Naval Academy in Highland Park, Illinois. Davidson designed this vehicle in 1901. He and his students at the Northwestern Military and Naval Academy built two of these partially armored military vehicles. They were armed with Colt .30 caliber machine guns. The vehicles were powered by a tubular steam boiler. They had difficulty in going up hills because of changes of the water level in the boiler. Davidson made these lightly armored military vehicles of one thousand pounds at the Academy campus in Highland Park, Illinois. These two partially armored military vehicles were labeled No. 1 and No. 2. Presently No. 2 is at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.
The M1 Combat Car, officially Light Tank, M1, was a light tank used by the U.S. Cavalry in the late 1930s and developed at the same time as the infantry's very similar M2 light tank. After the Spanish Civil War, most armies,, realized that they needed tanks armed with cannons, not merely vehicles armed with machine guns, and so the M1 became obsolete.
Cadillac-Gage manufactures a Cadillac-Gage 1 metre turret for armored vehicles. The turret mounts on a 1-meter turret ring. They were originally armed with a 7.62 mm machine gun, and a 12.7 mm machine gun. By 1984 a version of the turret was introduced where one of the machine guns was replaced by a Mark 19 automatic grenade launcher. The gunner is surrounded by 8 large vision blocks, and has a periscope with a telescopic sight.
T7 Combat Car was a prototype United States light tank design of the interwar period. It could run on rubber-tired wheels on roads or mount tracks for cross-country use. Although adequate in some areas, it lacked armament compared to contemporary vehicles and the project was cancelled after only one was built.
The M15 half-track, officially designated M15 Combination Gun Motor Carriage, was a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun on a half-track chassis used by the United States Army during World War II. It was equipped with one M1 automatic 37 millimeter (1.5 in) gun and two water-cooled .50 caliber (12.7 mm) M2 Browning heavy machine guns. Based on the M3 half-track chassis, it was produced by the White Motor Company and Autocar between July 1942 and February 1944, and served alongside the M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage.
Richard Pearce Hunnicutt was an American historian, known for his research in armored fighting vehicles.
