12/13/2023
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Armor Branch! (12 December). You know, the Tank Corps was organized when we entered World War I. The only thing was, we lacked one essential element. TANKS! So, we used French tanks. The British invented the first tanks, which were big cracker boxes, the Mark series, but a couple of years later the Renault automobile Company in France (which is still making cars) came up with a ground-breaking design, producing the Renault FT-17. It was the very first modern tank. It had the driver in the front, the engine in the rear, and a fully revolving turret with the main gun--the same configuration that has been followed in the design of every main battle tank since! It had a 2-man crew and a top speed of 7 mph. It could have either a 37mm Puteaux gun or a machine gun in the turret. This was the only tank we used in WWI. This was also the tank that Corporal Harold W. Roberts, the namesake of Camp Roberts, California, perished in during the Argonne Offensive of WWI. He was the second tank crewman to receive the Medal of Honor (posthumusly). Camp Roberts was named in his honor when it opened in 1941 as the US Army's largest basic training camp.