{"id":32509,"date":"2020-01-03T07:00:02","date_gmt":"2020-01-03T12:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=32509"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:23:50","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:23:50","slug":"arsenal-of-democracy-the-mystery-tank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/showcase\/2020\/01\/arsenal-of-democracy-the-mystery-tank.html","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal of Democracy: The Mystery Tank"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Modern tanks are awesome. Take the M1 Abrams\nfor instance: A hulking, tracked, weaponized vehicle made from 70 tons of\nhardened steel and armor yet is still agile like a cat, can spin like a top\nand is powered by a jet engine. Interestingly enough, the Abrams was developed\nby Chrysler in the 1970s and built at the Detroit Tank Arsenal until 1996. The\nsame tank arsenal that former Chrysler president KT Keller was inspired to\nbuild in 1940 after Dodge Brothers machinist turned vice president Fred Lamborn\nvisited Rock Island Arsenal to view a prototype tank for WWII and discovered a\nbunch of recoil mechanisms in hiding. The same recoil mechanisms that Lamborn\nhelped build in Detroit during WWI, over two decades prior. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re probably wondering why I decided to\nconnect the Chrysler-developed present-day Abrams all the way back to the\ncannons the Dodge Brothers built 100 years ago. It\u2019s not just because of the\nlineage of the brand, or that it\u2019s all military work; no, it\u2019s because of four\nphotos I uncovered while digging through the archives, hidden amongst other\nDodge Brothers artifacts, at the Meadow Brook mansion. First, let\u2019s give some\ncontext, starting in 1917.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Renault-designed FT from France was the\nlight tank of choice by the Allies in these formative years of the Great War.\nThe United States, pressed by folks like George Patton and John Pershing,\nrealized that they needed their own tanks, too. These early models weren\u2019t\nbuilt for tank-on-tank violence, they were used to traverse \u201cno man\u2019s land\u201d and\nto give some cover for exposed troops on the attack. Ford Motor Company, even\nafter Henry\u2019s open contempt for all aspects of the war itself, was asked to\ncome up with a design to compete with the FT. But the reality was that they\nneeded the things NOW and doing a ground-up design wasn\u2019t gonna happen\novernight. Eventually, Ford came up with a unique 3-ton tank, just not in time\nfor battle. So the U.S. Army licensed the FT design from France and had a trio\nof American companies (Maxwell Motor, C.L. Best and Van Dorbe Ironworks) get\nto building a slightly modified version, called the M1917. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Patton
(Patton with M1917)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The M1917 did not make it to the field before\nthe armistice was signed, either. Remember back in 1917 when John and Horace\nDodge told the U.S. government and French officials that if they wanted Dodge to\nbuild howitzers to give them the prints and get out of the way? How they then\nproceeded to translate French prints into English, metric measurements into\nstandard, then design and build 129 machines specially to create the parts for\nthe recoil mechanisms in a matter of months? Well, the manufacturers slated to\nbuild the tanks didn\u2019t fare quite as well:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe project was beset by problems: the French\nspecifications were metric and incompatible with American (imperial) machinery;\ncoordination between military departments, suppliers, and manufacturers was\npoor; bureaucratic inertia, lack of cooperation from military departments, and\npossible vested interests delayed progress.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the war, nearly 1,000 M1917s were built.\nDuring the war, when they needed them the most, the United States Army was\nforced to borrow FTs from France. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"parade<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

One might ask \u201cwhy didn\u2019t the military ask\nDodge for help?\u201d My guess would be that they were knee deep in the recoil\nmechanism project and just spread too thin to take on more work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or, perhaps, maybe they did help. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While digging through the archives in the\nattic at Meadow Brook Hall, archival curator Madelyn Rzadkowolski, brought these\nmysterious photos to my attention. They show a wooden prototype tank, in\nwhat appears to be a secret room, dated October 4, 1918, a month before the\narmistice was signed. While it looks much like the FT (and M1917), there are a\nfew major differences. The proportions are different; the photos appear to show\na tank with a longer wheelbase and the front wheel is set farther ahead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Tanks\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The track tensioner is based on leaf springs\n(much like Ford would utilize in their smaller 3-ton M1918 tank) rather than\nthe coil spring\/lever setup the FT had. While there\u2019s a machine gun tube,\nthere\u2019s no barrel coming out of the turret; probably not a big deal in a wood\nmockup, to be changed at a later date. One of the more interesting features is\nat the rear of the vehicle. The tail section, which kind of acted like a\nwheelie bar in modern terms, is split into two skid plates on either side. In\ncontrast, the French tank had a single curved plate in the middle. In the middle\nrear of the tank where the skid plate would normally mount on the FT, on this\nprototype there\u2019s a grill\/deflector to presumably expel exhaust from the\nengine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Tanks\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Having an engine with enough power to move the\n6-ton tank while keeping it cool had been an issue with early versions. It\nleads one to ponder \u2026 what would have been under the hood? Were the Dodge Brothers\ncooking up a new drivetrain?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recently had an incredible conversation with\nDr. Charles K. Hyde, who is kind of the go-to guy for these kinds of things. A\nrecently retired professor of History at Wayne State University in Detroit, he\nwrote \u201cThe Arsenal of Democracy\u201d, \u201cThe Dodge Brothers: The Men, the Motor Cars,\nand the Legacy\u201d, \u201cRiding the Roller Coaster: A History of the Chrysler\nCorporation\u201d and many more books on Detroit and industry throughout the years,\nand in doing so, he did an insane amount of research. One of the reasons I wanted\nto talk to him was to ask about these photos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Tank\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019d spent a bit of time looking through the\narchives at Meadow Brook, but the collection of pictures and documents and\nbrochures and invoices are a bit disorganized, and there\u2019s so much of it. It\nwould have been impossible to go through everything. He said he\u2019d never seen\nthe pictures before! I felt like I\u2019d just stumped Yoda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working for a military prototype shop myself,\nthe possibilities for why the wooden mockup was created are many. The Army\ncould have asked for the Dodge Brothers\u2019 take on the FT and what they\u2019d change\nto improve it. Or they might have been asked to help the contractors who were\nbuilding the American version, especially when the project became bogged down\nby problems Dodge had already worked through. I\u2019m pretty sure Singer and Rock\nIsland came to them for help on the 75mm recoil mechanisms in much the same\nway. Another theory is that it was going to be used in parades to sell war\nbonds. I don\u2019t buy that because A) it\u2019s not as cool and B) they wouldn\u2019t make\nthe changes they made for a simple parade vehicle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"tank\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Whatever it was, these photos were taken a\nmonth before the armistice was signed where the Germans and the Allies agreed\nto negotiate what became the Treaty of Versailles. While manufacturers\ncontinued what they started by partially finishing their wartime orders, the\nAmerican defense industry was shelved for most of the next two decades and Horace\nand John, as far as anyone knows, never built a functioning tank. Little did\nthey know that what they did build in 1918 was to be, in 1940, the spark that\ninspired the Detroit Tank Arsenal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many thanks to Madelyn Rzadkowolski, archival curator at Meadow Brook Hall for granting access to original documents from the Dodge Brothers era, and to Dr. Charles Hyde for his insight and encouragement. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Past Arsenal of Democracy installments:
Arsenal of Democracy: Dodge Brothers Build A Reputation<\/a>
Arsenal of Democracy: America’s First Motorized Attack<\/a>
Arsenal of Democracy: Cannons<\/a>