Army Tank 101

grabcad

The U.S. Armed Forces entered the First World War on the side of the Entente Powers in April, 1917, without any tanks of their own. The following month, in light of a report into British and French theories on tank operation, the American Expeditionary Forces' commander-in-chief, General John Pershing, decided that both light and heavy tanks were essential for the conduct of the war and should be acquired as soon as possible. A joint Anglo-American program was launched to develop a new heavy tank, of similar design to the British Mark IV tank, though it was expected that sufficient quantities of tanks would not be available until April 1918. The Inter-Allied Tank Commission decided that, because of the wartime demands on French industry, the quickest way to supply the American forces with armor was to manufacture the Renault FT light tank in the United States. Some heavy tanks would also be supplied by Great Britain.