TAB Episode 47: Ford M1918 Light Tank - America's First Tank
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- čas přidán 20. 04. 2019
- In this episode Matt uses some amazing original 1918 film to discuss the development, history and fate of America's first tank.
The 3-Ton Ford M1918 Light Tank was the first tank to be entirely designed and built by the United States. A light and nimble armoured vehicle armed with a 30 calibre machine gun and powered by a pair of Ford Model T engines!
Only 15 of an order for 15,000 Ford Light Tanks were built before the end of the war.
Check out Matt's blog about the Ford M1918 for more more infor and original photos at: armourersbench.com/2019/04/21...
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Here are links to the footage used in this video:
catalog.archives.gov/id/7419799
catalog.archives.gov/id/7419811
catalog.archives.gov/id/7419095
catalog.archives.gov/id/7419804
catalog.archives.gov/id/7419628
catalog.archives.gov/id/7419174
catalog.archives.gov/id/89506
catalog.archives.gov/id/24823
catalog.archives.gov/id/24615
If you enjoyed the tank content, let us know and we'll do more! Check out the accompanying blog here: armourersbench.com/2019/04/21/ford-m1918-light-tank-americas-first-tank/
And if you would like to support TAB, you can check out our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thearmourersbench Thanks for watching guys! - Matt
Wow this is really neat.
I'm glad you think so too, thanks for watching! - Matt
I joined the Army in February of 1973 and did my basic training at Ft. Knox, Ky. At that time there was a Ford 1918 on display at the entrance to the Patton Tank museum. I took a photo of it and. I still have that photo today, some 51 years later.
Important heritage.
zippy little thing. Looks like a blast to ride around. Faster then I ever seen a Renault go. Those narrow tracks seem to be causing it some trouble though, and the lack of armor worries me. That is barely enough armor to protect it against small arms fire. I think they might have had the right idea using it as a utility tractor to carry things instead of an assault vehicle. I am not sure that would had gone well.
I agree, perhaps as a quick little machine gun carrier, a proto Universal Carrier if you will, but calling it a tank might be a little generous! Cool none the less, thanks for watching. - Matt
Thanks for putting together that episode! Ford 3-ton is surely one of the cutest early designs.
Thank you for watching, glad you enjoyed it!
Aww, look at the cute little tankette! With its tiny treads and little gun. 🥰🥰🥰
Holy heck that thing is neat. Almost useless aside from as a tractor, but a really interesting first step.
There were actually numerous tank prototypes designed and built in America during the war, including one for the British Army in 1915 known only as the Oakland Motors "Victoria Tank". Most of them ended up only being used for promotional reasons in the states, so the Ford 3 Ton was the closest to actually being adopted for wartime use.
awww, look how cute it is! lol
Not bad for fords first rank and our first tanks
great video. there were a few other deigns built by america; buick tractor, Hamilton Tank, holt electric, holt caterpiller, holt one man/swinton , MKItrenchingmachine, the newton, the skeleton tank, the steam tank, the studebaker, and the tracklayer CLB 75 Tank. but these were mostly one off prototypes. the m1917, m1918, and MKVIII were the only ones built in any numbers. and yes, early tank designs are cool, weird, and interesting.
Great job I learned a lot from this content.
Thanks for watching!
Nice representation.
It looks like movie had 16 or 20 FPS, but now its 30 or more, that is why this tankette looks so fast and agile. There are men in frame at some points of movie and smoke on background also gives idea of framerate.
I wonder was there starters or just crank handles to start engines? This machine looks too cramped to use cranks inside, meaning if engine stalls in combat, crew is doomed. Not sure if it can move with only 1 engine running.
Never saw wide tracks on Ford, interesting...
That's a very good point. The specs still place it as one of the faster of the period though! The starter hand seems to be at the front but it changes position a couple of times. Firstly it's near the bottom of the hull and later it's up to the right of the gun. Thanks for watching - Matt
If you run the video at 50% speed, movement of people looks about right.
It seems to have both as far as I know you can see photos of the internationals of one of the servivers that used to run on Pinterest or a quick Google search.
I like how the driver isnt even testing it hes just playing with it
I mean they look like fun, I definitely wouldn't have wanted to go into action in one though! Thanks for watching!
Great vid brother! My grandfather was one of our first tankers and went to the tank school in France in ww1. My dad was an m48 and m60 tanker in the Cold war era and I was a Bradey mechanic in the Army in the 90's. Armor is in our blood!
You did Fletch a perfect job here,, great video. I’m always amazed of how little use the tank was in the Great War
A high compliment indeed, thanks for watching! Got a few more of these coming up soon! -Matt
Not too surprising given the relative power & reliability of the engines used to drive them [in modern context, ridiculously under-powered & unacceptably poor reliability were the norm...]
Lovely episode
Thanks for watching!
Aww, its just a wittle guy!
Nice one Matt, I have a video in the works that also showcases a military 'first'... but mine is a little bigger😉
I think you definitely win that round haha.
The armored doors could possibly have been made a bit thicker and the rest could be thinner and still be pretty effective.
Definitely fits into the category of tankette with it's two man crew and lack of a turret.
Imagine thousands of these charging through France in a swarm. The idea of lightly armored machine gun tank might actually work with that many.
Great work, very interesting, the question is what will be the develop of this machines IF the WW1 not end in 1918...
My great grandfather worked on one of these tanks in France at Meudon, 1918. I have some pictures he took of the one tested in france. They nicknamed it the “Cootie”
What a great pictures to have
The Armourer's Bench I plan to get them scanned and send them to several Tank museums who have requested copies.
The Armourer's Bench I will send you pics to your website e-mail. Thank you for making a video about these tanks.
They're truly fascinating machines and finding this footage was great. Thank you I'd love to see them.
I am working on a history of this vehicle for our museum, would love to see these images and learn more about your Grandfathers work. mimths@mimths.org
I like the tank content.
The Mount it Had Per M1917 and M1917 A ( As Different than A 1 That Used the Browning...) It Used a Marlin....That's What FITS in That Armored Housing Anyway....
Be cool to see an l39 lahti in one of these
hmm..intresting,,,i like it! i wonder how it would have fought....
soooo..... who is gonna make a kit?
If Nicholas Moran starts covering small arms, I’m going to get * *really* * confused!
As a prototype, this was a good first effort, but should never have been approved for production in quantity [at least, not as a tank!] In English parlance, machine gun tanks were "female," while tanks w/ cannons were "male." The French Renault FT came as either a machine gun tank or a 37mm cannon [NB: anything firing a shell over 20mm is considered a "cannon"] in the turret; by late war, their experience had shaped doctrine to utilize a 2:1 ratio of MG- vs cannon-mounted hulls in operations.
These tank crews must have had very few, if any, teeth! Not to mention that they had to have had very few children. There may have been other body parts that were knocked off by the bumps and jolts that I haven’t thought of!
Imagine if Japan buys this tank during ww1