History of American tank development. Part 3

Heavy Tank Mk. VIII «Liberty» Heavy armored units planned to equip the machine joint Anglo-American development Mark VIII Liberty. This tank was a typical "diamond-shaped" structure with a fairly broad tracks covering the case. Car weighed 39 tons, was armed with two 57 mm cannons, "Hotchkiss". The role of secondary weapon carried 5 or 7 rifle caliber machine guns. The crew of ten-tank comprised of 8 to 11 people.

"Liberty" was a kind of logical conclusion of the British concept of the diamond-shaped tanks. Probably in this direction would be to work on, but after linking Renault FT-17 has been recognized as a classic, while "diamonds" was nearing its end.

Mark VIII was not involved in the fighting of the First World War. But from 1919 to 1920, the Americans built about 100 machines of this type, and up to 1930 "Liberty" was the only heavy tank of the U.S. Army.

After the First World War, the formation of such a large expensive type of troops, as the tank, was too expensive for the U.S., and in 1920 the American armored corps was disbanded. In the future, for over 20 years in the U.S. Army did not exist large tank formations, but the improvement of technology from time to time allocated some funds.

T1 Cunningham, for example, in the second half of the 1920s. American commanders considered obsolete M1917 and initiated the establishment of a more perfect light tank design. Experts of the Rock Island Arsenal, in collaboration with the designers of the company tractor-Cunningham in 1924, presented the project to the customer machine T1. This small, seven-ton tank had a non-standard layout with a tower in the rear of the engine and the front of the machine. As the weapons offered various 37-mm gun and 7.62-mm machine guns. During the existence of the project T1 Cunningham was released about five different versions, but they all had different design flaws and was rejected by the military customer.

T1E4 and T1E6, the last of the "Cunningham", created to address the shortcomings of their predecessors. In working on these structural elements used British tank "Vickers six-ton." Designers managed to achieve greater mobility at the same weapons, but because of serious problems with the transmission, both versions, as well as the previous ones, in series production were not.

T2 LT without vooruzheniyaV for another seven years following the closure of a light tank Cunningham Americans engaged in the design of new machines and new "light" weight category. Among other things, tested tank T2 LT, which was being built on the suspension of the company, "Vickers". Its supposed to equip machine guns or automatic guns of small caliber. T2 in series production did not, but using the experience gained during its development, was released on a small series of light machine-gun tank M2 LT with the new chassis. December 29, 1938 the Americans have adopted and launched into production a new light tank M2A4. This modification was not a machine gun and cannon armament. The new machine was mobile, agile, and on armor protection is comparable to the average American tanks of the time. Series production M2A4, in which the Americans, like the French, conducted a series of experiments with cast hulls and turrets, without success, and returned to the use of riveting and welding armor plates, lasted until the spring of 1941.