The CLB 75 Tank
The CLB 75 is not what it seems. The photograph above was taken during a California National Guard exercise which was widely publicised but the tank featured at its centre is little more than a tractor encased in stamped sheet metal.
Developed by the C.L. Best Tractor Company of San Francisco, the CLB 75 is based on the chassis of a CLB 75hp 'Tracklayer'/’Autotractor’. It had a sheet metal outer-skin and a rounded turret. It’s an eye-catching design, like something straight out of an H.G.Wells novel.
A C.L. Best Autotractor, the basis of the CLB 75 (source)
The tank has a set of tracks and a front steering wheel. The CLB 75 appears to be bristling with a pair of cannons and at least two machine guns in the turret. The CLB 75 was what is often described as a ‘parade tank’, an impractical tank designed as a showpiece for parades at home rather than in the field on the frontline. Similar parade tanks were built on Holt and Caterpillar tractors. This particular example even features in Pathe newsreel where it’s described as a ‘land dreadnought’ and shown in mock attacks mounted during National Guard exercises.
In reality during the First World War the US developed or produced three actual tanks: the M1917 Light Tank - based on the French Renault FT, the Ford M1918 3-Ton Tank and the MKVIII ‘International’ heavy tank. While none of those saw action during the war they were more practical, actual armoured fighting vehicles than the parade tanks like the CLB 75.
Sources:
Images: 1 2 3
Caterpillar Chronicle : History of the Greatest Earthmovers, E.C. Orlemann
Early US Armor: Tanks 1916–40, S.J. Zaloga
American Tanks In Action 1917, British Pathe, (source)
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