PPT Slide
The Americans without a battlefield function
focused branch to oversee armored vehicle
development creates “mechanized cavalry”
in wheeled scout cars to avoid enemy
contact and report back enemy positions to
“cherry pick” where tanks will be used.
Tank destroyers with light armor protection
and open-tops would then destroy enemy
tanks. In North Africa, the German enemy
doesn’t co-operate and drops mortars and
artillery on the rubber-tired scout cars and
open-topped tank destroyers leaving burning
hulks and dead Soldiers all over the Kasserine
Pass. After many defeats in North Africa,
mechanized cavalry units are given tracked light
tanks and Armor branch is born to work around
Cavalry branch. Cavalry branch which is a
legitimate battlefield function is disbanded in
1944. U.S. Army tank development drifts into
tank vs. tank platform centricity under an
ill-defined “Armor” branch.