[AT] Durn Hollywood crazies forgot the tractor

[James Peck]

I talked to a Polish immigrant in a plant in Connecticut, think Thonton Wilder's "Our Town 100 years later"." His father had been a WW2 cavalry officer. I teased him about being a member of the Intelligentsia.

Carl Szabelski AT List member and tank knowledge resource (szabelski at wildblue.net);  I was once told that the allies would listen for the tractors to start up and would direct their cannon fire in the direction the sound was coming from.

With the large size of some of the WWI cannons, it took six to eight draft type horses to move them. The spring mud and craters didn’t make for an easy task.

James AT List Member (jamesgpeck at hotmail.com); One story my father had recounted was that big Austrian estate owners (think Baron von Trapp)  had imported some tracked Holts or Bests prior to WW1.  Came a time when the Americans and allies were trying to figure out how the other side was moving their artillery at night.  It was those tractors.

We got the 17 year old to drive the geezers to the picture show a couple of nights ago. We saw that movie "1917".  I did not see any tractors in it but it did have a tank stuck in a trench. It would have been nice to see a big tracked Holt with the single front wheel dragging a big artillery piece around.

I and the 17 year old discussed the dead horses lying around. It was my position that they were used in place of a tractor to move artillery.