Quote:
Originally Posted by airdave
I don't believe weight was a consideration.
I think these vehicles (having 20' wheels) were to traverse trenches without falling into them.
Thats the reason the track drive was first considered in WW1.
The "terrain" was trenches.
Did they not have trenches in North American war?...they must have...?
Regardless, this is a fascinating and good looking model.
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Big wheel designs were quite popular in WW1 before people finally realised that wheels big enough to carry an armoured vehicle over a trench would be a target for artillery and the vehicle would very heavy. There were all sorts of strange trench crossing inventions before tracks proved to be the best solution. Crossing trenches was a British and American thing. The French were obsessed with barbed wire entanglements and trialled a number of devices to flatten and/or cut through barbed wire.
In the last 9 months or so of the US Civil War the main action was trench warfare around Petersburg and Richmond. Ulysses Grant, the Union commander, found he could hold the Confederate forces in place but couldn't break through the entrenchments in spite of the best efforts of his troops. In the end the Confederate forces withdrew and the war ended because of lack of supplies, illness and starvation.
Charlie