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Landships II -> Landships WW1 Forum -> Tanks -> Scat The Kaiser. Anything new?
Post Info TOPIC: Scat The Kaiser. Anything new?
Vilkata


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Scat The Kaiser. Anything new?
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A while back we brought up the 'Scat the Kaiser' tank, and a simple side-view drawing of the strange Holt design was presented. But, does anyone have any pictures of it? Or anything new?

I read somewhere that there were a couple mockups built of different versions of this "Special 18" vehicle.

jedsite.info has a lot if information and pictures of these early US designs, but for some reason that site is a PAY SITE these days!!! I dont feel like forking over $30 a month just to access that site... I think I read something about the Special 18s on there too... Well, I figured I would bring up a thread on this strange tank again. I forgot what the old one was called... So sorry! I hope it's not a pain that the subject is being brought up again.

If you have any cool pics in your collections of other strange WWI USA vehicles, like this weird Best 75 Tracklayer tank, be sure to post them here also!
http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/UnitedStates/mediumtanks/usmt-Best75.jpg

Thanks in advance fellas!

---Vil.

-- Edited by Vilkata at 03:35, 2005-12-13

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Tim R


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Vilkata


  Here is a few pictures I think you will find interesting.


All The Best


Tim R.



Attachments
American T.jpg (12.3 kb)
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Vilkata


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AWESOME tracked artillery shell, hahaha!!!!

Cool second pic (but I'm the one who gave it to you )
Cool third pic (even though it's in like every single book in the universe)

Thanks again Tim!!

---Vil.



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Centurion


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Vilkata wrote:
AWESOME tracked artillery shell, hahaha!!!!

Cool second pic (but I'm the one who gave it to you )
Cool third pic (even though it's in like every single book in the universe)

Thanks again Tim!!

---Vil.




Whats missing is the fact that the third picture of the Best tractor tank shows the 2nd Best design (in all senses of the word) when I'm home this weekend I'll post a drawing of the original Best tractor tank

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Tim R


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Sorry Vil, I had a lapse of memory. I have more pictures, i will try and find them for you.


All The Best


Tim R.



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Centurion


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Looking at Vils picture of the Best (I couldn't access this earlier) it is now clear that there were at least three different Best tractor tank designs. It would be nice to get a chronology. As I said I'll post a drawing (based on a very poor photo) of the third design when I get home this weekend.

The Holt based 'torpedo' is interesting because it appears not to have standard holt track units but the same lengthened ones that the Schnieder and St Chamond used. The wording on the side harks back to a very old, very politicaly incorrect, victorian joke about artillery atached to the Gold Coast (now Ghana) Regiment. The story goes that a general fresh out from Britain was inspecting the unit and asked one of the gun crew to describe his duties getting the reply "number one opens the breach, number two loads the shell, number one closes the breach and number three pulls the lanyard and fires the gun - I stands back and shouts 'enemy count your soldiers'." It must have hoary whiskers on it even by 1916 - one wonders how it came to be used by an American artillery unit.

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Centurion


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OK back home now - relevant info as follows


 


1 Its a Holt not a Best  see the following extract:


In January 1917 work began at the Holt factory at Stockton on a tank designed by Messers Preble, Patterson, Weeks and Wickersham. This vehicle was known as the Special 18 or “Scat the Kaiser”. Later several types of hulls were proposed for the tank, one of which was built in , mock-up. When a Cadillac engine was substituted for the previous tractor engine the tank developed a speed of 20mph (which I find difficult to believe). Another vehicle which was actually armoured was the G-9 built by the Holt company at Peoria on a Holt 10 ton tractor chassis. This tank was tested by the Ordinance Department and the tests were observed by the Japanese military attache.


Tanks and Armoured Vehicles1900 –1945  Col Robert J Icks USAR


I also attach a photo that may be of interest I've seen it in several places sometimes labeled as a Holt75 and sometimes as a Best75. Since there ws no such tractor as a Holt 75 and there was a Best 75 I assume it to be a Best tractor tank. As the photo aint too clear I also attach my own drawing.



Attachments
best-holt.jpg (25.0 kb)
holtbest.jpg (24.9 kb)
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Tim R


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Sorry my friend, i have a ton of photos and Referance material on the Holt 75.


I have also attached a photo for you.


By the way your drawing of the Holt 75 Tank is really awesome, what program did you use?


All the Best


Tim R.



Attachments
holt75.jpg (122.4 kb)
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Centurion


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Tim R wrote:

Sorry my friend, i have a ton of photos and Referance material on the Holt 75. I have also attached a photo for you. By the way your drawing of the Holt 75 Tank is really awesome, what program did you use? All the Best Tim R.

In which case it could be a Holt or a Best Tank since both had a '75' tractor and I've seen shots of this beast labeled Holt and shots labeled Best. The only literature I've managed to dig out about US tanks based on tractors refers to the Scat the Kaiser* which this is clearly not, The Holt G8 (again a different animal) and two Best tanks both based on the Best 75 but again photos show them to be different vehicles. I can find no specific reference to this tank other than the unhelpfully labeled photos I've already refered to.


* I suspect - looking at the quote (see my previous posting on Scat) and the photos that Scat the K may not be a body shell on a tractor but a genuine ground up development using extended Holt tracks.


All my drawings are done in vector graphics (using either Micrographix Draw or good old Power Point) so I can size them up or down without loosing detail. If I need to post them in JPG I convert them then. The drawing enclosed was originally done in Powerpoint you can do a lot in this if you know your way round it. See enclosed examples.



Attachments
Example1.ppt (112.0 kb)
example2.ppt (160.0 kb)
example3.ppt (66.5 kb)
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Tim R


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Can you do a 3d image with Power Point or  Micrographix Draw? I have 3dX Draw and AutoCad 2005, But I have not really sat down and went over the how two's. AutoCad is awesome, but very complicated.

 All The Best


Tim R.



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Vilkata


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Centurion, there was a much earlier thread about Scat The Kaiser, and it included a link to a drawing of the vehicle from the "jedsite" website. However, since then the site has become a pay site, and I can no longer link to it, and being a dummy, I forgot to save the picture to my hard drive. As such, all I can do is link you to the Google Image Search preview of the actual image...

http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:CMFaFWoAT710SM:jedsite.info/tanks/hotel/holt_series/special-18-2/special182_001.jpg

That is supposedly "scat the kaiser", and many texts claim it was actually built! I started this thread to try to get more information on that vehicle, but low and behold, it seems we have even less information than we used to

At some point I am going to pay for a week membership to Jedsite just so I can download all of the darn WWI tank images they have...

---Vil.

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