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Post Info TOPIC: M1917 in San Francisco - The 1934 West Coast Longshore Strike
Vilkata


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M1917 in San Francisco - The 1934 West Coast Longshore Strike
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In 1934 the Longshoremen initiated a long strike that led to sailors striking aswell. This led to a large ammount of unrest and violence between the Strikers and the San Francisco Police. After so called "Bloody Thursday" in which two men were killed by the Police, the National Guard was called into San Francisco. With the strikers unwilling to go against trained soldiers, this effectively ended all violence in the strike.

This strike was very important, and is a memorable incident in San Francisco history. For further reading I highly reccomend the Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1934_West_Coast_Longshore_Strike

What the article doesnt mention, is that several M1917 tanks were dispatched to patrol along the waterfront aswell. I bought this news photo off of Ebay, and it just arrived.

Back of the photo reads:

"Tanks And Troops Guard Frisco Waterfront

The Embarcadero, spot of romance for many writers of sea and western stories, presents a martial appearance these days as National Guardsmen and tanks patrole the San Francisco waterfront during the City's General Strike.
Credit Line (ACME) 7/18/34"

I am attaching a small version of the picture, aswell as a gigantic version, aswell as the back of the photo. The tanks are stationed outside of Pier 44, and one can also note the odd motor land-train being used to haul around national guard troops on the right side of the image. Numerous other text is legible in the large picture.

For reference, here is an aerial view of an area close to where the photo was taken:
http://www.ffic-heritageserver.com/imgbank/hrimages/sfhist/SFH22hr.jpg
As you can see, the front-buildings of the piers on the far left of the image are identical to the front-building immediately behind the M1917s in my photo. The prominent building on the right is the San Francisco Ferry Building.

Note the emblem painted on the side of the M1917 turret - I had never seen it before.

Also... In the event the tanks were stormed by the picketers - how effective would those 37mm guns have been? It would have made more sense to ship out some MG armed M1917s. Or perhaps these tanks were equipped with Case Shot?

It's also interesting to note that this was probably one of the last actions of M1917s.

Hope you guys enjoy!

---Vil.
P.S. In case you were wondering, what look like hairs, dust, grime, and even a partial fingerprint on the photo were not caused by mishandling by myself or scanning with a dirty scanner, all of those artifacts are parts of the photo itself - probably imbued onto the paper during the development process.

-- Edited by Vilkata at 03:20, 2006-11-28

And because of the file upload system of this forum stinking so bad... Here, much easier, much more straightforward. Have fun!

Photo Giant Version
http://s1.simpload.com/1127456baaa884a3f.jpg

Photo Back With News Details
http://s1.simpload.com/1127456baafa68bdf.jpg

Smaller Version of Photo For Your Convenience
http://s1.simpload.com/1127456bab2e8dc41.jpg

-- Edited by Vilkata at 04:20, 2006-11-28

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Centurion


Legend

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That symbol or insignia appears on the front binding of The Fighting Tanks since 1916 (Jones, Rarey and Icks). The first two authors had been part of the Tank School . Jones was also in command of the 1st Battalion 1st Tank Regiment so it could be from one of these two organisations.

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theburk


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ive got a picture of a m1917 acctualy being used in combat in 1918, but alas its a full double page picture, so i cant scan it, i will try to take a picture with my digital camera though. it is obviously a m1917 because it has not only the triangular sections on either side of the drivers view port but also has the sheild on the gun.

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Come In Nighthawk


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<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math";

Great photo!  Wish it were in MY collection.  Sigh. 

As it happens, I am researching a dissertation on the inter-war tank service.  The emblem on the turret is the insignia of the 40th Tank Company, a component of the 40th Division, CA NG.  The Mark VIII (or Mark V) heavy tank superimposed on the crossed rifles was the branch device of the Infantry (Tanks).  A letter dated 21 Mar 22, The Adjutant Generals Office, approved a new design for Infantry (Tanks). Change 2 to AR 600-35, 28 Mar 22, subsequently prescribed the insignia for Infantry (Tanks) to be "The Infantry insignia with tank superimposed." This insignia was rescinded by Change 2, AR 600-35, 22 Aug 33.

You can find out a little more about obsolete "Armor" insignia at the Army's Institute of Heraldry website at: http://www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil/Branches...and%20Armor.htm



-- Edited by Come In Nighthawk at 18:05, 2009-01-08

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