Overvalwagens!
Marmon-Herrington Tanks
In the mid 1930s Marmon-Herrington of
Indianapolis started designing and
building tanks on their own account.
Their tank designs were initially based
on their various series of tracked
tractors.
One of Marmon-Herrington's first
commercial export successes was this
CTVL turretless tankette, sold to
Mexico (picture Jedsite).
A small number of another
type, the CTL-1 light tank,
were sold to Persia around
in the same period.
Note the absence of a
turret and the .30 machine
gun still fitted in the hull
front (picture
Marmon-Herrington).
In a further development, five CTL-3 and five
CTL-3A light tanks were sold to the US Marines in
1936 and 1937 respectively. Still no turrets were
mounted and machine guns were fitted to the hull
bow. A further 20 CTL-6 (shown left) were sold to
the US Marine Corps (picture Jedsite) just before
WW2. The CTL-6 used the track configuration of
the U.S. Army's M2 light tank series.
During 1940, when it became clear that the Vickers tanks ordered in
Britian and Belgium would not be delivered, the Dutch East Indies
turned to the U.S. There, Marmon-Herrington was the only company
building tanks commercially, while not being involved in the
re-armament process of the U.S. Forces. K.N.I.L. ordered no less than
200 CTLS-4TA light tanks, basically the CTL-6 with a small machine-
gun armed turret, added on the request of K.N.I.L. The picture (source
Marmon-Herrington) shows seven CTLS-4TA's delivered to K.N.I.L.
Marmon-Herrington, having no experience with production of such a
large number of tanks, were not able to deliver in time. Most tanks,
including heavier types discussed below, were supposed to be on
hand in the Dutch East Indies by the end of 1941. Not so.
Approximately 20-24 CTLS-4TA light tanks arrived in the Dutch East
Indies in time to take part in the fighting in March 1942. A platoon of 7
Marmon-Herrington was part of K.N.I.L.'s only tank battalion (Mobiele
Eenheid) and these tanks were involved in the running battles at
Soebang and Ciater Pass on Western Java.
The Marmon-Herrington's on this Beeldbank picture parade the streets
of Willemstad, Curacao, in the Dutch West Indies.
A further 149 CTLS-4TA's were en route to Java when the Dutch East
Indies surrendered. These tanks were unloaded in Australia where they
served as training tanks with the Australian Army. They were soon
declared obsolete and scrapped. The 39 remaining light tanks on the
contract were shipped from the U.S. to the Dutch West Indies (7 to
Curacao, 6 to Aruba and 26 to Suriname). This Beeldbank picture shows a
CTLS-4TA on the Dutch Antilles. As the turrets did not have all-round
traverse, the CTLS came in two versions, one with the driver to the left
(CTLS-4TAY) and the other with the driver to the right (CTLS-4TAC). This
way the tanks could operate in mixed pairs and film footage of training
exercises in the Dutch West Indies shows just that.
Further adding mayhem to Marmon-Herrington's already strained
production process, the U.S. Government ordered a batch of 240
CTLS light tanks with the company, to be donated to China through
lend-lease. China did not accept the design however and by July 1942
the U.S. were stuck with 240 CTLS light tanks. A number were taken
over by the U.S. Army and stationed in the Northern Pacific area
(notably the Aleutian Islands and /or Alaska). This picture from the
Jedsite shows a couple of CTLS tanks in U.S. service.
After March 1942, the Imperial Japanese Army took over
the remaining Marmon-Herrington tanks on Java, most of
which would remain in service. If any were transferred from
Java to other theatres of war is not known. In 1945,
Indonesian nationalists captured most of the Japanese
military equipment in the city of Surabaya, among which
several CTLS light tanks. Most of these in turn were to be
destroyed or recaptured by the British-Indian Division sent
in to restore order. This picture from the NIOD website
shows a CTLS after the battle of Surabaya.
As can be read in the Vickers Tanks chapter, K.N.I.L. had ordered
a substantial number of the Vickers Command tank, armed with a
2-pounder gun. When the Belgian factory was overran by the
German Army in 1940, K.N.I.L. turned to the U.S. instead and
sought delivery of the 37mm gun armed M2A4 light tank (shown
left). In 1940 the Dutch did obtain permission from U.S. Authorities
for ordering these tanks, on the condition that such an order would
not interfere with U.S. orders. What happened after that
permission is not clear, but a Dutch order never materialised,
possibly because production was switching to the M3 light tank (for
which no permission was granted to the Dutch at that stage).
K.N.I.L. looked around for a company to produce light
gun tanks and turned again to Marmon-Herrington.
Basis was to be the CTM (picture Jedsite) light tank,
but the turret should be armed with the 37mm gun.
The Dutch were unable to acquire the U.S Army's
standard M5/M6 tank gun. The American Armament
Corporation (AAC) of New York had developed a fully
automatic 37mm gun (dual purpose) as well and
offered this to the Dutch as a tank weapon .
The result was the CTMS-1TB1 and a grand
total of 194 of these light tanks had been
ordered by the Netherlands Purchasing
Commission by early 1941.
Same story here:
Marmon-Herrington could not deliver these
tanks on time and after the fall of the Dutch
East Indies, the U.S government took over the
full contract.
Of these CTMS tanks the Dutch received 31
units for use in the West Indies (2 for Curacao,
1 for Aruba and 28 for Surinam).
The tanks had a crew of three and were
consequently called Dutch three-man tanks in
the U.S. (picture from the Beeldbank).
At least one of the
CTMS tanks in
Surinam seems to
have been
converted into a
Command tank.
The turret was
removed and a
large windscreen
was added (picture
from the
Beeldbank)
As stated, the U.S government
ended up with the full lot of the
CTMS production, except for the
31 tanks delivered to the Dutch
West Indies.
Of the remaining tanks, thirty were
to become lend-lease deliveries to
Latin-America. Mexico received 4
CTMS tanks, Cuba 8 (see picture),
Guatamala got 6 and Ecuador no
less than 12. The rest was
probably scrapped in the U.S.
When it became clear in early 1942 that the Dutch East Indies would
not receive the Marmon-Herrington gun tanks in time while the
Japanese Imperial forces were at the gates of their empire, the Dutch
requested the U.S government for support. As an emergency measure
M3 light tanks were assigned to the Dutch, of which the first 50 were
en route for Java as a lend-lease shipment when the Dutch East Indies
fell. The tanks were duly shipped to Australia were they were
converted to the same specification as the British sourced Australian
Stuarts. The tank on the picture has the horse-shoe shaped turret and
is believed to be one of the "Dutch Indies batch". It was knocked out
during the fighting at Buna, New-Guinea.
Besides these 200 CTLS and 194 CTMS the Dutch also ordered 200
units of a third Marmon-Herrington tank type: the MTLS-1GI4. The
reason that the orders to Marmon-Herrington (almost 600 tanks) were
significantly larger than the original Vickers orders (around 120 tanks)
had to do with the fact that K.N.I.L.'s strategy had changed by
1940/41. It was setting up 5 motorised brigades on Java, each to be
equipped among other units with a (mixed) tank battalion.
On this picture (from Steve Zaloga, US Light Tanks at War) a MTLS
shows it size next to another Marmon-Herrington product: the M22
Locust airborne tank.
The MTLS was the largest of the 3
Marmon-Herrington Dutch tank types
and can be classified as a medium
tank. The MTLS was equipped on the
request of the Dutch with a unique twin
AAC 37mm gun turret. It had a four
man crew and was therefore
sometimes referred to as the Dutch
four-man tank (picture from Heshusius,
Het KNIL van tempo doeloe).
Again none were delivered before the
fall of Java. 19 MTLS tanks were
shipped out to the Dutch West Indies
where they served in a Surinam Tank
battalion. The U.S. Government, which
had taken over the contract just like
with the CTMS, managed to stop
production after 125 tanks had been
finished (picture from the Jedsite).
The MTLS Medium tanks
served in Surinam until
after WW2. The AAC twin
automatic 37mm guns
must have been lethal
weapons.
They both fired a clip of
five grenades and with a
fully automatic salvo the
two guns fired with a time
difference of 1/8 of a
second.
Plenty of .30 machine guns
were fitted as well.
As stated above, a large
number of Marmon-Herrington
two-men tanks reached
Australia. You can read all
about that story in Paul
Handel's article on
Marmon-Herrington tanks in
Australian service (2005
update). The picture is from
that article.
This picture from the Dutch
Beeldbank shows the wrecks
of Marmon-Herrington light
tanks in or near Bandung
during the Indonesian
Independence War. The
wrecks await recycling. These
were most likely the tanks used
by the Mobiele Eenheid at
Soebang/Tjiater Pass in march
1942.
A lot has been written before on
Marmon-Herrington tanks, but this
website cannot do without a chapter.
Much of the texts above are based on
the work of others, notably Leland
Ness (Jane's WW2 Tanks and Fighting
Vehicles), Hans Heesakkers' articles in
De Tank (unfortunately only available
in Dutch), Steve Zaloga's US Light
Tanks at War, Hanno Spoelstra's
website on Marmon-Herringtons.
Several pictures in this chapter have
been credited to the Jedsite.
Anyway, we hope to have contributed
a little to the history of
Marmon-Herrington tanks by
summarizing knowledge that is
available in different places.
To conclude we would like to show this
WW2 Marmon-Herrington
advertisement (right), showing the
ill-fated production lines of the
company.
Hey, they even needed
YOU to help finish those tanks!
