Carson, Clifford Carleton

Carson, Clifford Carleton

Carson

Clifford Carleton

Colonel Clifford Carson and Virginia Tech’s Connection to Tractor Artillery Transport in the First World War

In January 1917 Virginia Polytechnic Institute welcomed 41-year-old Captain Clifford C. Carson as Commandant and Professor of Military Science. Captain Carson was born in Ohio in 1876 and graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1900. After graduating Carson spent the next 17 years as a field artillery officer; spending time at different Army installations and schools from the Philippines to Fort Monroe, Virginia. Captain Carson’s tenure as VPI’s Commandant was cut short by America’s entry into the First World War. In need of qualified officers for the United States Army, Carson was pulled back to regular service in June 1917 to become the director of the field artillery training camp at Fort Monroe. His talent at organizing instruction of artillery officers at Fort Monroe was noticed by Army leaders. Carson was promoted to Major and sent to France, where he was tasked to create and direct tractor artillery training centers for the American Expeditionary Force (AEF).

Even before the First World War militaries began to see the advantages of transitioning from horse-drawn artillery to mechanized artillery transport. Among the new technologies used to transport artillery were continuous track caterpillar tractors. Continuous track tractors are propelled by a continuous band of treads or track plates which run around two or more wheels. The treads could be made of different materials, but the most common type of continuous track used during the First World War were tracks of steel plates which were called caterpillar tread – hence the name caterpillar tractors. These tractors became a commercial success in the first decade of the 1900s and were mainly used for agricultural purposes prior to war. Their ability to transport heavy loads and traverse difficult terrain, otherwise impossible for horses, convinced military leaders to adapt them for war.

The largest manufacturers of these types of tractors were both located in the United States – the Holt Caterpillar Company located in California and Illinois and the C. L. Best Tractor Company also located in California. Both companies later merged in 1925 to form the Caterpillar Tractor Company which still exists today. Prior to 1914 both companies conducted brisk business in Europe and sold thousands of tractors to Allied and Central Powers. After 1914, largely due to Britain’s naval blockade of Germany, nearly all their international manufacturing exports went to the Allied nations – chiefly Britain and France.

Germany was perhaps the first warring nation to widely use caterpillar tractors, many of which were requisitioned from German farmers, to haul their heavy artillery pieces to both fronts. The German Army began the war with a clear advantage in the numbers of heavy large-caliber artillery and it was an advantage that they would maintain through most of the war. Britain and France began the war with an artillery disadvantage. Most Allied artillery consisted of smaller field pieces with a shorter range, compared to the Germans, which required them to be placed closer to the front and thus more vulnerable to artillery counterfire and infantry fire. Further, smaller Allied artillery did not have the punching power to penetrate reinforced and underground fortifications. While the Allies did use caterpillar tractors from the beginning of the war, they mainly used them to construct, haul, and transport.

By 1916 both Allied and Central Powers were commonly using caterpillar tractors to move heavy guns to and across the front. Some tractors were even modified and fitted with basic armor to protect against bullets and shrapnel– a modification that was an inspiration for the development of the tank. Tractor-drawn artillery held distinct advantages over horse-drawn artillery. Tractor-drawn artillery was able to move across difficult terrain in a variety of weather conditions and across ground disturbed by artillery shelling, vehicles, horses and mules, and infantry. As one journalist noted, unlike horses, tractors could “push down trees,” “ignore fallen logs,” and could “waddle over the roughest kind of terrain and [go] through what have before been the most discouraging obstacles.”

Tractors could also haul more tonnage and one tractor alone could have more horsepower than a typical team of men and horses. As one engineer wrote after the war, one tractor per 155mm gun “is the equivalent of 10 horses, and yet it is so compact that when packed it occupies but 360 cu. ft.” He further wrote that tractors did not require land to graze or supplies of fodder, noting that “The horses in a[n entire] regiment equipped with this [155mm] caliber of gun consume daily 36,000 lb. of forage, whether the animals are at work or idle. The same regiment with its [tractor] equipment consumes but 29,000 lb. of fuel, oils and greases, when moving 50 miles…” Finally, he wrote that tractors were easier to camouflage than horses and that shrapnel bursts, which could kill entire teams of horses, often left armored tractors “uninjured.” While many smaller guns, like the famous French 75mm, continued to be transported by man and horse by all sides throughout the war, machines steadily replaced animals between 1914 and 1918. A transition only accelerated as armies confronted shortages of horses and mules due to appallingly high mortality rates for these animals during the war.

In a war dominated by artillery (88% of all battlefield casualties sustained by the American Expeditionary Force alone in the war were from artillery fire) the mobility of artillery pieces was an important component of a successful assault. In order for infantry to maneuver, artillery barrages were required prior to an assault. To keep ground gained through a successful infantry assault, artillery needed to be moved forward to provide close support. Across battlefields wrecked by men, machines, and artillery, caterpillar tractors were a reliable way to move artillery forward.

Entering rather late in the war, training thousands of new American volunteers and draftees to operate and maintain caterpillar tractors once they arrived in France was a logistical challenge for the AEF. Major Clifford Carson, who was promoted to Colonel in July 1918, oversaw the construction of the AEF’s tractor artillery training centers in France. The main centers were located around Clermont-Ferrand, Gien, Libourne, and Limoges. As director of these centers Carson oversaw their operation throughout the entirety of the war and helped create the curriculum soldiers received at the centers – essentially helping to form the changing doctrine of artillery transport for the United States Army.

Students at the tractor artillery training centers completed abbreviated two to six-week courses of study during which they learned how to maintain and repair multiple types of tractors and learned how to operate them hauling different types of loads and over varied terrain. One soldier, 2^nd Lieutenant Clayton Williams from Texas, who studied under Colonel Carson at one of the training centers, wrote home about a training exercise where he and other students moved four artillery pieces 15 kilometers over rough terrain:

“It was snowing and raining, and it was thus a test under difficulties. We started out at 7 AM and pulled out the 15 kilometers, put the guns in place, which latter task required some road building and work with blocks and tackles among the big trees and sand drives… it was good work to pull 4 guns, each weighing 15 tons, out and back 30 kilometers, place them in and out of position under such difficulties, all done by tractors handled by us alone.”

Thousands of officers and men studied at Colonel Carson’s tractor artillery centers. Among those who trained at his centers were seven former Virginia Polytechnic cadets who served with the 60^th Artillery Regiment and received training at a tractor artillery center near Libourne, France – Charles Logan (’17), Charles Diggs (’14), Allen Grumm (’16), John Hindle (’17), Joseph Holmes (’12), Everett Barton (’17), and William Epes (’15).

For his efforts Colonel Carson received the Distinguished Service Medal for his exceptional ability organizing and commanding the AEF’s tractor artillery training centers. Colonel Carson played a vital role in changing the nature of American artillery transport in the months between 1917 and 1919; no doubt playing a small part in the success of the AEF in the field and helping to craft a new doctrine of artillery transport which would be perfected by military thinkers in the decades after the war.

The First World War was a period rapid military innovation. During the war new technologies emerged that changed the face of warfare. While other technologies, like the caterpillar tractor, were modified and adapted to new wartime uses. One of the lasting effects of the First World War was the development of motorized transport for artillery by military leaders and thinkers like Colonel Carson. Motorized artillery transport which began in the First World War was perfected during the interwar years and by the Second World War trucks, tractors, and tanks virtually replaced the use of horses and mules in military capacities. The First World War was a fulcrum point in warfare and two decades later the Second World War was a war fought with track, tread, and gasoline.

April 4, 1876

Ohio

April 5, 1958

Lake, Florida

Frances Custis Mapp

Elizabeth Custis Carson

Graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point 33rd in his class in 1900.

United States Army

He was promoted to 1st lieutenant in 1901, captain in 1907, major in 1917, and colonel in July 1918.

Commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the 7^th Artillery on June 13, 1900 and served in variety of Army bases in the United States (including Fort Monroe, Virginia at the Coast Artillery School) and in the Philippines. Carson became the Professor of Military Science and Tactics at Virginia Polytechnic Institute in January 1917, with the rank of Captain at the time. A post he only held until June 1917 when he left to direct the 1^st Training Camp at Fort Monroe, Virginia. He was promoted to Major within the Coast Artillery Corps on July 3, 1917 and sailed for France that same month. Upon his arrival in France he was appointed Director of all Tractor Artillery Schools for the entire American Expeditionary Force and was quickly promoted to full Colonel by July 12, 1918. For his exceptional ability organizing and commanding the training centers of officers for the AEF Tractor Artillery he received the Distinguished Service Medal.

For his exceptional ability organizing and commanding the training centers of officers for the AEF Tractor Artillery he received the Distinguished Service Medal.

Organized tractor artillery schools in France for the American Expeditionary Force.

Served as Commandant of Cadets at VPI in Spring 1917.