J. Walter Christie
Encyclopedia
John Walter Christie was an American
engineer and inventor. He is best known for developing the Christie suspension
system used in a number of World War II
-era tank designs, most notably the Soviet
BT and T-34
series, and the British
Covenanter
and Crusader
Cruiser tank
s, as well as the Comet heavy cruiser tank
.
in New Milford, New Jersey
on May 6, 1865. He started working at the age of sixteen at the Delamater Iron Works while taking classes at the Cooper Union
in New York City
. He eventually became a consulting engineer for a number of steamship lines and in his spare time did some work on early submarine
designs. Following the Spanish-American War
he developed and patented an improved turret track for Naval artillery
.
At the same time he was working on designs for a front-wheel-drive car, which he promoted and demonstrated by racing at various speedways in the United States, even competing in the 1905 Vanderbilt Cup
race. His car was knocked out of the race by a collision with Vincenzo Lancia
who was at the time leading the race in a Fiat. Lancia was enraged, but presumably noticed the Christie car's vertical-pillar coil-based independent front suspension: the then unusual configuration subsequently turned up on the Lancia Lambda
.
In 1907 he became the first American to compete in the French Grand Prix
: the V4 engine of 19,891 cc that powered his vehicle was the largest ever used in a Grand Prix race, but the car retired after four laps with "engine trouble". On September 9 of that same year, Christie was seriously injured in a crash when his car struck loose debris during a lap at Brunots Island Race Track
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
. In a twelve-car endurance race earlier that day, scheduled to run 50 miles, the Haynes car of driver Rex Reinertson had lost its right front tire with disastrous results, catapulting into the air and landing on its roof. Reinertson was crushed beneath the car, suffering injuries (including a skull fracture) that ultimately proved fatal, and his mechanic Clarence Bastion was ejected from the vehicle and thrown 50 feet through the air, breaking both of his arms and both of his legs. After ten more laps, the race was stopped so that the injured men could receive medical treatment, and the unlucky Reinertson's car was cleared off the track. Next up was Christie, driving the car he had used at the Grand Prix only a few months before. He was attempting to break the track's lap record of 58 seconds, and due to receive a $500 prize if he was successful. Christie completed the second half of his warmup lap in only 24 seconds, so he was well on pace for a new record, but at the 1/8 mile marker of his real lap his right front wheel struck part of Reinertson's car that remained on the track. Christie was thrown from the car, traveling twenty feet in the air and fifty feet across the ground, before coming to earth. Mark Baldwin
, a former Major League Baseball
player who became a doctor following his retirement from professional sports, happened to be in the stands as a spectator, and he ran to Christie and administered first aid until Christie could be placed in an ambulance and taken to the hospital, a task that was complicated by the large number of spectators who had climbed down from the grandstands and moved onto the track. Christie had been knocked unconscious by the impact. He also sustained a broken left wrist, a cut on his right eye from the broken glass of his goggles, and a significant injury to his back. Doctors who treated Christie expressed concern that he might be crippled as a result of his injuries, or lose the sight in his damaged eye, and news of his accident was kept from his wife, who was herself seriously ill at their home in River Edge, New Jersey
. Christie remained in the St. John's Hospital until September 19, at which point he was discharged and returned to New York.
Christie now switched his energies away from automobile racing to developing his fwd New York taxicab design. With benefit of hindsight, the taxi design's importance came in large part from the fact that it incorporated a transversely mounted engine/transmission assembly, applying a basic architecture that would be greeted as revolutionary when applied by Alec Issigonis
in the BMC Mini fifty years later. However, in 1909 the idea of a 'conventional lay-out' was less firmly rooted than it would have become by 1959, and for Cristie the vehicle's more striking novelty lay the fact that the entire "forecarriage", incorporating all the key mechanical components, could be detached and replaced in "less than one hour", so that the vehicle could stay on the road while the engine maintenance took place. The car's radical lay-out was to necessitate the manufacture of many complex components in-house, and problems encountered subsequently by other manufacturers producing or finding a dependable universal joint
make it hard to believe that the Christie vehicle was particularly dependable. Given the heavy steering resulting from the fwd lay-out and a published unit price in 1909 of $2,600, it is understandable that the denizens of the New York cab trade did not flock to buy the Christie taxi.
In 1912 Christie began manufacturing a line of wheeled fire engine tractors which also utilized a front-wheel-drive system, and subsequently sold scores of them to fire departments around the country, most notably the New York City Fire Department. The tractors allowed the departments to keep their steam-powered pumps while ending the use of horses to pull them to the scene of the fire.
In 1916, with the First World War raging in Europe, he developed a prototype four-wheeled gun carriage for the US Army Ordnance Board. But the Ordnance board had set out strict guidelines for weapons, and Christie refused to revise his designs to suit their requirements. Christie's own personal stubbornness and his habit of offending those in the US Army and Ordnance bureaucracy would have ramifications for the rest of his career.
In October 1928, the M1928 was demonstrated at Fort Myer
, Virginia
. There the Army's Chief of Staff, General Charles P. Summerall, and other high ranking officers were highly impressed and strongly recommend that the Infantry Tank Board conduct further, official tests of the new vehicle. However, the Tank Board was less than impressed. They pointed out that the vehicle's armor was very thin and could not survive penetration by the smallest armor-piercing antitank rifle or artillery piece. The Board also differed with Christie on guidelines for tank capabilities, which were based on a radically different theory of armored warfare than that adhered to by Christie. While Christie advocated the use of lightweight tanks with long range and high speed, designed to penetrate enemy lines and attack their infrastructure
and logistics
capabilities, they saw the tank as simply a supporting weapon to facilitate breakthroughs by the infantry, and help isolate and reduce enemy strongpoints near the front lines, much as they had been used in the previous world war. For the Infantry Tank Board, armor and firepower were far more important design criteria than mobility, and the M1928 prototype was passed to the Cavalry
for further evaluation.
Unfortunately, however, the Cavalry's thinking at that time was geared toward armored cars, and wanted to develop the M1928 as an armored car chassis. Once again, Christie's concept of how his vehicles should be used, together with his difficult nature, resulted in clashes with Army officials. One member of the Cavalry Evaluation Board who appreciated both Christie's design and tank warfare concepts, was Lt. Colonel George S. Patton
. Patton, and his friend Major C.C. Benson, strongly supported adoption of the M1928 as the basis for a Cavalry tank.http://www.und.nodak.edu/dept/library/Collections/og1360.html
Ultimately, the Secretary of War rejected mass production of the M1928, citing excessive acquisition costs. Embittered, Christie felt he was justified in selling his inventions to the highest bidder. He began looking to foreign governments to purchase his advanced chassis and suspension systems; Poland
, the Soviet Union
and Great Britain
had all expressed interest in the designs. A long and complex series of exchanges between Christie and various foreign governments soon followed. These were technically illegal, since Christie never obtained approval of the US Department of State, Army Ordnance, or the Department of War to transfer his designs to potentially hostile governments.
Though the Soviet Union had no diplomatic relations with the United States at the time, and was barred from obtaining military equipment or weapons, Soviet OGPU agents at the trade front organization AMTORG managed to secure plans and specifications for the Christie M1928 tank chassis in 1930 using a series of deceptions. On April 28, 1930 Christie's company, the U.S. Wheel Track Layer Corporation, agreed to sell Amtorg two M1931 Christie-designed tanks at a total cost of $60,000 US, with the tanks to be delivered not later than four months from date of signing, together with spare parts to the purchased tanks for the sum of $4,000. Rights were also transferred to the production, sale and use of tanks inside the borders of the U.S.S.R. for a period of ten years. The two Christie tanks, falsely documented as agricultural farm tractors, were sold without prior approval of the U.S. Army or Department of State, and were shipped without turrets to the Soviet Union. The Soviets later improved upon the basic Christie tank design, adopting its sloping front armor for its BT tank series of infantry tanks. The BT itself was further refined into the famous Soviet T-34
tank of World War II, retaining the sloping front armor design, now adopted for side armor as well.
Following favorable reports on observation of the Soviet activities, the British government authorized purchase of Christie's last remaining prototype and licensing of a Christie design through the Morris Motor
s Group. This became the basis of the British Cruiser Mk III
(A13).
. Though the Army purchased several prototypes and developed its own experimental designs based on Christie designs, none of the Christie designs ever saw mass production by the United States.
Following the outbreak of World War II
in 1939 and the United States' entry into the hostilities in 1941, Christie again submitted various tank designs to the army, all of which featured his suspension system and large, convertible road wheels. But as with his earlier dealings with the army, attempts to secure U.S. government adoption ended largely in frustration and rejection. He died at Falls Church, Virginia
on January 11, 1944, nearly broke, as the tanks based on his designs were shaping the course of world history.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
engineer and inventor. He is best known for developing the Christie suspension
Christie suspension
The Christie suspension is a suspension system developed by American engineer Walter Christie for his tank designs. It allowed considerably longer movement than conventional leaf spring systems then in common use, which allowed his tanks to have considerably greater cross-country speed and a lower...
system used in a number of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
-era tank designs, most notably the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
BT and T-34
T-34
The T-34 was a Soviet medium tank produced from 1940 to 1958. Although its armour and armament were surpassed by later tanks of the era, it has been often credited as the most effective, efficient and influential design of World War II...
series, and the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Covenanter
Covenanter tank
The Tank, Cruiser, Mk V, Covenanter was a British Cruiser tank of the Second World War. It was named for the Covenanters, a Scottish religious faction in the British Isles at the time of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
and Crusader
Crusader tank
The Tank, Cruiser, Mk VI or A15 Crusader was one of the primary British cruiser tanks of the early part Second World War and perhaps the most important British tank of the North African Campaign...
Cruiser tank
Cruiser tank
The cruiser tank was a British tank concept of the inter-war period. This concept was the driving force behind several tank designs which saw action during the Second World War....
s, as well as the Comet heavy cruiser tank
Comet tank
The Tank, Cruiser, Comet I was a British cruiser tank that first saw use near the end of World War II. It was designed to provide greater anti-tank capability to Cromwell tank squadrons. It was armed with a 77mm HV, a derivative of the 17 pounder, with the result it was one of the few British...
.
Early life and career
Christie was born in the Campbell-Christie HouseCampbell-Christie House
The Campbell-Christie House is a historic home that has been relocated to New Bridge Landing in River Edge, New Jersey.-History:Jacob Campbell, a stonemason, constructed a store southeast of the intersection of River Road and the highway leading from Old Bridge to South Church, now Henley Avenue,...
in New Milford, New Jersey
New Milford, New Jersey
New Milford is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 16,341.New Milford was incorporated as a borough on March 11, 1922, from what remained of Palisades Township, based on the results of a referendum held on April 18,...
on May 6, 1865. He started working at the age of sixteen at the Delamater Iron Works while taking classes at the Cooper Union
Cooper Union
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly referred to simply as Cooper Union, is a privately funded college in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States, located at Cooper Square and Astor Place...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. He eventually became a consulting engineer for a number of steamship lines and in his spare time did some work on early submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
designs. Following the Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
he developed and patented an improved turret track for Naval artillery
Naval artillery
Naval artillery, or naval riflery, is artillery mounted on a warship for use in naval warfare. Naval artillery has historically been used to engage either other ships, or targets on land; in the latter role it is currently termed naval gunfire fire support...
.
At the same time he was working on designs for a front-wheel-drive car, which he promoted and demonstrated by racing at various speedways in the United States, even competing in the 1905 Vanderbilt Cup
Vanderbilt Cup
The Vanderbilt Cup was the first major trophy in American auto racing.-History:An international event, it was founded by William Kissam Vanderbilt II in 1904 and first held at a course set out in Nassau County on Long Island, New York. The announcement that the race was to be held caused...
race. His car was knocked out of the race by a collision with Vincenzo Lancia
Vincenzo Lancia
Vincenzo Lancia was an Italian pilot, engineer and founder of Lancia.Vincenzo Lancia was born in the small village of Fobello on 24 August 1881, close to Turin...
who was at the time leading the race in a Fiat. Lancia was enraged, but presumably noticed the Christie car's vertical-pillar coil-based independent front suspension: the then unusual configuration subsequently turned up on the Lancia Lambda
Lancia Lambda
The Lancia Lambda is an innovative automobile produced from 1922 through 1931. It was the first car to feature a load-bearing monocoque-type body, and it also pioneered the use of an independent suspension . Vincenzo Lancia even invented a shock absorber for the car and it had excellent four wheel...
.
In 1907 he became the first American to compete in the French Grand Prix
1907 French Grand Prix
The 1907 French Grand Prix was a Grand Prix motor race held at Dieppe on 2 July 1907.-The Race:38 cars set off at one minute intervals to complete 10 laps of a circuit on a triangular circuit near the city of Dieppe. The field was led away by Vincenzo Lancia's Fiat.The race was run under a 9.4 mpg...
: the V4 engine of 19,891 cc that powered his vehicle was the largest ever used in a Grand Prix race, but the car retired after four laps with "engine trouble". On September 9 of that same year, Christie was seriously injured in a crash when his car struck loose debris during a lap at Brunots Island Race Track
Brunots Island Race Track
Brunots Island Race Track was a one-mile dirt oval on Brunot Island in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It hosted races from 1903 to 1914, including a race in 1905 AAA Championship Car season won by Louis Chevrolet. It is now the site of a fossil-fuel power plant....
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
. In a twelve-car endurance race earlier that day, scheduled to run 50 miles, the Haynes car of driver Rex Reinertson had lost its right front tire with disastrous results, catapulting into the air and landing on its roof. Reinertson was crushed beneath the car, suffering injuries (including a skull fracture) that ultimately proved fatal, and his mechanic Clarence Bastion was ejected from the vehicle and thrown 50 feet through the air, breaking both of his arms and both of his legs. After ten more laps, the race was stopped so that the injured men could receive medical treatment, and the unlucky Reinertson's car was cleared off the track. Next up was Christie, driving the car he had used at the Grand Prix only a few months before. He was attempting to break the track's lap record of 58 seconds, and due to receive a $500 prize if he was successful. Christie completed the second half of his warmup lap in only 24 seconds, so he was well on pace for a new record, but at the 1/8 mile marker of his real lap his right front wheel struck part of Reinertson's car that remained on the track. Christie was thrown from the car, traveling twenty feet in the air and fifty feet across the ground, before coming to earth. Mark Baldwin
Mark Baldwin (baseball)
Marcus Elmore Baldwin , nicknamed "Fido", was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball. He played in the National League, the American Association and the Players League. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he batted and threw right-handed, weighed 190 pounds, and was 6'0" in height...
, a former Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
player who became a doctor following his retirement from professional sports, happened to be in the stands as a spectator, and he ran to Christie and administered first aid until Christie could be placed in an ambulance and taken to the hospital, a task that was complicated by the large number of spectators who had climbed down from the grandstands and moved onto the track. Christie had been knocked unconscious by the impact. He also sustained a broken left wrist, a cut on his right eye from the broken glass of his goggles, and a significant injury to his back. Doctors who treated Christie expressed concern that he might be crippled as a result of his injuries, or lose the sight in his damaged eye, and news of his accident was kept from his wife, who was herself seriously ill at their home in River Edge, New Jersey
River Edge, New Jersey
River Edge is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 11,340.The community was incorporated as the borough of Riverside by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on June 30, 1894, from portions of Midland Township, at the...
. Christie remained in the St. John's Hospital until September 19, at which point he was discharged and returned to New York.
Christie now switched his energies away from automobile racing to developing his fwd New York taxicab design. With benefit of hindsight, the taxi design's importance came in large part from the fact that it incorporated a transversely mounted engine/transmission assembly, applying a basic architecture that would be greeted as revolutionary when applied by Alec Issigonis
Alec Issigonis
Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis, CBE, FRS was a Greek-British designer of cars, now remembered chiefly for the groundbreaking and influential development of the Mini, launched by the British Motor Corporation in 1959.- Early life:Issigonis was born into the Greek community of Smyrna ...
in the BMC Mini fifty years later. However, in 1909 the idea of a 'conventional lay-out' was less firmly rooted than it would have become by 1959, and for Cristie the vehicle's more striking novelty lay the fact that the entire "forecarriage", incorporating all the key mechanical components, could be detached and replaced in "less than one hour", so that the vehicle could stay on the road while the engine maintenance took place. The car's radical lay-out was to necessitate the manufacture of many complex components in-house, and problems encountered subsequently by other manufacturers producing or finding a dependable universal joint
Universal joint
A universal joint, universal coupling, U joint, Cardan joint, Hardy-Spicer joint, or Hooke's joint is a joint or coupling in a rigid rod that allows the rod to 'bend' in any direction, and is commonly used in shafts that transmit rotary motion...
make it hard to believe that the Christie vehicle was particularly dependable. Given the heavy steering resulting from the fwd lay-out and a published unit price in 1909 of $2,600, it is understandable that the denizens of the New York cab trade did not flock to buy the Christie taxi.
In 1912 Christie began manufacturing a line of wheeled fire engine tractors which also utilized a front-wheel-drive system, and subsequently sold scores of them to fire departments around the country, most notably the New York City Fire Department. The tractors allowed the departments to keep their steam-powered pumps while ending the use of horses to pull them to the scene of the fire.
In 1916, with the First World War raging in Europe, he developed a prototype four-wheeled gun carriage for the US Army Ordnance Board. But the Ordnance board had set out strict guidelines for weapons, and Christie refused to revise his designs to suit their requirements. Christie's own personal stubbornness and his habit of offending those in the US Army and Ordnance bureaucracy would have ramifications for the rest of his career.
Later innovations and bureaucratic frustrations
Christie continued to submit designs to the Ordnance board, but none was deemed acceptable. A major reason was the poor cross-country performance, due to limited suspension capabilities. He therefore turned his attention to this problem, and after five years of development (at a cost of $382,000) he produced the revolutionary prototype tank chassis M1928 (Model 1928) design. He proudly referred to it as the "Model 1940" because he considered it to be a dozen years ahead of its time. The M1928 still retained large road wheels with no return rollers for the tracks from his earlier designs, so that the tracks could be removed for road travel, allowing for greater speed and range. What made this prototype revolutionary was its new "helicoil" suspension system, whereby each wheel had its own spring-loaded assembly. This reduced space in the interior of the tank, but (combined with a very light overall weight) allowed for unprecedented high-speed cross-country mobility, albeit at the cost of extremely thin armor. Another interesting feature of the M1928 and later Christie designs was sloped armor in front, which could better deflect projectiles fired against it. The sloped armor helped to compensate for its thinness. The Army purchased several of Christie's tank prototypes for testing purposes and Christie's patent, allowing them to produce prototypes based on his design.In October 1928, the M1928 was demonstrated at Fort Myer
Fort Myer
Fort Myer is a U.S. Army post adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. It is a small post by U.S...
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
. There the Army's Chief of Staff, General Charles P. Summerall, and other high ranking officers were highly impressed and strongly recommend that the Infantry Tank Board conduct further, official tests of the new vehicle. However, the Tank Board was less than impressed. They pointed out that the vehicle's armor was very thin and could not survive penetration by the smallest armor-piercing antitank rifle or artillery piece. The Board also differed with Christie on guidelines for tank capabilities, which were based on a radically different theory of armored warfare than that adhered to by Christie. While Christie advocated the use of lightweight tanks with long range and high speed, designed to penetrate enemy lines and attack their infrastructure
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
and logistics
Logistics
Logistics is the management of the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of destination in order to meet the requirements of customers or corporations. Logistics involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, and packaging, and...
capabilities, they saw the tank as simply a supporting weapon to facilitate breakthroughs by the infantry, and help isolate and reduce enemy strongpoints near the front lines, much as they had been used in the previous world war. For the Infantry Tank Board, armor and firepower were far more important design criteria than mobility, and the M1928 prototype was passed to the Cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
for further evaluation.
Unfortunately, however, the Cavalry's thinking at that time was geared toward armored cars, and wanted to develop the M1928 as an armored car chassis. Once again, Christie's concept of how his vehicles should be used, together with his difficult nature, resulted in clashes with Army officials. One member of the Cavalry Evaluation Board who appreciated both Christie's design and tank warfare concepts, was Lt. Colonel George S. Patton
George S. Patton
George Smith Patton, Jr. was a United States Army officer best known for his leadership while commanding corps and armies as a general during World War II. He was also well known for his eccentricity and controversial outspokenness.Patton was commissioned in the U.S. Army after his graduation from...
. Patton, and his friend Major C.C. Benson, strongly supported adoption of the M1928 as the basis for a Cavalry tank.http://www.und.nodak.edu/dept/library/Collections/og1360.html
Ultimately, the Secretary of War rejected mass production of the M1928, citing excessive acquisition costs. Embittered, Christie felt he was justified in selling his inventions to the highest bidder. He began looking to foreign governments to purchase his advanced chassis and suspension systems; Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
had all expressed interest in the designs. A long and complex series of exchanges between Christie and various foreign governments soon followed. These were technically illegal, since Christie never obtained approval of the US Department of State, Army Ordnance, or the Department of War to transfer his designs to potentially hostile governments.
Dealings with foreign governments
Initially, Christie promised to sell his M1928 tank design to the Polish government. In 1929, Captain Marian Rucinski of the Polish Military Institute of Engineering Research (WIBI) was sent to the USA, and soon learned of the M1928 tank being constructed by Christie's company, the US Wheel Track Layer Corporation in Linden, New Jersey. Rucinski also learned of a design for an improved tank (later known as the Christie M1931) that had recently gone to blueprint. Rucinski's opinion was so enthusiastic that on February 16, 1930 a special acquisition commission was dispatched to the United States, headed by the Chief of the Engineering Department, Colonel Tadeusz Kossakowski. The commission signed a contract with Christie in March for construction and delivery of a single M1928 tank, and paid a pre-payment to him. Christie later reversed course and failed to deliver on his contract obligations, and faced with potential litigation, eventually returned the payment made by the Polish government, which never obtained the tank they had ordered.Though the Soviet Union had no diplomatic relations with the United States at the time, and was barred from obtaining military equipment or weapons, Soviet OGPU agents at the trade front organization AMTORG managed to secure plans and specifications for the Christie M1928 tank chassis in 1930 using a series of deceptions. On April 28, 1930 Christie's company, the U.S. Wheel Track Layer Corporation, agreed to sell Amtorg two M1931 Christie-designed tanks at a total cost of $60,000 US, with the tanks to be delivered not later than four months from date of signing, together with spare parts to the purchased tanks for the sum of $4,000. Rights were also transferred to the production, sale and use of tanks inside the borders of the U.S.S.R. for a period of ten years. The two Christie tanks, falsely documented as agricultural farm tractors, were sold without prior approval of the U.S. Army or Department of State, and were shipped without turrets to the Soviet Union. The Soviets later improved upon the basic Christie tank design, adopting its sloping front armor for its BT tank series of infantry tanks. The BT itself was further refined into the famous Soviet T-34
T-34
The T-34 was a Soviet medium tank produced from 1940 to 1958. Although its armour and armament were surpassed by later tanks of the era, it has been often credited as the most effective, efficient and influential design of World War II...
tank of World War II, retaining the sloping front armor design, now adopted for side armor as well.
Following favorable reports on observation of the Soviet activities, the British government authorized purchase of Christie's last remaining prototype and licensing of a Christie design through the Morris Motor
Morris Motor Company
The Morris Motor Company was a British car manufacturing company. After the incorporation of the company into larger corporations, the Morris name remained in use as a marque until 1984 when British Leyland's Austin Rover Group decided to concentrate on the more popular Austin marque...
s Group. This became the basis of the British Cruiser Mk III
Cruiser Mk III
The Tank, Cruiser, Mk III was a British cruiser tank of the Second World War. It was the first British cruiser tank to use the Christie suspension system which gave higher speeds and better cross-country performance, previous models of cruiser tanks having used triple wheeled bogie...
(A13).
Later life and work
After the U.S. Army's rejection of the M1928, Christie continued to work on new designs throughout the 1930s, including even a winged tankWinged tank
Tanks with glider wings were the subject of several unsuccessful experiments in the twentieth century. It was intended that these could be towed behind; or carried under an airplane, to glide into a battlefield, in support of infantry forces....
. Though the Army purchased several prototypes and developed its own experimental designs based on Christie designs, none of the Christie designs ever saw mass production by the United States.
Following the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in 1939 and the United States' entry into the hostilities in 1941, Christie again submitted various tank designs to the army, all of which featured his suspension system and large, convertible road wheels. But as with his earlier dealings with the army, attempts to secure U.S. government adoption ended largely in frustration and rejection. He died at Falls Church, Virginia
Falls Church, Virginia
The City of Falls Church is an independent city in Virginia, United States, in the Washington Metropolitan Area. The city population was 12,332 in 2010, up from 10,377 in 2000. Taking its name from The Falls Church, an 18th-century Anglican parish, Falls Church gained township status within...
on January 11, 1944, nearly broke, as the tanks based on his designs were shaping the course of world history.
See also
- BT tank
- Christie suspensionChristie suspensionThe Christie suspension is a suspension system developed by American engineer Walter Christie for his tank designs. It allowed considerably longer movement than conventional leaf spring systems then in common use, which allowed his tanks to have considerably greater cross-country speed and a lower...
- History of Soviet espionage in the United StatesHistory of Soviet espionage in the United StatesSince the late 1920s, the Soviet Union, through its OGPU and NKVD intelligence services, used Russians and foreign-born nationals as well as Communist, and people of American origin to perform espionage activities in the United States. These various espionage networks eventually succeeded in...
- T-34T-34The T-34 was a Soviet medium tank produced from 1940 to 1958. Although its armour and armament were surpassed by later tanks of the era, it has been often credited as the most effective, efficient and influential design of World War II...
Tank
Further reading
- Chambers, Whittaker (1952), Witness, New York: Random House, ISBN 0-89526-789-6.
- Magnuski, Janusz, Armor in Profile 1/Pancerne profile 1, Warsaw: Pelta (1997), trans. by Witold Kaluzynski
- Suvorov, Viktor (1990). Icebreaker, London: Hamish Hamilton Ltd., ISBN 0-241-12622-3.
- Zaloga, Steven J., James Grandsen (1984). Soviet Tanks and Combat Vehicles of World War Two, London: Arms and Armour Press, ISBN 0-85368-606-8. George F. Hofmann, "The Marine Corps's First Experience with an Amphibious Tank" and " Army Doctrine and the Christie Tank," in Hofmann and Donn A. Starry, eds., Camp Colt to Desert Storm: The History of U.S. Armored Forces", Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1999.
External links
- Flying Tanks that Shed Their Wings by Lew Holt in Modern Mechanics and Inventions, July 1932
- The Christie Page, a site dedicated to the man and his tank designs
- Christie and the Vanderbilt Races (VanderbiltCupRaces.com)
- George S. Patton Papers, collection at the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks. Including Christie Tank – Report on Acceptance Test, 1930 and a Letter from J. Walter Christie to Sereno Brett, dated 1943
- The Los Angeles Fire Department's Nine Mechanical Horses by Walt Pittman, An interesting article mentioning Christie's fire engines
- Campbell-Christie House, researched and Written by Kevin Wright: an article detailing the history of Christie's family and birthplace with pictures and a short bio of J. Walter himself
- Christie's patent for his suspension system
- Christie's patent for an endless track for truck tractors