Holt Manufacturing Company - Early Military Uses

Early Military Uses

The concept of a half-wheeled, half-tracked vehicle appeared in the United States around 1916. The Holt company was one of the earliest manufacturers, which attached its crawling tread mechanism to an ordinary 4x2 truck of about three tons' capacity, replacing the rear drive axle.

In England, starting in 1911, David Roberts of Richard Hornsby & Sons had attempted to interest British military officials in a tracked vehicle, but failed. Holt bought the patents related to the "chain track" track-type tractor from Richard Hornsby & Sons in 1914 for £4,000. Unlike the Holt tractor which had a steerable tiller wheel in front of the tracks, the Hornsby crawler was steered by controlling power to each track.

When World War I broke out, with the problem of trench warfare and the difficulty of transporting supplies to the front, the pulling power of crawling-type tractors drew the attention of the military. Company Vice-President and general manager Pliny Holt had retired and traveled to Washington D.C. to offer his services, and was appointed by Gen. C. C. Williams, Chief of Ordnance, to serve as chairman of the board organized to handle the production of the "Caterpillar" Artillery program.

The British War Office ordered a Holt tractor and put it through trials at Aldershot. Although it was not as powerful as the 105 horsepower (78 kW) Foster-Daimler tractor, the 75 horsepower (56 kW) Holt was better suited to haul heavy loads over uneven ground. Without a load, the Holt tractor managed a walking pace of 4 miles per hour (6.4 km/h). Towing a load, it could manage 2 miles per hour (3.2 km/h). Most importantly, Holt tractors were readily available in quantity. The War Office was suitably impressed and chose it as a gun-tractor.

The Holt 75 model gasoline-powered tractor was the first "standard" tractor adopted in quantity. Holt vice president Murray M. Baker reported that the tractors weighed about 18,000 pounds (8,200 kg) and had 120 horsepower (89 kW). The company could not meet the demand for their tractors and licensed other manufacturers to build their design. Holt tractors built under license in Budapest were used by the Austro-Hungarian Army in World War I.

Over the next four years, they became a major artillery tractor, mainly used to haul medium guns like the 6-inch howitzer, the 60-pounder, and later the 9.2-inch howitzer.