Having grown up in the Pacific Northwest, this idea is very interesting. I'm not sure what scale of forces you have in mind, but clashes between armed longshoremen and company police and the National Guard wouldn't be too far off the mark. Did you know that the Longshoreman's union paint their floors red to remember their fallen brothers during some of these riots? Red is for their spilled blood so that they never forget. I imagine that lots of the prohibition gangsters and police would be useful, as well as the pulp era soldiers, sailors, and marines. I wonder if the National Guard was still using F-17 tanks out here?
The United States officially purchased 144 FT-17s from the French during the First World War, but there are no clear records as to how many were acquired -after-. It looks like at least some of them were purchased, because there are a few National Guard detachments during the era that have one or more in inventory. Then there are the FT-17s used in various monuments, as museum pieces, in parks...
However, do keep in mind that the United States produced more than 950 M1917 Six Tons (the "American Renault"), which makes the M1917 the single most common tank in American service until the Second World War. The only other tank produced in serial after the end of the First World War until the period in which the book begins (1933-1935) was the Mark VIII "Liberty", produced to the tune of one hundred vehicles.
Significant differences between the FT-17 and the M1917 (some of these are useful when looking at photographs) -
- Metal front wheels, rather than metal plated wood
- Hexagonal turrets (only 50% of the FT-17s built were constructed with these)
- Distinctive American gunshield/mantlet used with both the "Male" and "Female" Variants
- Exhaust is on the -left- of the hull rather than the right
- Vision slits are approximately 2" higher than in the standard FT-17
- There is a wall separating the engine compartment from the crew compartment
- The M1917 has an internal, electric starter in addition to the external starter
In addition, in the early 1930s, a very small number were upgraded with a more powerful engine, the so-called M1917A1. This expanded the length of the engine compartment by up to a foot, depending upon the source.
A number of M1917s were later "modified" by Hollywood for use in films about the Great War, so many of the "FT-17s" we have in parks and museums today are actually misidentified M1917 tanks. The left exhaust mounting is a dead giveaway, since many conversions involved removing the exhaust but leaving the mounting point there.
-Alex
04 February 2013, 11:27:03 PM