New and Improved but Not Soon Enough: The M1918 Artillery Cart

New and Improved but Not Soon Enough: The M1918 Artillery Cart. . By 1918, the developments in telephone and telegraphic communication played a major role in how armies fought on the battlefield. For artillerists, this meant the eventual end of signal flags and runners. Now forward observers could report back to the gunners over telegraph and field phones. But, unlike the wireless communications of today, this new way of sighting artillery required thousands of feet of wire and supporting equipment to make it work. The Artillery Reel Cart and Artillery Cart were developed to help “string wire”, over, through and around the trenches of World War One battlefields., During the war, the primary vehicles for performing artillery support tasks were the 1909 Artillery Reel Cart and Artillery Cart. These carts were of wood construction and were of little protection for the equipment. In 1918, the Army contracted for a new Artillery Cart with an all metal box. The all metal box afforded the cart’s cargo, often field phones, precious wire, communication equipment, and other support materials, a bit more protection from incoming rounds. There were several manufacturers of these carts for the Army, but the largest was the Holmes Automobile Company of Canton, Ohio. By the last months of the war, the demand for these carts was so great the Holmes stopped producing automobiles altogether. Despite this heroic effort, only 721 of these carts were produced and less than half made it overseas before the Armistice.