Roden 814 Holt 75 Artillery Tractor with 8-inch Howitzer

The Holt 75 is an American tractor, a tracked artillery tractor from World War I and the interwar period. The first copies of this vehicle appeared in 1913 - in the same year mass production started, which lasted until 1924. The maximum speed of the tractor itself was 24 km / h, while with the towed gun it was able to accelerate to a speed of only 3 km / h. The drive was provided by a single 75 HP gasoline engine.

The Holt 75 was developed and put into production by the Holt Manufacturing Company, initially as a civilian vehicle, but it was quickly used by the American and British armies. The British side became interested in the Holt 75 tractor after bad experiences with the movement of heavy and super-heavy artillery with horse traction on the battlefields in the period 1914-1915. The tractor, despite a very low maximum speed, was much better off-road than the horses. For this reason, from 1915, it was used by the British Army, which a year later had about 800 vehicles of this type in stock. It is worth adding that it was also licensed in the United Kingdom. After the US joined the First World War in 1917, the US Army also acquired Holt 75 tractors. Tractors of this type were most often used for towing 8-inch (203 mm) and 9.2-inch (234 mm) howitzers.