Tractor & Construction Plant Wiki
Advertisement
Holt75pk

The Holt 75 tractor, circa 1914

The Holt tractors were a range of caterpillar tractors built by the Holt Manufacturing Company, which was named after the founder Benjamin Holt.

Military Use[]

They were most famously used by the British, French and American armies in World War I for hauling heavy artillery: including BL 9.2 inch Howitzer and the BL 8 inch Howitzer. By 1916 more than 1000 were in use by British and by the end of the war around 10,000 had been used.[1]

Holt tractor hauling a 9

A Holt tractor hauling a 9.2 inch Howitzer to a forward area in The Battle of the Somme July–November 1916

Specification[]

There were at least two models used for military purposes:

  • The Holt 75 - A 75 h.p. model used two tracks for steering. It had a maximum speed of 15 miles per hour (24 km/h) and had a gasoline engine.[2]
  • The Holt 120 - A 120 horsepower (89 kW) model weighed about 18,000 pounds (8,200 kg). This had a tiller-type steering wheel at the front that was usually covered by the canopy.[3]

Literature[]

8inchHowitzerMk1BeingTowedSomme1916

8 inch Howitzer Mk V being towed by a Holt tractor at the Battle of the Somme, 1917

See also[]

References[]

  1. (2004) "Caterpillar Inc: Roots in Late 19th-Century Endeavors of Best and Holt", International Directory of Company Histories 63. Farmington Hills, Michigan: St. James Press. ISBN 1-55862-508-9. 
  2. "Vehicles of the A.E.F. During WWI".
  3. "British 'Tanks' of American Type; Officer of Holt Manufacturing Co. Says England Bought 1,000 Tractors Here", The New York Times (1916-09-16), p. 1. 

External links[]

Commons-logo
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:


Smallwikipedialogo This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Holt tractor. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Tractor & Construction Plant Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons by Attribution License and/or GNU Free Documentation License. Please check page history for when the original article was copied to Wikia


Advertisement