The 1,000th Tank Parade, Berwick 1941

 
1,000th Tank Parade, August 2nd 1941, Berwick PA

On August 2nd 1941, 6,000 workers and 26 bands were assembled in a parade in Berwick,  to deliver combat tank No. 1,000 to the United States Army.

1351 musicians made up the 26 bands included in the parade. 

 The parade route was three miles long, ending at the airport, where a "sham battle" was held.

It's estimated that 60,000 people viewed the parade that day.  

"On the airport grounds Boy Scouts were kept busy giving first aid to many, but the cases were minor and the scouts knowledge of first aid devoted chiefly to dressing small wounds resulting from coming in contact with broken pop bottles.. 

A few persons fainted but were revived at the two first aid stations." - Morning Press, 1941

The parade began when the whistle sounded at 2:30pm. 

 There was no possibility of delay, as the National Broadcasting Company [NBC] would be broadcasting the Sham Battle featured in that days events.

Painted white, the No 1,000 tank was christened by Mrs. Charles J. Hardy, wife of the president of Berwicks ACF.  A bottle of domestic champagne was broken over the tank.

Representatives from NBC came to Berwick days before the event, and arranged for a telephone to be installed at the field where the Sham battle was to take place, so that the announcer could describe the battle as it occurred.

At 5:14 P.M., on the airport grounds, 15  tanks engaged in a sham battle.    Three of the 15 moved forward, where "They discovered the objective in the southeast corner of the field, and laid a smoke screen that was intended to cover the pill boxes and main fortification until the tank trap could be destroyed."

The three tanks then fired blanks from the 37 mm guns to destroy the target.  "to produce the effect of hits on their targets, the area of the wire entanglement and other obstructions of the tank trap had been planted with charged of powder that were exploded in synchronization from the switchboard in the control tower.  As the charges exploded, debris was thrown high into the air...

The entire company of 15 tanks then moved in to attack the main fortification driving at the fort in echelon formation.

 Specially constructed guns in the forts fired at the tanks and land mines were exploded but the tanks moved in rapidly and first  the pill-boxes and then the main forts were destroyed again by charges operated by remote control.

 Having destroyed the fortification the tanks circled around the entire area like a herd of angry elephants stamping out all traces of the tank trap and of the pillboxes and fort.  To give the effect of artillery in the background, aerial and land bombs were exploded during the entire maneuver.

The tanks, having completed the assignment returned to line up along the railroad tracks for the grand finale,  a company front charge across the field toward the crowd. It was then that the spectators were given their most vivid impression of the  tanks as they came at them head on with sirens screaming,  to stop abruptly ten feet from the ropes that held beck the huge throng "

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