The History of Half-tracks, by the Chieftain – WW2 Documentary Special

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The History of Half-tracks, by the Chieftain – WW2 Documentary Special


Is it a tank? Is it a truck? No, it’s a half-track! Nicholas Moran aka The Chieftain stops by to cover this Frankenstein of a vehicle. He looks at their origins at the turn of the twentieth century, their heyday as troop transporting, artillery towing, flak gunning, jacks-of-all-trades during the war, and their sudden decline after the…

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35 Comments

  1. I always thought halftracks were a neat idea and had wondered what happened to them. I understand halftracks were used by the Israelis and Arab countries into the ‘70’s. Thanks for your inimitable review.

    PS: Like the shirt, combining ground and air, all of them being US Army Air Force until 1947. No shirts with tanks or other armored fighting vehicles?

  2. When I was a kid in the 80's there was a person in our small Michigan town who had one of those Half Track conversions for his Model T Ford to make it into a big snowmachine. He used to drive us kids around in it during the Winter Snow Festival and he even let some of the older kids like me Drive the Model T which was Very different from a modern car.

  3. Off the topic, weren't the British in the Boer Wars the first nation to use tractors in war. I believe they used them like the first tractor mentioned here for towing cargo, but they also used them to tow artillery pieces. In one gaming book an illustration suggested soldier rode them into battle as well, perhaps influencing the creation of the tank in WWI.

  4. A colleague of my father owned a German half rack he used to take out to meetings and re-enactments. I had the opportunity to drive the thing and honestly it was great fun to drive. Those tracks pushing the thing forward no matter what the front is doing makes for some interesting steering.

  5. During the German list of half-track, when you mentioned one at the bottom of the line, and it wasn't what I was expecting, I started looking up the "half-track motorcycle."

    Then you mentioned it at the end of that segment. I was relieved, since I wouldn't be the first person to point out bad research on any of your videos. (I would have been polite, but very disappointed.)

    Great job on the presentation of the history, sir.

  6. Chile & Brazil were fooling around with a new halftrack design APC in the late 80's & early 90's. The "Alercrán" by "Cardeon".
    Iran had its "Shahid Farsi" halftrack thing too. Both of these designs look alot alike. Both are fully inclosed & amphibious. They looked good. I don't know what ever happened to these projects.
    As I like halftracks, I wish these would have been put into production.

  7. The British Army's Scammell Pioneer Lorries, used as artillery tractors, recovery vehicles and tank transporters from 1936 carried tracks that could be fitted on the four rear driving wheels for extra traction. It worked reasonably well with the walking beam rear suspension.

  8. The hardest thing for a parent to do is to discipline their kid even when they know they need a paddling. It would appear we have had a generation of weak parents who raised a generation of spoiled undisciplined girls who grew up to be narcissistic women.

  9. Not mentioned in this piece was my favorite halftrack of WWII. While granted, it was never given an Army T Number, it was still produced during World War Two. To be exact, it was a soft-skin version of the M-2/M-3 Halftrack built by Autocar for lend lease to Russia as a 2 1/2 ton truck. Also not mentioned were the Halftrack Jeeps! The were developed for use by the USAAF in snowy conditions such as up in Alaska, and they DID receive T numbers, and a variant (built by Allis-Chalmers) was actually standardized as the M-7.

  10. Chieftain! Comprehensive and detailed history. Did you explain "why" they existed, "Why" they were so valued, and "Why" they went away? Not really. Leave out all the codes and names of each model, and communicate what you know about the reasons and the motivations.