Half-Tracks: The Mechanical Centaur that Won WWII

historians often like to talk in terms of weapons that won XY or Zed War sometimes such musings will be quite literal A.E discussions of the guns bombs and blades that through their Superior design and production did the Dirty Work of winning a war better than any others but other times these pontifications will be more abstract and concern things such as Logistics or economical models for specific examples think which truck was the most reliable and versatile and so could move the most War materials or which war eon maximized production the most and thus created the most weapons to fight the enemy etc etc it is one of the L of such abstract examples that we're going to be looking at today a leading weapon of World War II that was not made to engage the enemy directly not usually anyway but instead to form a steady and dependable backbone to wider military operations and thus play a far greater and more important role in deciding the war than any individual bomb bullet or blade ever could the half trap which if you are wondering is exactly what it sounds like it's a vehicle which has a track system and something else supplementing it usually wheels so let's get into it just before we continue with today's video I want to tell you that it is brought to you by longterm for end of the show Squarespace the only one website platform for entrepreneurs to stand out and succeed online look whether you're just starting out or you're managing a growing brand Squarespace makes it easy to create a beautiful website engage with your audience and sell anything from products to content to time all in one place place all on your terms let me paint a picture for you imagine it's Monday morning your business is growing and you need a website that can keep up with it that's where Squarespace comes in one feature that I love is the new Squarespace blueprint it guides you through creating a personalized website with professionally curated layouts tailored to your brand and with their 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despite this period specific ubiquitousness their history actually goes a canny bit further back than that specifically to the very start of the 20th century and more unexpectedly still given how in our modern lexicon half track is used to near universally refer to a military vehicle of some kind half tracks were actually originally developed to civilian Vehicles specifically as tough go anywhere machines that could tackle all manner of common yet annoyingly laborious industrial tasks as would a reversed one that would be this the mighty Lombard steam log hauler it was first built in either 1900 or 1901 sources vary with production continuing through to 1917 during which time 83 units were built as for its creator that would be when Alvin Lombard an American logging engineer by trade he envisioned his creation primarily being of use during the cold winter months when heavy buildups of snow and ice in the town of wardville Maine where he PL his trade could make it impossible to move heavy Lumber through men and horses alone and thus could completely bring production to a halt B accounts it worked an absolute treat and if you happen to be wondering about its bizarre looking design yes don't worry your eyes don't deceive you and is basically just a saddle tank steam locomotive plant on top of some tracks further fitted with a scw straight down steering column jutting out at the front not further in addition to being the first half track the Lombard hauler was also the first commercially successful tracked vehicle period unlike many things we look at on this channel however where the first implementation of an idea serves as a spark that set off a powderkeg of innovation and subsequently caused ever more new and improved designs to start appearing thick and fast no such process occurred for the half track instead the idea stayed modest in scope with just the odd other type being made here and there with particularly stylish examples including many of San Nicholas I seconds of Russia's personal cast such as this one what the idea really needed to take off was some kind of apocalyptic event that threatened the very existence of civilizations so that money men would start chucking money or whacky new ideas such as the half track and what would you know once such Avengers happened to be right around the corner a little International spat that you might know as World War I naturally with terrible ground conditions kind of being World War I's thing the military adoption of a half track was inevitable and it came in the form of the halt Caterpillar tractor an originally pre-war tracked tractor model that the British bunged a front wheel on military use and employed as an artillery mover they also gave them out to all their friends and so it also found its way into French American and Belgian service all in all the Brits produced about 3,000 of these come the war's end further to that given their experience with s Nicholas's personal garage the Russians supposedly retrofitted 182 of their Austin armored cars as half tracks but take this claim with a pinch of salt because as much as we could find the claim written down easy enough we couldn't find a single photo we could be sure was from World War I and not from the later Russian Civil War if you're wondering what these may have looked like however here is one of the aention Civil War era ones behold and that was about it for World War I era half tracks make no mistake the half Tred military halt tractor had thoroughly Vindicated the concept and as a result there wasn't a military on Earth that doubted their utility but alas the enthusiasm to really grasp the half Track by the horns just wasn't there this is typically ascribed to being down to a perception that half tracks with their 50/50 nature were unnecessarily complicated and so one would just be better off going with a pure track vehicle such as the American model 1917 ftown artillery tractor or the British Hornsby tractor for heavy pulling duties instead now that changed in the inter War years though when suddenly finally new half trck designs began appearing with some degree of frequency across the civilian world with examples including the American Lin tractor full production of which began just after the end of World War I in late 1918 and the Canadian so-called bombarder half track system which was offered throughout the period to retrofit a range of nomally wheeled Vehicles into half tracks everything from tractors to mail trucks to buses half tracks also started to become more prevalent in the military sphere in the end War years with examp being the French Citron p17 from 1921 the units p107 from 1934 the polish c4p from 1935 these were all used in every utility role imaginable there troop transports artillery tractors recovery vehicles trucks any time or place that a military needed something moving somewhere through crap terrain it was increasingly half tracks that were filling that Duty note however they never fully replaced old school trucks and tractors with any army no matter to how popular they became they were still fundamentally niche as a transport solution in that period and just as we saw with those early Russian Austin armored cars which many have been retrofitted as half tracks in World War I but certainly were in the Civil War armed half tracks also became more and more common among mechanized units as the inter War years rolled on where much like a light tank they were highly valued for their ability to move comparatively quickly and get over nearly any terrain examples here include the French AMC Schneider p16 from 1928 the Soviet Union's ba3 from 1937 now that was all well and good but as we just said half tracks although becoming more popular were always something of a sideshow during the inter War years it would take till World War II for them to really come into their own so now let's bring this chapter to a close and move forward all right before we get to World War II let's get something important said and done that will serve as vital later context that being what is it about half tracks that makes them so good anyway the design of half trck Vehicles cleverly merges the advantageous features of both wheeled and track systems in a single platform the use of tracks at the rear of these vehicles enables comparatively excellent traction compared to Pure Wheels particularly in softer more uneven terrains where Wheels might bog down no matter how Big And Chunky this is due to the tracks Distributing the vehicle's weight more evenly across a larger surface area minimizing the ground pressure and thus preventing the vehicle from from sinking into muddy snowy or Sandy ground the front wheels on the other hand provide key benefits in terms of maneuverability and control unlike tracks which can make steering cumbersome and slow particularly on the clunky old track systems of the black and white days Wheels allow for sharper and more responsive turns particularly on firmer surfaces this feature is vital for navigating through mixed terrains where conditions can vary dramatically such as Country Roads which in certain locals can vary between paved and unpaved at the drop of a hat Wheels also generally allow for higher operational speeds on roads making half tracks faster and more efficient on structured paths than fully tracked Vehicles additionally half tracks are typically easier and less costly to maintain than fully tracked Vehicles the complexity associated with tracks is limited to just one part of the vehicle and what's more thanks to that the track mechanism is also significantly smaller than it would be if the vehicle is built with pure tracks which reduces potential points of failure and thus increases reliability moreover the stability offered by the rear tracks also enhances the load carrying capability of half tracks as compared to purely wheeled Vehicles making them more versatile they can effectively transport troops to artillery and serve as platforms for mounting heavy equipment or weapons simple enough right so let's move on and have a look at the half track in World War II many nations had Incorporated half tracks into their militaries come World War II but three nations in particular really went for it the US Germany and France now we won't worry too much about France since they were knocked out of the war early on but here's a quick Blitz of some of their main models just so you have a base understanding of how broadly they used them the 1929 p17 which we have already met of which 1,442 were produced both for the French Belgian and later the German militaries with production continuing during the occupation similarly the 1934 p107 which we've already seen remained in service during the Warriors 3,276 of them were made in all and it doesn't appear as though the Germans continued to produce this one although they did use captured stocks extensively as for the new to us ones they also used the samura MCG from 1938 of which they made 345 there was also the unic tu1 from 1939 which thanks to its late introduction only saw 236 units produced and finally also from 1939 was the samur MCL details about this one are really few and far between and it appears as though no more than 15 have been made before France's surrender as for Germany who we simply must focus in on more depth they utilized a simply dizzying array of half tracks partly the vast and eclectic mix of vehicles was due to inherent inefficiencies of Nazi war production which saw mixed contracts being given out to competing companies left and right rather than simply standardizing on a few individual designs and fine-tuning its industrial apparatus to pump them out on mass but also this was due to their hypers specific military Doctrine which called for super specialized machines for individual your tasks rather than simply pumping out Do-it all machines that were good enough to get the job done of this crazy spread of half tracks we can break them down into two broad categories armored and unarmored sadly due to time constraints we will have to race through the list of unarmored half tracks because it really is a crazy amount there was the sdkfz 10 launched in 1938 it served primarily as a prime mover for light anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns give or take 14,000 of these were made the sdkfz 111 introduced in 1938 this vehicle was mainly used to tow medium artillery like the 10.5 CM Le fh18 Howards around 9,000 of these ones were produced the SD kfz 6 introduced in 1934 used for towing heavier artillery about 3,500 of these were pumped out of factories the SD kfz 7 first introduced in 1938 served as a prime mover for heavy artillery such as the 8.8 CM flat gun roughly 12,000 of these were produced the SD kfz 8 introduced in 1939 this heavy duty vehicle was used to tow very large guns like the 21 cm mors or 18 and around 4,000 of them were made the SD KF said nine pharmo first scene in 1938 it was the largest half drive vehicle used by Germany primarily for recovering heavy equipment and as a heavy artillery tractor somewhere in the region of 2,500 of these beasts were made the multia these modified trucks with half track configurations were developed during the war in 1943 to handle the Russian terrain a little under 21,000 were made the Sha warh schapper s SWS introduced in late 1943 used primarily for towing and as a platform for rocket launchers barely a thousand of these models were produced and around off Germany's unarmored models they also had this mad little thing the SD kfz 2 better known as the krat this halftrack motorbike the only one ever designed that we are aware of was made in 1939 and was intended to be an Airborne artillery tractor one able to squeeze into lfa's gliders but it ended up being used to do everything from cable laying to doing aircraft around airfields come the war's end as for the armored half tracks there were two main models of them that we need to concern ourselves with the sdkfz 251 and 250 the 251 commonly known as the Hanam mag after the company that designed it it was produced for the full length of the war from just before its outbreak in 1939 right the way through to Germany surrender in 1945 primarily it was used to transport Panza grenadiers Germany's mechanized infantry into combat in safety or at least more safety than would be provided by the unarmored SD kfz 11 upon which it was based it's design essentially being an 11's chassis with an armored box plonked on top and a couple of machine gun mounts bolted over the top to allow it to cover deploying infantry it would also be further specialized into many many more subvariants for other tasks with notable examples including the 251 sl9 which came equipped with a 75mm l24 low velocity Cannon poking out of the top on the same sort of pedestal mounting as was found in a stug three assault gun this was not designed to take on tanks as any serious Cannon would have gone through the 251 s's 14.5 mm armor plate like a knife through butter instead it was intended to just lay down some high explosive rounds as the Panza grenadiers deployed taking the heat off them in that vulnerable moment there was also the 25112 an artillery variant which came with six Sid mounted wooden frames able to LA launch either 280 mm or 320 mm Rockets a simple enough idea here as it Advanced it could empty said Rockets into the targeted deployment area thus making the soon to be dropped off infantry's job a lot easier and finally for us but no means finally overall there was also the 25122 this like the 2519 came with a whopping gate Cannon poking out specifically a 75 mm pack 40 anti-tank Cannon but like the nine this was intended to take on tank how you ask exclusively with well set up ambushes and lots of jumping out and running away if said enemy tanks survived and started to turn its turret towards you all in all give or take 15, 251s were made come the war's end across all variants and by most available accounts it was a competent machine that did what was asked of it perfectly well orbe it one that was unnecessarily expensive to produce and maintain thanks to its hideously over complicated overlapping suspension system as for the sdkfz 250 it was very much the 251s little brother being both younger having been produced from 1941 through to the war's end and shorter by 4 ft or so and just like the 251 it was also a normal unarmored half track with the metal blocks plunked on top specifically an SD kfz 10 the similarities didn't stop there either as generally speaking it was also used in the exact same way as it bigger brother just in a cheaper easier to mass produce way it also had the exact same hour value 14.5 mm at its thickest point 6,628 250s were produced in total and once again it also had its fair share of subvariant for specific roles with notable examples being the 25011 which sported a 28mm Panza Bush sir 41 anti-tank gun when it comes to the US however mercifully their roster of half tracks was much more streamlined with there only being two major models that we need to concern ourselves with the M2 and the M3 the former one was initially designed as an armored vehicle that could support both reconnaissance rolls and artillery Towing as well as accommodate a passengers oh and it was called upon for good oldfashioned troop faing although not like the 251 and 250 it was armored against Small Arms fire not tanks as it only sported 12 mm of armor at its thickest point over 13,000 of the M2 and its variants were produced during the war by manufacturers such as the white Motor Company autocar Diamond te Motor Company the vehicle saw extensive service in all major theaters of World War II including North Africa Europe and the Pacific the M2 half track was especially effective in the North African campaign where its mobility and versatility were crucial in the vast desert Landscapes But ultimately the M2 was but a sideshow compared to the M3 which was the American half track of the war and during production in 1941 its development was spurred by the need for Effective tank infantry cooperation lesson starkly highlighted both by the shortcomings of American Tank units during World War I which had often been disperate and disorganized and the catastrophic collapse of the French army during the Nazi invasion which had been caused in no small part by the French Army's inability to act quickly on the Tactical level thanks to its infantry being unable to keep up with its tanks by giving huge swaths of its Army a tank pasted armored box to be fed about and they hope to avoid the same vate befalling them and of course once again not armored against tanks only small stuff blah blah blah or is it2 only sported 12 mm of armor at its thickest the M2 was also designed with this in mind but it was far too small to be properly effective as squads would have to be divided up across multiple m2s but the M3 which was able to fit 12 men in the back yes that was what is about deploying a full Squad of men in one go all of whom had just been told by their Sergeant exactly what they were going to be doing when they jumped out little details like that make a big deal in war and naturally the M3 also had its fair share of weird and wacky varians to increase its utility with notable examples being the t48 which sported a 57mm M1 anti-tank Cannon and the M16 which had four m250 Cals on the back for short range anti-air duties the brass for their part couldn't have been more pleased with the M3 which they by and large considered an absolute Gods end this attitude is best reflected in its production figures 65,000 units in total so yeah it's fair to say that while it never fully replaced the good oldfashioned wheel truck in World War II it was still a big deal alas though all good things must come to an end and the half track is no different the inic utility of the half track that we discussed a couple of chapters back still remained of course but two things had happened that by and large made them surpless to requirements remember the crap steering of pure track vehicles that we discussed earlier yeah that wasn't really a thing anymore thanks to improving technology and secondly the fact that the world wasn't locked in an allout Total War for Survival anymore meant that militaries could Splurge a bit and treat themselves to Pure track vehicles more regularly since they'd be buying less of them this led to the ends of the half track in the personnel carrier red its main stay in favor of vehicles such as the American m113 the British fv432 and the Soviet mtlb with it losing its leading role all of those other secondary variants and roles went with it although note this is only a general Ru and of course specific conditions existed in different militaries that deviated from this General trend for example the half track clung in there for a while longer with certain militaries with the M2 remaining in service in Argentina until 2006 the M3 with is Israel until 2008 and the 251 with Czechoslovakia until 1989 but in real terms they were gone and replaced come the mid Cold War these exceptions just being little historical quirks and flukes here and there and just to finish on a real exceptional note there was even an attempt to revive the half track in the 1990s with the bxo amphibious half track a joint collaboration between Finland and of all places lonstein but alas nothing came of this effort [Music]

Channel: Megaprojects

Views: 504,248

Keywords: m9 half track, the tank museum, second world war, tank museum, military tank, armour, bovington tank museum, armor, tanks, ww2 tanks, world war 2, world of tanks, war, tank, world war

Id: IdP-kww8pso

Length: 21min 43sec (1303 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 12 2024