German War Files - Military vehicles and Half Tracks
A half-track is a civilian or military vehicle with regular wheels in front for steering tracks and continues to the rear to propel the vehicle and carrying most of the load The purpose of this association is to produce a vehicle with the cross-country capability of a tank and handling of a wheeled vehicle.
The main advantage of the half-tracks on wheeled vehicles is that the tracks have reduced the pressure on one area of the ground by distributing the weight of the vehicle on a larger area, giving it greater mobility on soft ground as mud and snow, so they do not require complex steering mechanisms of tracked vehicles entirely, based on the place of their front wheels for steering the vehicle, in some cases increased by controlled braking track by the steering wheel.
It is not difficult for someone who can drive a car for a half-track, which is a great advantage on tracked vehicles that require specialized training half-track and facilitate the personnel and equipment moving successfully different terrains.
The main disadvantage is the increased maintenance to maintain the tension of the track, and the reduced life of the tracks to 10,000 km compared to the tires up to 80,000 km.
A car of personal car pool Tsar converted with Kégresse tracks.
The French engineer Adolphe Kégresse converted a number of cars from the personal car pool of the Tsar of Russia to half-tracks in 1911 his system after he was named the Kégresse track which used a flexible strip instead of locking metal segments He applied to several vehicles in the Imperial garage, including Rolls-Royce cars and Packard trucks the Russian army has also equipped the system with a number of their Austin Armored cars from 1916 forward, there was a Russian project by the Putilov factory to produce military halftracks Austin -Putilov model in the same direction, using trucks and French track parts After the Russian Revolution, Kégresse returned to his native France, where we used the system on the Citroën cars between 1921 and 1937 off-road and military vehicles.
A steam newspaper carrier Lombard restored in New Hampshire, USA, in 2008.
The petrol model tractor Holt 75 Caterpillar Later models were produced without the handlebar wheel.
The concept comes from the rise of the balls in the North American, with the Lombard Steam Log Hauler built by Alvin Lombard of Waterville, Maine 1899-1917 The vehicle looked like a locomotive railway steam, with a steering sled or wheels in front and rear, caterpillars driven by chains instead of driving wheels of a locomotive 1.
In 1907, the dog and pony show HH Linn operator abandoned its gas and steam powered four wheel drive and six creations and Lombard was build a motor home traction motor run by a gasoline engine four-cylinder Brennan underslung to browse unimproved roads of the day, front wheels and tracks to the rear of the first halftrack carrying payload in 1909, it was replaced by a smaller machine with two wheels in front and one behind track because rural wooden bridges had problems.
Stability issues and a dispute between Linn and Lombard, to create the leading Linn Linn Manufacturing Company, Linn tractor manufacturer for building and marketing its own improvement civilian machine half-track style Lombard tried follow but, for the most part, remained a machine pulling Linn would record later Haftrak and Catruk as trademarks, the latter for a half-track to convert hydraulic truck to robot configuration.
In the early days of bulldozers, Holt tractors had the steering tricycle, due to technical difficulties with the tracks The first products of the company focused on agricultural machinery and were distributed internationally Also of note are the snowmobile accessories automobiles built by White motor Company, Snowbird and others, to convert fords to Halftrack configuration, which could use skis instead of steering wheels.
Artillery tractors here a Holt tractor used by the French army in 1914-1915.
A Holt tractor towing artillery in a French village in 1916.
During World War II, its production capacity has focused on military needs Its tractors replaced horses and were widely used by the Allies as artillery tractors to transport supplies Holt tractor became the basis of the I mark Schneider CA1 and the German A7V tank Holt Caterpillar 60 will be renamed after the merger with CL Best company of California, in 1925, the Holt Manufacturing company continued to form the company that would become known as the Caterpillar.
Tractors used for towing artillery and drawings with front wheels and tracks in the back began to appear before the outbreak of war, often based on farm machinery such as tractors Holt Basic half-track concept was introduced by the British during the war.
With tractors, the tactical use of heavier weapons to complement the light horse drawn guns have become feasible For example, in the British army, he allowed the heavy guns of the Royal Garrison Artillery to be used flexibly on the battlefield in England, from 1905, David Roberts Sons Richard Hornsby tried to interest the British military authorities in a tracked vehicle, but failed.
Holt purchased the patents related to tractor chain track type of track Richard Hornsby Sons in 1914 2 4000 Unlike the Holt tractor, which had a steerable bar wheel in front of the tracks, the Hornsby robot was directed by the control power to each track 3.
When World War II broke out, the problem of trench warfare and the difficulty of transporting supplies to the front, pulling power tractors crawling drew the attention of the army with tanks arriving on however, the stage, the combination of tracks and wheels seemed impractical when fully followed or six wheels, four-wheel vehicles were available.
The half-track has seen a comeback in the 1930s with the development occurring in many countries that would use them in the Second World War The White Motor Company who designed armored vehicles for the US Army and Marines States United continued after World War II to develop armored cars and additional tracks for the M2 Half Track Car and M3 Half-track.
There were many civilian half-track experiences in the 1920s and 1930s Citroën company has sponsored several scientific expeditions that cross the deserts of North Africa and Central Asia, using their half-track After World War II, the US military wanted to develop a monitoring transport vehicle semi he watched the civilian half tracks in the 1920 US army purchased several Citroën-Kégresse vehicles for evaluation followed by a license to produce it is resulted in the Army Ordnance department building a prototype in 1939 in September 1940, it entered production with the military half-track versions M2 and M3.
With the snow and ice of Canada in mind, Joseph-Armand Bombardier developed 7 and 12 passengers snowmobiles half-track in 1930, starting what would become the industrial conglomerate Bombardier Bombardier vehicle had tracks for powered rear and skis for the direction in front skis could be replaced by wheels in the summer, but this was rare.
The Red Army also experimented with half-tracks such as BA-30, but found them expensive and unreliable.
Although not a feature on vehicles II US World War, management may be assisted by a braking track, controlled by the steering wheel.
US 9 Armored Division halftracks advance in Engers Germany, March 27, 1945.
In America, 43,000 halftracks were produced by three major manufacturers; the most important being the White Motor Company designer of origin, with a total of 15414 accepted by the Ministry of War Other manufacturers, Autocar and Diamond T built 12168 and 12421, respectively These drawings were produced under license in Canada, and have been widely provided as Realsun program with 5000 provided to the USSR only four.
The fourth semi-tracked American-made manufacturer was the division International Truck Motor Corporation of International Harvester IH built about 12,853 half-tracks, which were shipped to Europe for use by British and French troops in 1942, they produced 152 units M5 and M14 units 5 Springfield to work; in 1943, they produced 2026 units, 1407 units M0A1 M9, M5 4473 units, 1600 units M14, M17 and 400 units, all Springfield jobs; in 1944, they produced 1100 units and 1100 units M5A1 M17 also in Springfield work; and in 1945 they built 589 M5A1 and 1 M5A3 Springfield Works units The half-tracks IHC visibly different from the white, diamond T, and AutoCar units in several ways IHC units had wings before flat instead of fender with compound curves; used the International Red Diamond 450 engines instead of Hercules 160AX engines used by other manufacturers; Used IHC Model 1856 4-speed transmission instead of the 4-speed transmissions Spicer used by other manufacturers; IHC had FOK-1370 model axles front instead of front axles Timken used by their competitors; IHC opportunity axles Model HTR-1590 to the back instead of Timken axles used by their competitors; and were built with a fully welded armor back with rounded corners instead of armor bolted with square corners used by three other manufacturers 5.
Allied victory parade August 23, 1944, with IH half-tracks.
In August 1944, Allied forces liberated Paris France The first vehicle to enter the city was an M3 appointed España Cañí and led by Spanish soldiers fighting under the French tricolor There followed several days of parades in late August A parade August 25, 1944 was conducted on the Champs Elysees with Charles de Gaulle leading Parisian crowds, and french soldiers driving IH half-tracks.
A Schützenpanzer 251 German half-track Photo taken in 1942 in Berlin.
Half-tracks were widely used in World War II, especially by the Germans with their 250s to SdKfz SdKfz and 251S and the Americans with their M2s and M3s.
2 a small overlap with the characteristic Schachtellaufwerk roadwheels interleaved.
The Germans used a small 2 places 1 2 ton half-track motorcycle class 2 better known as Kleines Kettenkraftrad HK 101 or Kettenkrad for short Ketten tracks krad military abbreviation of the German word Kraftrad, administrative German term bike to take small artillery, to transport ammunition, general transportation and as a ground to the tow vehicle for the jet fighter Messerschmitt me 262 Built by NSU MOTORENWERKE Neckarsulm Stoewer Werke Stettin a total of 8,345 vehicles were produced between 1940 and 1944.
1-ton class, 10 produced by Demag, Berlin; Adler, Frankfurt am Main; Büssing-NAG, Brunswick; Phänomen Cottbus and Saurer, Vienna, a total of 25,000 vehicles.
Class 3 tons, 11 produced by Hanomag, Adler, and Skoda Auto Union from 1938 to 1944, a total of 25,000 vehicles.
Class 5 tons 6 manufactured by Büssing-NAG, Berlin Oberschönweide; Daimler-Benz and Praga Czechoslovakia, about 3 500 vehicles in total.
Production of Class 7 8 tons was about 12 000 vehicles.
Class 12 tons 8 some 4 000 vehicles were produced by five manufacturers.
Class 18 9 tons a production of only 2,000 vehicles.
Big German half-track tractors were used to tow tank and the largest field artillery pieces were also used by mechanical engineers to get bogged down vehicles or repairs such as engine maintenance Maultier half- tracks used to transport supplies to the units were essentially civilian trucks which had their rear axles replaced by Panzer Panzer I or II chassis.
A common feature of almost every second German half-track World War was the so-called Schachtellaufwerk overlapped arrangement roadwheel interlaced with a soft rail system with no return rollers to as the return of the track used for the small Kettenkrad the capacity of nine tonnes new vehicle, and most famously used on Tiger I and Panther main battle tanks MAN Henschel.
Half-tracks were widely used after World War until the late 1960s, mostly in the form of surplus vehicles half tracks world war would fight with the French army during the First Indochina War and the war in Algeria in the Indo-Pakistani wars and conflicts and wars of the first half-tracks Arab-Israeli conflict have been used by the Israeli army until recently, they were considered to outperform tracked vehicles and fully wheels for tasks of non-combat payload such as the transport of telecommunications equipment.
In March 2008, 600 half-tracks were still officially listed as 6 active duty.
Track_1 German car, German, Springfield Works units, White Motor Company, used their axles.