World War 2 In Review: command half-track

Half-Track Personnel Carrier M3.

Half-Track Car M2E6.

Half-tracks ford a stream during training.

Half-Track Car M2A1 with winch.

Half-track during maneuvers in the California desert. Note the camouflage pattern on the vehicle’s sides.

Half-track during training.

M3A1 Half-Track in Normandy from an armored infantry battalion and, with radio fitted, appears to be a platoon commander’s vehicle. It has a pintle-mounted .50 cal. Browning machine gun forward, and a .30 cal. machine gun to the right. Frame welded at the rear carries the crew’s bedding rolls and packs.

This fine view shows all the strapping detail on the canvas cover. These are mortar carrier half-tracks with side ammunitioning doors. The extension on the top of the canvas cover is to clear the mortar barrel. Note the double stencil in yellow and white on the hood of the second vehicle.

81mm Mortar Carrier M4A1, modified by 41st Armored Infantry Battalion, 2nd Armored Division, so that the mortar fired forward (the standard vehicle had the mortar firing towards the rear), England, 12 April 1944.

81mm Mortar Carrier M21.

Customized M3 command half-track used by Maj. Gen. George S. Patton, 1st Armored Corps, Desert Training Center, U.S.A., 1942.

M3A1 Half-Track.

M3 Half-Track interior with .30 caliber Browning air-cooled machine gun on an M25 truck pedestal.

81mm Mortar Carrier M4 with rear door closed and mortar at lowest elevation.

M3A1 Half-Track interior.

81mm Mortar Carrier M4 from rear showing mortar, shell stowage, seats and fuel tanks.

M3A1 Half-track “Bellevue,” B Company, 93rd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (Mechanized) attached to 13th Armored Division, Germany spring 1945.

M2 Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) followed by M3 Gun Motor Carriage.

M3 Half-Track, “Bobbin Boy,” missing its right-hand track, Desert Training Center, California.

M3 Half-Track, Company A, 41st Armored Infantry, 2nd Armored Division, Converse, Louisiana, September 1941.

Disabled half-track on the outskirts of Sibret, Belgium, 19th Battalion, 9th Armored Division, 27 December 1944.

M3 (Winch) Half-Track rebuilt with M49 ring mount and pulpit, carrying a light machine gun squad, 61st Armored Infantry Battalion, Germany, 17 April 1945.

Removing winter whitewash from a half-track, 489th AAA Battalion. The illustration on the vehicle’s side is the unit’s unauthorized insignia.

Half-Track Car T1E1.

Half-Track Car T1E2.

M3 Half-Track interior.

The crew of an M3A1 Half-track relax in an English field before the invasion. From left to right: Cpl. John Hartlage, Cpl. Edward L. Smith and Pvt. George Roberts. Cpl. Smith wears shoes with studded soles, which was rare in the U.S. Army in 1944. Note the vehicle has been fitted with deep wading equipment. June 1944.

Infantryman with M1 Garand rifle in half-track, Fort Knox, Kentucky, June 1942.

Another view of infantryman with M1 Garand rifle in half-track, Fort Knox, Kentucky, June 1942.

American infantry and armor in a town in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge, January 1945.

M15 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage.

M15 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage, Battery A, 467th AAA Bn. (SP), Bastogne, 27 December 1944.

The crew of a Multiple Gun Motor Carriage M16 watch C-47s carrying supplies to surrounded U.S. troops in Bastogne.

M3 half-track, 540th Engineers, 36th Infantry Division, towing a 57mm anti-tank gun, landing at San Raphael, southern France, August 1944.

Jeep, trucks and a half-track moving up a muddy road in the Hürtgen Forest near Vossenack, Germany.

Half-track towing a 37mm anti-tank gun across an Algerian beach.

M2A1 half-track, 495th Field Artillery, 12th Armored Division, disabled by a German mine, Bining, France, 12 October 1944.

M2 half-track with extra stowage bin on rear, on scout duty, Venafro, Italy, December 1943.

M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriages.

M2A1 half-track with winch, C Company, 61st Armored Infantry Battalion, 10th Armored Division, with its squad dismounted for action near Bubenorbis, Germany, 17 April 1945.

M2A1 half-track, Headquarters, X Corps, near Thionville, France, 12 January 1945.

Same M2A1 half-track, in official winter scheme of whitewash with small bands of olive drab showing through.

M3A1 Half-track with M49 pulpit mount, “Daring,” D Company, 1st Battalion, 41st Armored Infantry Regiment, 2nd Armored Division, Cantigny, France, 31 August 1944.

Half-track, Seventh Army, outside Mergentheim, France.

M3A1 Half-track, “Baby Bastard No. 1,” infantry anti-tank squad, 14th Armored Division, passing burned out M4A3(76mm)W medium tank knocked out by German Tiger tanks, Barr, Alsace, France, 29 November 1944. Body of dead tank commander in turret hatch.

M3A1 half-tracks, 44th Armored Infantry Battalion, 6th Armored Division, near Mageret, Belgium, 20 January 1945.

Officers of the 1st Armored Division during a briefing alongside a command half-track during an exercise in Northern Ireland.

Half-tracks of 9th Armored Division, 1st U.S. Army, move through Engers, Germany. Town was heavily mined and caution in approach with armor was necessary. 27 March 1945.

M3A1 half-tracks, 23rd Armored Engineers, 3rd Armored Division, with an M36 gun motor carriage, Duren, Germany, 26 February 1945.

M3A1 Half-track of the 17th Armored Engineer Battalion, 2nd Armored Division, comes ashore at Utah beach on 9 June 1944.

Anti-aircraft artillery half-track unit on the alert at Anzio.

443rd Coast Artillery Regiment AAA on Autocar T28E1 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage with 37mm automatic cannon and two .50 cal. water cooled machine guns, Tunisia, North Africa, 1942-43. The T28E1 was standardized as the M15 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage.

T28E1 multiple gun motor carriage half-track, 443rd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion, airfield defense, St. Raphael, southern France, 17 August 1944.

M15 MGMC half-track disembarks from LCT-1144 behind an M8 scout car, southern France, 15 August 1944. This was the standardized version of the T28E1 which featured an armored shield surrounding the weapon and air-cooled instead of water-cooled .50-caliber machine guns.

M15A1 MGMC half-track, 2nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion, Machinato, Okinawa, 12 June 1945.

M15 MGMC, 712th Armored, 90th Infantry Division, on the heights of the old chateau at Chateau Thierry, August 1944.

M16 Gun Motor Carriage, 447th AAA Battalion, battle of the Bulge, near Neufchateau, January 1945.

M16 MGMC, 3rd Armored Division, Waldweisse, Lorraine, late 1944.

M16 MGMC half-tracks guard the Remagen bridge.

Multiple Gun Motor Carriage M16 half-tracks protecting the Remagen bridgehead from aerial attack.

First Army 482d AAA AW Bn (SP) at the Remagen Bridge over the Rhine River, circa March 1945. Vehicles appear to be half-track M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriages, each with 4 .50 cal. machine guns.

Mortar Carrier M21, an 81mm mortar mounted in the back of a half-track.

Half-track Personnel Carrier M3. The rear driving axle is illustrated in this picture.

M2 half-track, “Rough Rider II,” modified with the addition of the 37mm gun mount from an M6 gun motor carriage (those vehicles being converted back to standard ¾-ton trucks), 41st Armored Infantry Battalion, 2nd Armored Division, England, 12 April 1944.

M15 Multiple Gun Carriage half-track, camouflaged, with 37mm gun and revolving turret, awaiting shipment overseas, 27 May 1943. This vehicle accompanied the 45th Division when it sailed from Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation, Newport News, VA, early in June 1943 for service in Africa, Sicily and Italy. Possible second unit at right.

M15 Combination Gun Motor Carriage.

The crew of a Multiple Gun Motor Carriage M16 waiting to fire on an enemy plane as vapor trails fill the sky. On 23 December the weather cleared sufficiently for planes of the Eighth and Ninth U.S. Air Forces and the British Bomber Command to begin a large-scale aerial assault on German positions and installations. The German planes which were sent up in greater strength than at any other time since the invasion were no match for the Allies.

The 1st Battalion of the U.S. 26th Infantry Regiment passing through the railway viaduct north of Bütgenbach, Belgium, on the Monschauer St. (N647) towards Bütgenbach. The railway viaduct was part of the line running from Losheim/Eifel (Germany) to Trois-Ponts, Belgium, and had been blown up by the retreating German troops.

German prisoners march to rear as Americans move forward. Private Frank Kolly (center), military policeman of the Third U.S. Army’s Fourth Armored Division, leads a group of German prisoners to the rear as an American half-track rolls forward towards Bastogne. December 1944.

An abandoned M3 half-track captured used by German troops in Tunisia, May 1943.

BC-654 radio mounted in an M2 Half-track.

M2 Half-track towing M1897 75mm gun, Tennessee maneuvers, June 1941.

M2 Half-track, Alaska, 1942.

Captured M3 Half-track in service with German Army, northern France, 21 June 1944.

French Army M3 half-track between Recogne and Cobru.

Infantryman with half-track. A young soldier of the armored forces holds and sights his Garand rifle like an old timer, Fort Knox, Kentucky. He likes the piece for its fine firing qualities and its rugged, dependable mechanism.

Infantryman with half-track, a young soldier of the armed forces, holds and sights his Garand rifle like an old timer, Fort Knox, Kentucky. He likes the piece for its fine firing qualities and its rugged, dependable mechanism. June 1942.

Column of M3 Half-tracks destroyed at Villers-Bocage, France, June 1944.

M2 Radio Half-track, with generator on trailer, from the 146th Armored Signal Company, 3rd Armored Division, using newly built ponton bridge to cross the See River, Normandy, France, 31 July 1944. Other vehicles, jeeps and trucks, in background.

M2 Half-track of the 22nd Infantry, 4th Division (Motorized), during training maneuvers, 16 October 1941.

Captured M3 Half-track Personnel Carrier in German Army service, pulling a captured American trailer, following a PzKpfw VI “Tiger I,” Tunisia, January 1943.

U.S. Army vehicles roll ashore on one of the floating causeways of the Mulberry artificial harbor off Omaha Beach, 16 June 1944. The causeway had been erected by U.S. Navy Seabees. M3A1 half-track in the lead, towing a howitzer.

M2A1 Half-track of an anti-tank squad, 41st Armored Infantry, towing a 57mm anti-tank gun, Aachen, 15 October 1944. The squad is unlimbering the antitank gun to prepare for action.

Half-track used by 1st Armored Division Commander, Major General Bruce R. Magruder, on railroad flat car, Rock Hill, South Carolina, 1941. General Magruder was commander from July 1940 to March 1942. The photo is probably related to 1st Armored Div. participation in First Army Carolina Maneuvers at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, beginning 30 October 1941. Moving the division from Camp Polk, Louisiana, to Rock Hill in late October took the cooperation of 15 southern railroads.

57mm Anti-tank Guns being towed in a parade by M3 half-tracks, 34th Division, Rabat, Morocco, 4 July 1943. Units in Morocco in 1943 were refitted with the 57mm gun in preparation for Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. The Dodge WC62 (or WC63 with winch) 1½- ton 6x6 was the designated prime mover for the 57mm gun, but were not yet available in Morocco.

M15 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage in foreground along with the tightly packed men and vehicles of an anti-aircraft artillery battalion, aboard a U.S. Navy landing craft in an English port, just prior to invasion of Normandy, France, 6 June 1944.

Two DUKW amphibious cargo trucks lashed together to transport an M2 Half-track. This expedient was used by U.S. Army and USMC DUKW units when no other method was available to get half-tracks, trucks, or other vehicles to shore.

U.S. Army soldiers in an M2 Half-track, Pont Brocard, France, 28 July 1944. The soldiers from the 41st Armored Infantry Regiment, 2nd Armored Division, are wearing camouflage uniforms (Jacket, HBT, Camouflage, Army) that were quickly abandoned due to similarity to German uniforms.

Troops leaving an LCVP to wade ashore to the Normandy beach on D-Day, 6 June 1944. Half-tracks and 2½-ton DUKW amphibian trucks are already on the beach, and in the background men march in columns southward toward the bluffs.

A German civilian, waving a white flag in surrender, comes toward a M3 Half-track of the 10th Armored Division, Seventh Army, which is about to enter Geisselhardt, Germany, 21 April 1945.

M2 Half-track being loaded into hold of ship, Pier 2, Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation, Newport News, Virginia, 27 May 1943. Vehicle is sailing with 45th Division for service in Africa, Sicily and Italy.

M3 Half-track, Troop C, 113th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, hailed as liberators, September 1944.

M15 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage (MGMC) half-track providing cover on the beach in southern France, Operation Dragoon, 15 August 1944.

A new M4 Medium Tank and an M3 Half-track practice coordination of activities in the school for the armored forces at Fort Knox, Kentucky, July 1942. This M4, with its strong welded hull and superior firepower, is welcomed by the tankers who man it as a notable addition to our fighting equipment.

M2 Half-track, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. 1941.

2nd Armored Division M4 Half-track 81mm Mortar Carrier, April 1942.

M4A1 Half-track 81mm Mortar Carrier, near Overloon, Holland, October 1944.

Ninth Army half-track passes dead German Army officer, 1945.

M3 75mm Gun Motor Carriage, 1st Marine Special Weapons Battalion, disembarking from an LCM, Cape Gloucester, December 1943.

M3 75mm Gun Motor Carriage, Solomons.

M3 Gun Motor Carriage.

M3 Gun Motor Carriages in British service.

75mm M3 GMC half-track.

M3 75mm gun motor carriage half-track, Special Weapons Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, Tinian, 30 July 1944.

The M3 gun motor carriage with 75mm gun.

The crew of this 75mm M3 gun motor carriage are wearing the 1941 twill summer combat dress with full equipment.

75mm Gun Motor Carriage T12.

M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage.

75mm Gun Motor Carriage T12, Army maneuvers, fall 1941.

75mm Gun Motor Carriage M3.

75mm Gun Motor Carriage M3, North Africa. Camouflaged with mud.

75mm Gun Motor Carriage M3.

Crew with M3 Gun Motor Carriage.

75 mm Gun Motor Carriage M3.

M3 75mm Gun Motor Carriage, with front and side-door screens raised.

M3 Half-track with mounted 75mm field gun, known as T12 in this configuration, later standardized as the M3 Gun Motor Carriage, during a training exercise in England, 28 October 1942.

The second version authorized Tank Destroyer Forces patch with four wheels.

A woven or twill variation of the original approved design with eight wheels.

Officer’s Tank Destroyer branch of service lapel device, depicting the M3 half-track.

Enlisted men’s Tank Destroyer branch of service lapel insignia.

A qualification badge for 1st Class Gunner for Tank Destroyer 37mm.

Two M3 half-tracks mounting 75mm guns of the King’s Dragoon Guards, 7 May 1944.

Men and equipment, including M3 GMCs, on Tinian beach, 1944.

M2 Half-Track.

M2A1 Half-Track.

M3A1 Half-Track towing 37 mm anti-tank gun.

M3A1 Half-Track.

M3A2 Half-Track interior.

M3A1 Half-Track with one .50 caliber and two .30 caliber machine guns with shields.

M4 81mm Mortar Carrier.

M13 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage, Battle of the Bulge.

M15A1 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage.

M21 81mm Mortar Carrier.

M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage.

57mm Gun Motor Carriage T48.

Interior of an M3 Half-Track during training exercises at Fort Knox, Kentucky, June 1942.

An M3 Half-Track carrying the flag of a medical unit fords a river. Photo taken during the Second Army’s Middle Tennessee maneuvers in 1942. A second half-track can be partially seen in the brush, upper left.

Engineers built this ponton bridge over the Seine River, providing a crossing for the M3 Half-tracks of the 36th Armored Infantry Regiment, France, 26 Aug 1944. They are crossing the river directly behind the tanks of the 3rd Armored Division.

‘Cochrane,’ an M3 Half-Track of C Company, 82nd Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Armored Division in the streets of Ribera, Sicily, 25 July 1943. Doing security patrol.

Convoy of jeeps passing another convoy, including a half-track and a WC-51, moving in opposite direction, circa 1943.

M3 75mm Gun Motor Carriages, airbase security, North Africa.

M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage, Normandy, France, July 1944. The M16 is built on the M3 Half-Track as a platform for Quad .50 cal. anti-aircraft machine guns, consisting of four M2 HB .50 cal. machine guns in an electrically powered turret. This vehicle was a weapon of an anti-aircraft artillery unit, but the lack of enemy air activity in Normandy made possible its use in other roles.

M16 Gun Motor Carriage, Half-track in Normandy, France, July 1944. The M16 is built on the M3 Half-track as a platform for Quad-50 antiaircraft machine guns, consisting of four M2 HB .50 cal. machine guns in an electrically powered turret. This vehicle was a weapon of an antiaircraft artillery unit, but the lack of enemy air activity in Normandy made possible its use in other roles.

M3 Gun Motor Carriage, a mobile tank destroyer based on the White M3 Half-track with a mounted M1897 or M2 75mm field gun, firing at a tank in a training exercise at Ft. Meade, Maryland, 1941.

President Harry S. Truman reviews the 2nd Armored Division, deployed along the autobahn leading from Potsdam to Berlin, Germany, 16 July 1945, while attending the Potsdam Conference.

LCTs loaded with U.S. Army half-tracks and other armored vehicles at an embarkation point in England, on their way to France for the D-Day invasion, 6 June 1944.

Half-tracks stockpiled for the D-Day invasion, Ashchurch Ordnance Depot, England, 1944.

M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage with Quad .50 cal. anti-aircraft machine gun mounting.

M2 Half-track with machine gun and rifles with fixed bayonets, circa 1941. With the M2 Half-track, the machine gun is mounted on a skate rail that circles the rear compartment.

A half-track uses the floating causeway of the Mulberry artificial harbor off Omaha Beach, during the invasion of Normandy, France, 16 June 1944.

G Company, 1st Armored Regiment, 1st Armored Division. M4A1 Sherman medium tank, recovers an M3 Half-track mired in sand near Sidi-bou-Zid, central Tunisia, 14 February 1943.

Half-track personnel carrier M3, mounting a .30-caliber machine gun parked at base of hill, its machine gun trained on a hillside target, Bougainville, circa 1944. This vehicle was used to bring men and supplies to the fighting lines and had seating capacity for thirteen men. The roller in front assisted in climbing out of ditches.

White M3 Half-track leads a Dodge WC ½-ton open cab pickup truck and another half-track through a bridge bypass during Louisiana Maneuvers, September 1941.

M2 Half-track, 14th Field Artillery, September 1941 maneuvers, Louisiana. Close-up of half-track seen in previous photo.

Weapons Platoon, B Company, 8th Infantry Regiment, M3 Half-track Personnel Carrier, Fort Benning, Georgia, 17 July 1941.

Half-track Scout Car on White Motor Company, Cleveland, Ohio, assembly line, 6 June 1941.

Chassis of the White Half-track Scout Car powered by the White Power Engine, June 1941.

M2 or M3 Half-tracks completing manufacturing and assembly, White Motor Company, Cleveland, Ohio, 1941.

M2 Half-tracks, ready for final testing at the factory of the White Motor Company, Cleveland, Ohio, December 1941.

M2 Half-tracks ready for delivery to the US Army (except for installation of certain pieces of Army equipment), White Motor Company, Cleveland, Ohio, December 1941. W-4013362 is the hood number of the second vehicle, in the range for White M2 production. Embossed name of Tulsa Winch Company is visible.

M2 Half-track going down an embankment, First Army Carolina Maneuvers, November 1941.

M2 Personnel Carrier with .50 cal. anti-aircraft machine gun and two water-cooled .30 cal. machine guns (rear).

M2 Half-tracks, 14th Engineer Battalion, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

601st Tank Destroyer Battalion officers (Capt. Paulick and 1st Lt. Gioia) confer in front of an M2A1 command half-track, near El Guettar, central Tunisia, 23 March 1943. Several jeeps are nearby and behind them is an M3 75mm Gun Motor Carriage.

An American 57mm anti-tank gun and crew, with their M2 Half-track, rolls past the shell-pocked village church at Villeidieu les-Poeles, Normandy, France, 1 August 1944.

U.S. Army half-tracks arriving at a British Port for transportation to France, 6 June 1944. Lead vehicle is an M15 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage, followed by M3 and M2 half-tracks.

M2 Half-track joins with M3 Lee medium tanks on maneuvers, April 1942.

M2 Personnel Carrier at Raritan Arsenal, 23 June 1941.

Willys MA prototype jeep and an M2 Half-track in a demonstration of capability, probably Washington, D.C., 1941.

M3 Half-tracks stored in England prior to D-Day, circa 1944.

Camouflaged M3 Half-track, Tennessee Maneuvers, 29 September 1942.

A pair of T19 Howitzer Motor Carriage (HMC) vehicles, a mobile tank destroyer based on the White M3 Half-track with a mounted 105mm howitzer, Rabat, Morocco, 19 December 1942. General George Patton Jr. is in the reviewing stand, along with French Gen. Charles Nogues. This event is described in Patton’s book, War as I Knew It.

Members of an American armored unit being briefed at a marshaling area in England, prior to the D-Day invasion of France, circa June 1944. At the conclusion of the training exercises in May all the assault, follow-up, and build-up troops moved from their camps to marshaling areas for final staging.

M3 Half-track ambulance, jeeps and other vehicles from a medical unit attached to an armored division, ETO.

Military traffic ties up Highway 10, 3 miles east of Lebanon, TN, Second Army Tennessee maneuvers, 28 October 1942. Jeeps, M3 Half-track, trucks.

M2 Half-track from IV Armored Corps headquarters unit, Desert Training Center, 1942.

11th Armored Division half-tracks massed on the outskirts of Bastogne, Belgium, circa 30 December 1944.

West Point first classmen watch a demonstration of a half-track armored car, during the annual visit, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, 16 May 1941.

Second Armored Division ‘blue’ soldiers hook a 37mm antitank gun to an M3 half-track during maneuvers in the Carolinas, August 1942.

M3 half-track tows a 3-inch antitank gun, St. Malo, Brittany, France, August 1944.

Tank destroyer column moving along Cow House Creek, Camp Hood, Texas, early in World War II.

Camouflaged troops repel attack on M3 half-track carrying an x-ray portable field unit in a simulated battle test, Mitchel Field, Long Island, NY, 1943. The x-ray unit is set up in battlefront areas in a specially constructed dark-room tent. The half-track could be M2 or M3.

SCR-299 Long-Range Radio Set mounted in M3 Half-track. Trailer was usually carrying a power generator for the SCR-299.

M15A1 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage is delivered to the beach from an LCT, during invasion force training, England, circa late April to early May 1944. The M15 MGMC was a highly mobile weapon, capable of a concentration of rapid fire, and designed for antiaircraft defense.

M15 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage half-track, showing the enclosed gun turret with 37mm gun and .50 cal. machine guns, circa July 1944. The name BLIP II refers to another half-track BLIP I mentioned in a dispatch by Ernie Pyle.

M15 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage (GMC) antiaircraft half-track near San Pietro Infine, Italy, winter 1943-44.

Loading the 37mm gun of an M15 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage (half-track), Germany, circa 1945.

M16 Gun Motor Carriage, Half-track (left) and 40mm AAA team up against a ground target inside Germany, 1945.

President Harry S. Truman walks with the Commanding Officer of the 46th AAA Bn, followed by Brig. Gen. Doyle O. Hickey, Commanding General, 3rd Armored Div, passing a row of M16 Half-track Multiple Gun Carriages, Neuisenberg, Germany, 26 July 1945.

105mm Howitzer Motor Carriage T19.

Soldiers man M16 Gun Motor Carriage, Half-track, Versailles, France, August 1944. Men are identified as PFC Marlan Hunt and PFC Raymond Ray, C Battery, 462nd AAA Bn, 2nd Infantry Division.

Camouflaged M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage (half-track) mounting four .50-caliber machine guns in Maxson turret, Anzio beachhead, January 1944.

A line-up of T19 HMCs of the 9th Field Artillery at Newport News, Virginia, 20 October 1942 during World War II. These units were part of Task Force A, en route to North Africa.

Half-tracks and other vehicles of British 142nd RAC following Churchill tanks into Forli, Italy.

American half-tracks of a British unit move across a ponton bridge in France while engineers finish their work on the bridge and some locals watch. A member of the local resistance is in the center foreground (note his armband).

M9 half-track, towing 17-pdr. gun, of an Indian Division, British Eighth Army, during their attack on the Gustav Line, near the Liri River, Italy, 12 May 1944.

T19 Howitzer Motor Carriage (HMC), an M3 Half-track with 105mm Howitzer.

M3 75mm Gun Motor Carriage half-track, 1st (King’s) Dragoon Guards, near Montecero, Italy, 1944.

Chinese troops dismount from an M3 half-track, 1st Regiment, 5332nd Brigade, Kabani, Burma, 11 January 1945.

An LCT lands a T19 Howitzer Motor Carriage (105mm) half-track at Licata Beach, Sicily, 10 July 1943. The LCT had been loaded in North Africa, carrying out a shore-to-shore operation across the Mediterranean Sea.

M3 Half-tracks stockpiled for the D-Day invasion, England, 1944.

Secretary of War Henry Stimson inspects the 2nd Armored Division in Berlin, Germany during the Potsdam Conference, 20 July 1945. Left to right in the M3 Half-track reviewing party: Major General Floyd Parks, General George S. Patton, Jr., Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy, Secretary Stimson, Special Assistant to the Secretary of War Harvey H. Bundy, and Brigadier General John H. Collier.

Shipment of M2 Half-tracks on railroad flat cars, early in World War II.

75mm Gun Motor Carriages M3 at Camp Hood, Texas.

Two M8 Greyhound Light Armored Cars of the 92nd Cavalry Reconnaissance squadron Mechanized, 12th Armored Division, along with an M3A1 half-track, at a captured bunker along the Maginot Line, near Guising, France, 13 December 1944.

Rows of armored vehicles (M4 tanks, M3 half-tracks, LVTs) at an Ordnance Depot, England, circa 1944. Vehicles arrived from the US with about 500 items of accessory equipment, including small arms, radio, tools, gun sights, and other incidentals, packed in waterproofed containers; many were coated with a rust-preventive compound.

M3 Half-track which has been converted into an ambulance, Camp Young, California, 6 November 1942.

Secretary of War Henry Stimson inspects the 2nd Armored Division in Berlin during the Potsdam Conference, 20 July 1945. M4 Sherman tanks on the left, M3 Half-tracks and jeeps carrying the officials.

Vehicles of Co. A, 801st Tank Destroyer Battalion, pass through Montebourg, France, 21 July 1944. An M20 Armored Car is to the left, a jeep and ¾- ton weapons carrier are toward the right side, and an M3 Half-track towing a 3-inch antitank gun is in the foreground.

Soldiers of the 3rd Army Engineers fire an M1917 .30 cal. water-cooled machine gun from the rear of an M2 half-track during maneuvers in Louisiana, 23 August 1942.

M2 Half-track guarding a crossroads, Carolina Maneuvers, July 1942.

M2 Half-track and a slat-grill Willys MB jeep near the St. Leu, Algeria, landing area, circa 8 November 1942.

Interior of M2 Half-track, equipped with radio sets SCR-193 (long range, right) and SCR-510 (short range, left), Northern Ireland, 6 July 1942.

U.S. Army troops and vehicles engage in rehearsals for the Normandy invasion on the beach near Slapton Sands, England, spring 1944. Vehicles nearest the camera include a half-track (serial number “4020899-S”) and an M4 Sherman DD tank with deep water fording equipment. USS LCT 201 is partially visible at left.

American 9th Infantry Division troops with M2 Half-track and jeeps along the Bizerte beach shortly after the port fell, May 1943. Bizerte had been without running water for three months; typhus was present and cholera threatened.

A half-track and tank of 2nd Battalion, 32nd Regiment, 3rd Armored Division, fire at German positions near Trou-De-Bra, Belgium, 1944.

Half-track on a ponton bridge under construction.

U.S. Army M3 Half-track, towing a fuel or water trailer, rolls off a LCT onto a Rhino (RHF) ferry, en route to a Normandy beach, 15 June 1944. Note bollards in use as elevated standing positions.

An M3 GMC goes into action against Japanese pillboxes on Peleliu, in the Palau group of the Caroline Islands, September 1944.

13th Armored Regiment, 1st Armored Division, M2/M3 Half-track crew use machine guns and a Thompson SMG against attacking aircraft during First Army maneuvers, at a bridge on Route 1 near Bethune, South Carolina, fall 1941.

Track maintenance on an M3 Half-track of the 9th Armored Division, circa 1944.

M16 Gun Motor Carriage. Four M2 .50 cal. machine guns on a motorized mount were used for air defense.

Crowds of French patriots line the Champs Elysees to view Free French tanks and half-tracks of General Leclerc’s 2nd Armored Division passing through the Arc du Triomphe, after Paris was liberated on 26 August 1944.

T30 Howitzer Motor Carriage.

M2 Half-tracks towing 75mm Guns M1897, Tennessee Maneuvers, June 1941.

M2 Half-track towing 75mm Gun M1897, Tennessee Maneuvers, June 1941.

Men of the 10th Highland Light Infantry advance past Half-tracks and Sherman Crab flail tanks of 15th (Scottish) Division during Operation Epsom, 26 June 1944.

M2 Half-track towing 75mm Gun M1897, Tennessee Maneuvers, June 1941.

Half-track towing a 3-inch tank destroyer.

A Half-track and 6-pdr anti-tank gun coming ashore from landing craft at Reggio, 3 September 1943.

Crew of M13 MGMC observing artillery fire on Cassino, Italy, 5 February 1944.

M3A1 Half-track and an infantry squad displaying a range of weaponry, from the M1 Garand to a BAR and .30 and .50 cal. machine guns.

M2A1 Half-track mounting the triple tube 4.5 inch rocket launchers usually seen fitted under the wings of P-47s and P-51s, Bengal Air Depot, India.

The crew of an M16 MGMC examine an abandoned 7.3 cm “Föhn” Multiple Rocket Launcher near Erpel, Germany. March 1945. The weapon was used for anti-aircraft barrages and to contest river crossings (Erpel being on the East bank of the Rhine opposite Remagen).

Soldiers of the 53rd Armored Infantry Battalion strip parts of a knocked out American half-track inside the Belgian city of Bastogne on 29 December 1944.

Half-track ambulances fully manned and equipped.

Half-track ambulance fully manned and equipped.

Soldiers of 97th Infantry Division take cover from German snipers during the liberation of Plzen, Czechoslovakia, 6 May 1945. The 97th Infantry Division followed the 16th Armored Division in to the city to assist with its liberation.

M2A1 half-track, “SOS,” 67th Field Artillery Battalion, 3rd Armored Division.

Former slave workers assist British soldiers from 1st Rifle Brigade to clean their half-track, Germany, 26 April 1945.

Marine M3 75mm Gun Motor Carriage on Guam fires across the bay on the Japanese enemy, 25 July 1944.

International Harvester M5 Half-track.

3rd Division M16 Half-tracks move from Zweibrucken to Kaiserslautern where the division command post was established on 23 March 1945.

Captured T28E1 MGMC and trailer in German service, North Africa.

T48 57mm GMC in Soviet service as the SU-57.

194th Tank Battalion HQ half-track, Clark Field, Luzon, Philippine Islands, December 1941.

125th Engineer Battalion, Combat Command A, 14th Armored Division, putting in a bridge across Seltzbach River to allow tanks and half-tracks to continue on a push, Niederrœdern, France, 18 March 1945.

M3 75mm GMC coming ashore on Bougainville, November 1943.

M2 Half-track, 1941.

M3 Half-track with a French anti-aircraft gun in use with the Afrika Korps. Tunisia, 1943.

T19 Half-track armed with a 105 mm cannon, fires in Tunisia during the spring of 1943.

Autocar T12 75mm GMC firing.

M3 75mm GMC crew, regimental heavy weapons company, during the fighting on Saipan.

M3 75mm GMC and M15 MGMC with 37mm gun and twin .50 cal. machine guns of Weapons Company, 7th Marines. These vehicles helped beat back a Japanese counter-attack on Hill 660, New Britain, 1944.

M16 MGMC, 390th AAA AW (SP) Battalion, Saarlouis, Germany, 15 February 1945. Nice view of the M45 Maxson mount. The gunner is not sitting in his seat but on the edge of the rear armor, with a better view and ready to slide back into the turret at a moment’s notice. Note also the vehicle commander keeping an alert watch with his binoculars.

M15A1 MGMC and M16 MGMC, 398th AAA AW (SP) Battalion attached to 14th Armored Division, passing through Mertzwiller, France, 20 January 1945.

Men of the 46th Armored Infantry, 5th Armored Division, pose with their M3 Half-track “Gat” (slang for “gun”).

M15A1 MGMC Half-track crew “in the bucket” near Cherbourg, France. One foot pedal fired the .50 cal. machine guns, another the 37mm gun. The guns could depress no farther than +20° above the cab and 0° for the rest of their traverse.

The crew of an M15A1 MGMC bivouac by their vehicle in the German countryside. Note the rifles leaning against the vehicle.

Men of the 197th AAA AW (SP) Battalion train with their new M15 MGMC at Camp Hueco range in the New Mexico desert northeast of Fort Bliss, spring 1943. The armor gun shield moved in elevation with the weapons, but the turret body was open to the rear.

M15 MGMC. The gun shield was eventually deleted since it obstructed the gun crew’s vision to an unacceptable degree. This half-track is fitted with the double coil spring loaded idler wheel, and the exhaust pipe can be seen in front of the track return roller.

The fuel tanks in the M15 MGMC were relocated to directly behind the cab. Seat cushions were provided on the stowage boxes.

Captured M3A1 Half-track of 111th Panzerbrigade, Lunéville area, mid-September 1944.

Captured M3 Half-track in German service, Alsace, France, autumn 1944.

Knocked out captured M3 Half-track. Note white swastika on vehicle side.

Knocked out captured M3 Half-track in German markings.

A company of M3 GMCs provides fire support in Sicily, summer 1943.

British half-tracks and Universal carriers.

M3 Half-track.

Column of half-tracks move through a French town.

Pushing through the snow-covered countryside, 90th Infantry Division troopers accompany 6th Armored Division half-tracks in pursuit of retreating German forces near Lullange, Luxembourg, following the Battle of the Bulge. February 1945.

T48 57mm GMC, 14 Kompanie, Grenadier Regiment 105, 72.lnfanterie-Division.

U.S. M3A1 scout cars (first two vehicles) followed by U.S. M17 multiple gun motor carriage half-tracks, anti-aircraft unit, 4th Mechanized Corps, Soviet Army, Hungary, 1945.

M3 Halftrack armored cars Fort Knox. Three halftrack armored cars move in formation as soldiers in training at Fort Knox, Kentucky practice some new methods in the art of mechanized warfare. Capable of rapid travel over difficult terrain, these versatile cars have many important uses in an army on the move. June 1942. (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection LC-USE6-D-006148)

Preparing to install non-leaking gasoline tanks on the chassis of a halftrack scout car. The Eastern plant in which the body is made and installed formerly produced locks and safes. Diebold Safe and Lock Company, Canton, Ohio. December 1941. (Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs ID fsa.8b05959)

M2 Halftrack scout cars at Fort Benning. America's irresistible might grows every day. Soldiers of the armored forces training in halftrack scout cars at Fort Benning, Georgia are turning rapidly into hard, smart fighting men. Circa April-June 1942. (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration, Office of War Information Photograph Collection LC-USE6-D-003936)

Halftrack armored cars at Fort Knox. The halftrack armored car has many important duties in our modern mechanized army. It is useful as a carrier of men and equipment, and may be armed in various ways to give it great striking power. This car in use at Fort Knox, Kentucky, by soldiers of the armored forces, is capable of rapid travel over difficult terrain. June 1942. (Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs ID fsa.8b04270)

Halftrack armored cars at Fort Knox. June 1942. (Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs ID fsa.8b09498)

Three M3 Half-tracks of the 6th Armored Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Division, the first armored infantry unit to see action, in an oasis in Tunisia. (US Army)

M15 with Bofors gun. (US Army)

T14 Halftrack car.

American Half-tracks in View