M2 Half-Tracks
The Army did very little experimenting with mechanizing its infantry prior to 1940. There was a general recognition that motorization was useful, however, and by the mid-1930s some funding was available to purchase trucks for this purpose. But the first vehicle really suited to mechanized infantry, the M3 halftrack, was not introduced into the Army until 1940.
World War II veterans dubbed the unpopular vehicles "Purple Heart Boxes," due to the lack of protection for passengers. The M2 lacked overhead protection from airbursting artillery shells and the armor was considered inadequate against machine gun fire. Originally the M2 was built as an artillery tractor.
Although the development of armored infantry carriers began during the First World War, even during the Second World War only American armored divisions had the whole of their infantry mounted in armored carriers, of the half-track type. Others for the most part, had to make do with trucks. To make matters worse, the trucks were adaptations of medium-size commercial vehicles, ill-suited to off-the-road operation. Armored Infantry was organized within the armored division as a regiment of three battalions. Armored infantry differed from standard and motorized infantry which moved in trucks in that its personnel could move simultaneously in lightly armored half-tracks.
The Armored Infantry Rifle Squad was established in conformity with TOE 2-27 P (Tentative), 16 July 1940. This unit functioned in the maneuvers of 1941 and it consisted of the peace-strength infantry rifle squad of eight members, including the squad leader - a corporal. The squad was, in effect, a standard infantry rifle squad under TOE 7-17, 6 December 1938, mounted in a truck, or later in a half-track armored combat vehicle. Since the M3 halftrack was developed and fielded just prior to WWII, armored personnel carriers (e.g., the M75, M59, M113, and M112632), or APCs as they have come to be known, have been sized to carry a full-sized squad of nine or more soldiers, excluding the vehicle crew. The M3 provided space for a 12-man rifle squad and was designed to improve tactical mobility of infantry troops. Armored Infantry riding in half-tracks could follow and keep up with tanks wherever they traveled, whereas the truck riding motorized infantry were generally relegated to the roads.
The mounting of the standard infantry rifle squad in a combat vehicle posed new problems for those charged with the development of doctrine and tactics for the now highly nobile infantry units which formerly had measured their combat mobility in foot-miles or regulated motor marches. The basic concept that each armored infantry rifle squad should have its own organic yehicle if it was to function in combat asserted itself at this time.
As a result of combat experience, infantry elements in the armored division grew in importance. In the reorganization of 15 September 1943 the regi mental organization was dropped and the separate battalion systems substituted. Under this reorganization, by reducing the number of tank battalions from six to three, the ratio uf infantry battalions was changed from one infantry battalion per two tank battalions, to one infantry battalion per each tank battalion.
The increase in the ratio of infantry to tanks was the result of combat experience plus the development of anti-tank weapons such as the rocket launcher, the anti-tank rifle grenade, the panzer-faust, and the extensive use of mines. The tactics of the armored infantryman were essentially those of the old-time US Mounted Rifleman, or Dragoon, who rode a horse to the battlefield then dismounted and fought on foot as an Infantryman. The company moved forward in vehicles until forced by enemy fire, or unfavorable terrain, to dismount. The armored infantry rifle company normally fought dismounted.
Half-Track Cars and Personnel Carriers were hybrid vehicles, standing midway between trucks and tanks, closer to the former than to the latter. They consisted of lightly armored truck chassis with standard front wheels for steering and track-laying rear drives to give them greater cross-country mobility. When designed primarily as mobile mounts for machine gun or light artillery pieces they were known as gun motor carriages, but, when built primarily for transporting troops or cargo in combat zones, they were called either cars or carriers. The latter were normally armed with one or more machine guns and other small arms and, unlike gun motor carriages, were procured in comparatively large quantities.
The Autocar Company and the White Motor Company turned out some 16,400 halftrack cars of various models. These two concerns, along with the Diamond T Motor Company and the International Harvester Company, produced 22,837 half-track carriers of various models. Ordnance formed a Half-Track Integrating Committee in September 1942 to coordinate the efforts of the four producers. There were many design changes in halftrack vehicles, and frequent changes in requirements, but otherwise half-track production posed no unusual problems for manufacturers or for Ordnance. Total production ran to nearly 41,000 vehicles by one account.
The half-track type consisted of a wheel suspension in the front, and a bogie and track suspension in the rear. The chassis is,essentially the same on all the models with the main differences being in the armor plated body, converting the vehicle to best advantage for its specific duty. The chassis equipped 'with: heavier armament are reinforced with extra frame members to carry the additional load. A roller or winch is mounted on the front end of the frame. The vehicles had doors located at advantageous positions, or side panels which fold down to gain gun depression. The vehicle has front and rear drive and is powered by a six cylinder gasoline engine.
After World War II, some half-tracks got new jobs on U.S. farms, some as lemon carriers. Variants of the vehicle were used during the war in Korea, by the Polish Army and the Israeli forces.
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