At the beginning of World War Two the US Army had only 10,000 vehicles of all kinds. By the end of the world war they had a bewildering variety of different motor vehicles. This one is the T-17 unarmored halftrack, made by Autocar. It was very similar to the armored halftracks in US Army service. Few if any of these vehicles were shipped overseas for US Army use, but they were supplied to the USSR.
The unarmored halftrack concept was intended to be used as a truck in cross country transport, but with the halftrack back end it had better cross country and mud, sand, snow performance than most trucks. The US Army 6x6 truck was so good that the need for the halftrack was not considered great enough to warrant sending them overseas. They were used in the US for training and other purposes, since armor was not necessary.
All the vehicles in the photos session are from Bill, Jr.s' Custom Military Models. They are handmade resin models in HO 1/87th scale. This truck is designed for towing heavy trailers by the US Army in WWII. The U7144T was used to tow 10 ton trailers.
The M10 and M36 series of tank destroyers was very popular in WWII with the US Army. Their reliability, good speed and hard hitting guns were well liked. Their only problem was the hull armor was not very thick. As a shortage of hulls developed the Sherman tank hull was substituted for a while. This was the result, the M36B1.
The M36B1 with a late mid production M4A3 Sherman medium tank. This was one of the most common Sherman tanks used in WWII after Normandy by the US Army. These tanks were all on my workbench today. You can get them on line from Bill, Jr. He accepts Pay Pal and USPS money orders. Each item is produced individually in resin.
2 comments:
My favorite WWII statistic:
In 1940 the US Army had 12,000 motor vehicles of all types. No Jeeps [not yet invented]. In 1945
they had produced 650,000 jeeps. This is why the Allies won WWII. The Axis powers could not out produce us.
Jim
How much space does 650,000 HO scale Jeeps take up?
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