Off the bench Dec 24, 2024. The M3 half-track was an American armored personnel carrier half-track widely used by the Allies during World War II and in the Cold War. Derived from the M2 half-track car, the M3 was extensively produced, with about 15,000 standard M3s and more than 38,000 variant units manufactured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The M3 was extensively modified with several dozen variant designs produced for different purposes. During World War II, the M3 and its variants were supplied to the U.S. Army and Marines, as well as British Commonwealth and Soviet Red Army forces, serving on all major fronts throughout the war. The M3 and its variants were produced by many manufacturers including Diamond T, White Motor Company, and Autocar. They were adapted for a wide variety of uses, such as a self-propelled anti-aircraft weapon or self-propelled artillery. Although initially unpopular due to its lack of significant armor or a roof to protect the passengers and crew from shrapnel, it was used by most of the Allies during the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n\n\n\n
Specifications
The M3 half-track was 20 ft 3 in long, 7 ft 3.5 in wide, 7 ft 5 in high. The suspension consists of a leaf spring for the two front wheels, while the rear treads had vertical volute springs. With a fuel capacity of 60 US gallons, the M3 could carry its crew (one driver) and a squad of 12 soldiers 220 miles before refueling, while protecting them from small arms with light armor. The vehicle was powered by a 148 hp White 160AX, 386 in3 , 6-cylinder gasoline engine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Design
The design, which used many commercial components to improve reliability and the rate of production, was standardized in 1940 and built by the Autocar Company, Diamond T Motor Company, and the White Motor Company. With a White 160AX engine, the M3 was driven through a manual constant-mesh (non-synchromesh) transmission with four forward and one reverse gear, as well as a two-speed transfer case. The front suspension uses leaf springs, while the tracks use vertical volute springs. Braking was hydraulic assisted while steering was manual. Onboard electronics run on a 12-volt system. The vehicle uses two tracks made of molded rubber over steel cabling with metal track guides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Infantry rifles were held in brackets behind the seats while ammunition and rations were generally stored underneath. In 1942, the vehicles were fitted with small racks for land mines on the outside of the hull, just above the tracks. In combat, many squads found it necessary to stow additional rations, rucksacks and other crew stowage on the outside of the vehicle. Luggage racks were often added in the field, and later vehicles were fitted with rear-mounted racks for this purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Early vehicles had a pintle mount just behind the front seats that mounted a .50-caliber M2 Browning machine gun. The later M3A1 adopted a raised, armored “pulpit” mount for the .50-caliber machine gun over the front passenger seat, and additional mounts for .30-caliber machine guns along the sides of the passenger compartment. Many M3s were later converted to M3A1s. The vehicle body was fully armored, with an adjustable armored shutter for the engine radiator, and adjustable bulletproof panels with vision slits for the windshield, driver windows, and passenger windows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Off the bench Dec 24, 2024. The M3 half-track was an American armored personnel carrier half-track widely used by the Allies during World War II and in the Cold War. Derived from the M2 half-track car, the M3 was extensively produced, with about 15,000 standard M3s and more than 38,000 variant units manufactured. The M3 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2009,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":642,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wwii-artillery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/infinitemodeler.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/infinitemodeler.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/infinitemodeler.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infinitemodeler.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infinitemodeler.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2000"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/infinitemodeler.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2002,"href":"https:\/\/infinitemodeler.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000\/revisions\/2002"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infinitemodeler.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/infinitemodeler.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infinitemodeler.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infinitemodeler.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}