Military motor vehicle with a trucklike front wheel assembly for steering and a tank-like rear
track assembly for cross-country capability. Half-tracks were first used by the British in World
War I to tow artillery, but they saw their greatest employment during World War II, when they
served in many armies as personnel carriers, gun carriages, prime movers for towed artillery, and
general utility vehicles. They were among the most widely used and versatile vehicles employed
in the war, being readily modified to fit the various needs of all the combat arms--infantry,
artillery, and armour. The United States, Germany, and France built them in the largest numbers.
In 1931 the U.S. Army purchased a French Citroļn-Kegresse Model P17 half-track as part of a
research and development effort for its own half-track design. Working with private firms, the
Army Ordnance Department produced the T14 prototype in 1939. In September of the
following year the T14 was standardized and accepted for production; it became the M2
Half-track and the M3 Half-track, Armored Personnel Carrier (M3 APC). The United States
eventually produced 70 versions of this half-track, building more than 41,000 vehicles between
1940 and 1944. Later, improved models of the M2 and M3 were designated M9 and M5. Four
U.S. manufacturers produced half-tracks during the war; many of them went to allies through
lend-lease. Near the end of the war the U.S. Army started to replace the half-track with fully
tracked or wheeled vehicles. Production of the half-track stopped in 1944, but the vehicle
remained in service until the end of the war.
The M3 APC was the forerunner of the modern infantry fighting vehicle. It could carry 10 men in
the back and 2 in the front, not including the driver. Powered by a 147-horsepower gasoline
engine, it had a maximum speed of 45 miles (70 kilometres) per hour. The armoured hull was
0.25 inch (6 millimetres) thick, offering some protection for the occupants from small-arms and
machine-gun fire and from small shell fragments. The basic model weighed 10 tons and had a
range of 180 to 215 miles on a tank of fuel. The crew consisted of the commander, driver, and
codriver. Three infantry battalions, each equipped with 62 M3 APCs, were eventually
incorporated into U.S. armoured divisions. The APC gave the infantry the wherewithal to keep
up armoured formations, so that American armoured divisions equipped with the M3 became
fully track-mounted, combined-arms teams.
Another use of half-tracks was as gun carriages. The M3 Half-track, Gun Motor Carriage (M3
GMC) was reconfigured again and again to carry a wide variety of guns, including antitank guns,
antiaircraft guns, artillery, and mortars. Early in World War II a 75-millimetre antitank gun was
fitted onto the M3, and later M3's were fitted with a 75-millimetre howitzer and employed as
self-propelled artillery.
The Germans also employed half-tracks as personnel carriers, gun carriages, and prime movers
for towed artillery. The basic German design differed from the American: German half-tracks did
not have power going to the front wheels, so that they were not as maneuverable. On the other
hand, German models had longer tracks that extended to roughly three-quarters of the overall
vehicle length. German models, therefore, had superior cross-country capabilities, though they
were slower. Germany built a great variety of specialized half-tracks ranging in weight from 1 to
18 tons. A typical model was the SdKfz 7 personnel carrier. This vehicle carried up to 12
soldiers, had a top speed of 31 miles per hour, and weighed 12 tons.
Half-tracks were not as reliable or easy to repair as wheeled vehicles, and they did not have the
cross-country capabilities and power of fully tracked vehicles. Essentially, they were a
compromise solution that failed to meet fully the needs of fast-moving armoured formations or of
the more methodical artillery units. For this reason half-tracks were replaced in the decade after
the war by wheeled and fully tracked vehicles. Semi-track vehicles are no longer produced.