Half-Track fans rejoice!
Review of "HALF-TRACK, a history of american semi-tracked vehicles" by
R.P. Hunnicutt .
This book is expensive, however most good things in this life will cost
you , and if your'e a half-track fanatic this book is a good thing.
The pictures alone are worth the price of admission, and I highly
recommend this book for that reason alone, every thing else is just
iceing on the cake.
There are, however, a few discrepencies that do not belong in a book of
this quallity. On page 93, at the bottom are 2 rear views of the M-21
Mortar carrier. On the left is the standardized M-21, on the right
titled as a later M-21, is in fact an early T19 , which should have been
recognized as the same T19 picture as shown on page 90.
But my biggest pet peeve is at the top of page 193, it shows a supposed
Marine M3 , 75mm GMC [ Gun Motor Carriage ] landing at Cape Gloucester.
This picture has been titled as such in almost every Half-Track book
since I was a kid, however it is not a M3 GMC.The first hint should be
the winch, all M3 75mm GMC's were built by Autocar, and absoluty all of
them had rollers, NO WINCHES! Then there's the skate-rail, and side
doors which identify this as an M2 Half-Track that has been field
modified with a 75mm gun mount out of a M3 75mm GMC. WHY doesn't
anyone catch this??? The evidence is in the details.
Also on the bottom left of page 193, a Marine Corps M2 Half-Track
pulling a Ben-Hur trailer, is incorrectly titled as an M3.
Also the descriptions of the M15 "Special" with the 40mm Bofors,
states that they were converted from M15's (page 193 )this is incorrect,
absolutely all M15/M15A1's were built by Autocar and all had rollers, no
winches. ( I don't believe Autocar built any M3 type half-tracks with
winches, although this is just a conjecture ) the M15 "specials" were
converted from winch equiped M3 half-tracks. This is verified in other
half-track publications.
Not much is mentioned about the M16A1/M16A2 but as they are probably
the most prolific of all half-track survivors in collectors hands, a
word is in order. On page 196 it's stated that M3's were converted to
M16A1's, but also, a vast number of M15A1's were converted to M16A1's.
This is actually what is shown at the top of page 197, as M15's they had
no rear armor, so they were fitted with " after market" rear armor who's
texture is different from the WWII armor and it lacks the footman loops
down the sides as no bows or canvas was used on these models. Also the
top rail that runs around the inside of the armor at the top on M3's,
has a rolled edge, the M15 to M16A1 conversion just had angle-iron with
no rolled edge.
There may be other mistakes or omissions but I've only browsed through
it 3 times so far and this is what caught my eye. Still this is
absolutely the best American Half-Track book in exsistence. I only know
and study American Half-Tracks that's why I can afford to be critical.
Mr. Hunnicutt knows more about American armor overall than I'll ever
know, but since I only study half-tracks I've observed a lot more
half-track stuff than any other topic, and these are just my
observations. As far as I know they are factual but I don't know
everything, so I'm always willing to be corrected, just have proof,
hearsay only causes confusion.
Thanks,
vehicles owned Tom Kelly
and/or restored:
two M-37's
M3A1 Half-Track
M-35 gasser
M-52A2
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue May 01 2001 - 07:42:39 PDT