The Rise of the Machines: The Campaigns of 1944

Logistics

The Western Allies had been building up their forces throughout 1943 when an average of 750,000 tons of supplies were arriving in Britain each month as they prepared for the invasion of Europe. By 1944 the monthly average of supplies being shipped was 2 million tons, requiring the US Army to establish an administrative force of 31,500 officers and 350,000 men to handle the transport and distribution. Fast ocean-going passenger liners were requisitioned to transport the troops across the Atlantic from America. For example, the RMS Queen Mary and her sister ship the RMS Queen Elizabeth were both conscripted for the duration. The 82,000-ton Queen Mary had an overall length of 1,019ft and could sail at speeds of up to 28.5 knots (32.8mph) and on each transatlantic crossing carried an average complement of 15,000 troops. In December 1942 she exceeded this figure and on one crossing she carried 16,000 troops. The 83,000-ton RMS Queen Elizabeth is estimated to have transported some 750,000 troops and sailed 500,000 miles for the war effort. The numbers of troops based in Britain would eventually reach 1.5 million men with more in training in America. Thousands of tanks, armoured cars and SPGs arrived in Britain including specialist vehicles such as the recovery trucks, along with transporters for tanks such as the M25 Dragon Wagon.

Ships, railways and aircraft can only take supplies so far, after which point they have to be transported to the front-line troops by trucks, and there was a limit to how much could be moved before the sheer weight overwhelmed the infrastructure. Reports by the German chief of Transportation Corps in the early stages of the war reported that the Reich railroads could not handle any additional burden. The report stated that the railroads were not ready for war and that ‘they cannot supply the domestic economy right now’. Fleets of lorries were built and in the case of Germany, General Gerke, chief of transport, was informed in mid-May 1940 that all lorries in Germany were needed because of the strain of the campaign in France and Belgium. In his 1977 work Supplying War, the Dutch-born military historian Martin van Creveld has stated that in his opinion ‘no less than 1,600 lorries were needed to equal the capacity of just one double-tracked railway line’. Germany would have to work hard to remedy the breakdown rate of 50 per cent that inflicted the vehicle fleets in some units. The standard European gauge of railway was based on a track width of 4ft 8.5in. The Russian standard gauge for railway track width was 5ft. On the Eastern Front when one side had to use the other’s system they had to either relay the railway track to their standard gauge or hope they could capture sufficient rolling stock. When the Russians invaded Germany, whole armies of engineers were engaged in relaying the railway track to the Russian 5ft gauge, which was seen as the most expedient solution to the problem, especially as the Germans had retreated with the rolling stock or destroyed carriages and ripped up the tracks in their retreat.

The Royal Army Service Corps

The unit responsible for handling logistics in the British Army was the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC). During the First World War the regiment had been the Army Service Corps (ASC) but was granted the ‘Royal’ prefix in 1918 in recognition of the duties it had performed. Before the outbreak of the First World War the strength of the ASC was 500 officers and 6,000 other ranks. Four years later the ASC had 320,000 all ranks serving with some 165,000 vehicles. The regiment could trace its origins back to earlier transport units such as the Royal Waggon Corps in 1799, which then became known as the Royal Waggon Train between 1802 and 1823. During the Crimean War, 1855–56, the unit was given the new title Land Transport Corps and then the Military Train between 1857 and 1869, and finally the Army Service Corps in 1888. During the Second World War the numbers serving in the ranks of the RASC increased dramatically as it had in the First World War. In 1939 there were only 10,000 serving in the RASC but by 1945 there were some 135,000 men supplying ammunition and stores to an army of almost 3 million men with fourteen armoured divisions and sixty-four regiments of infantry alone.

When the Second World War broke out in 1939 the US Army had only 300 light tanks in service, but as the country was not involved in the fighting this was believed to be sufficient for the country’s needs at the time. However, three years later, America was in the war and the situation regarding tanks could not have been much different, with around 20,000 tanks of all types being produced in 1942. This figure increased by almost 50 per cent the following year when American factories built 29,500 tanks. Not all of these vehicles were intended for use by the US Army as some were supplied to Britain and Russia, and later France would also benefit from this military aid under the Lend-Lease Act.

US Army Transporters

The US Army learned how to move tanks over long distances by rail and special transporter vehicles were developed in order to reduce unnecessary wear on them as they moved to the battle area. Britain and Germany built a range of such vehicles to move tanks and the US Army also used a number of designs, such as the heavy tank transporter, known as the M25 but nicknamed the ‘Dragon Wagon’ by the troops. The whole rig comprised the M26 6x6 tractor unit, protected by .75in of armour plate fitted to the front and .25in of armour plate fitted to the sides and rear of the driver’s cab, and the M15 trailer rated to carry loads up to 40 tons. It originated in 1942 and was designed by the Knuckey Truck Company of San Francisco, which had experience in designing heavy-duty trucks for mining operations and actually based the M25 on one of these vehicles. The vehicle was built by the Pacific Car and Foundry Company of Renton in Washington, which designated it the TR–1, and the M15 trailer was built by the Detroit-based company of Fruehauf. It was a recovery vehicle as well as a transporter and in all roles it exceeded the capabilities of other similar but lighter vehicles serving in the same roles. Numbers built vary according to sources used as reference with some stating a figure of 1,270 and others stating 1,300, but the low discrepancy is surely an academic point. The Dragon Wagon was powered by a Hall-Scott 440 six-cylinder petrol engine of 17.85-litre capacity to produce 230hp at 2,100rpm, which gave road speeds of up to 28mph.

Vehicle Name	Manufacturer	Production Date	Armament	Weight	Max. Speed
M25 ‘Dragon Wagon’	Pacific Car and Foundry Company	1942	.50in-calibre machine gun	12 tons	28mph
M26	Knuckey Truck Company	1943	.50in-calibre machine gun	20.5 tons	28mph
M26A1	Knuckey Truck Company	1943	.50in-calibre machine gun	19.5 tons	28mph

The M26 tractor unit weighed 20.5 tons and the M15 trailer just over 17 tons to give a combined weight of 37.6 tons and the whole combination measured 57.34ft long. Although rated to recover vehicles of up to 44 tons it often exceeded that load capacity and wartime photographs show the Dragon Wagon carrying loads of up to 57 tons. The fuel capacity was 120 gallons and, with fuel consumption at 1 mile per gallon, this gave the Dragon Wagon an operational range on roads of 120 miles. It was served by a crew of seven men to operate all the on-board equipment such as the front-mounted winch, which was rated at 35,000lb (15.6 tons) and the two rear-mounted winches rated at 60,000lb (26.8 tons). On board the vehicle carried all the tools required to effect repairs in the field, including oxyacetylene-cutting equipment. Towards the end of the war a lighter unarmoured version known as the M26A1 was developed. The vehicle was never intended to go into battle but nevertheless it was armed with a single .50in-calibre machine gun mounted on a race-ring fitted to the roof of the vehicle cab for self-defence in an emergency.

The armoured screens could be lifted into place to protect the crew from small arms fire and mounting on the roof of the cab allowed a machine gun to be fitted for self-defence. The Dragon Wagon could transport all types of tank to the combat area and could transport tanks forward to help ease the wear and tear and also speeded up mobilisation.

Mortar-Carrying Vehicles

The British Army was also making changes by forming specialist units and accepting into service a range of different vehicles including American-built designs such as half-tracks produced by companies such as International and White, along with versatile M3 scout cars armed with machine guns. The half-track range was versatile and each had its own ‘M’ designation prefix. For example, the mortar-carrying vehicle was the M21, the anti-aircraft version equipped with quadruple-mounted .50in-calibre machine guns was the M16 and the M14 and M3 were personnel carriers. A number of these were used by the British Army, but some, such as the M21 mortar carrier, were not.

The British Army used the M3 scout car as an infantry carrier and it served with XXX Corps during Operation Market Garden to try to reach Arnhem. The M3 scout car was popular with the American troops who used it to provide fire support as it could be fitted out as a machine-gun platform.

Vehicle Name	Manufacturer	Production Date	Armament	Weight	Max. Speed
M21 Mortar Motor Carriage	White Motor Company	1943	M1 81mm mortar and .50in-calibre machine gun	9 tons	45mph
M4A1	White Motor Company	1943	M1 81mm morta, .50in- and 30in-calibre machine guns	8.2 tons	45mph

There were two main types of mortar-carrying vehicle developed but neither was built in great numbers. For example, only around 110 models of the M21 mortar-carrying version of the White half-track were built and perhaps only 600 vehicles of the similar M4A1 mortar carrier. The M21 and M4A1 mortar carriers were both based on the M3 half-track, of which some 43,000 vehicles were built, serving in various roles including SPG, anti-aircraft gun platform and communications vehicle. The White Motor Company built the prototype of the M21 in early 1943 as the T–19 and following successful trials it was standardised as the M21 Mortar Motor Carriage in July the same year. It was accepted into service in January 1944 and among the actual units to receive the vehicles was the 54th Armoured Infantry Regiment of the 10th Armoured Division, which later saw heavy fighting during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. The M21 had a crew of six to operate the vehicle, mortar and other weapons, and frames on the side of the vehicle allowed mines to be carried, so the crew would have had to be familiar with the use of these also. The vehicle had a combat weight of almost 9 tons with an overall length of almost 19ft 6in. The height was 7ft 5in with a width of almost 7ft 5in over the mine racks on the sides. The main weapon was the M1 81mm mortar with bipod support and special baseplate mount, which allowed it to be fired from the rear of the vehicle. A total of ninety-seven rounds of ammunition was carried and included smoke, illuminating and high-explosive rounds. The ammunition was stored in lockers on either side of the hull where the crew could access it easily.

Half-tracks could be equipped to carry mortars and 75mm field guns to support operations.

Half-tracks made useful mobile cover from behind which the infantry could fight.

A 5.5in field gun opens fire in the Normandy campaign, July 1944. All the shells had to be transported by trucks.

The mortar fired forward over the front of the vehicle and could be traversed 30 degrees left and right, and for greater changes the vehicle would have to be manoeuvred in the direction of the target. The mortar had a rate of fire of eighteen rounds per minute with a range of almost 3,300yd with the high-explosive rounds. The barrel could be elevated between +40 and −85 degrees to alter the range. The .50in-calibre machine gun was fitted on a pedestal mount to the rear of the vehicle and a total of 400 rounds of ammunition were carried. From there the firer could traverse through 360 degrees to provide all-round fire support. The vehicle was only lightly armoured up to a maximum of 13mm thickness. The M21 was fitted with a White 160AX six-cylinder petrol engine that developed 147hp at 3,000rpm to give speeds of up to 45mph on roads. Fuel capacity was 60 gallons and this allowed an operational range of 200 miles on roads. The front wheels were operated by a standard steering wheel and the tracks were fitted with double sets of twin bogies as road wheels, larger idler-type wheels at the front and rear of the track layout and only one return roller. The open top of the vehicle could be covered by a canvas tarpaulin during inclement weather and this could be thrown off quickly when going into action. Although only few in number, together with the more numerous M4A1 mortar carrier, it would have provided excellent mobile fire support to infantry units wherever required. The vehicle was equipped with a radio set to communicate and receive orders as to where to deploy if needed to fire against targets. There were plans to develop a similar vehicle to carry the larger 4.2in-calibre mortar but it never entered service.

The M3 half-track carrying infantry into a battle re-enactment. The soldier on the left is holding a Bazooka anti-tank rocket launcher (top left). The M16 half-track quadruple .50in-calibre machine gun vehicle (top right). The M14 version half-track in the colours of the Guards Armoured Division as serving with the British XXX Corps in 1944 (above).

British Army Motorcycles

New British designs were also being produced and changes were being made, with new motorcycles for use by their dispatch riders, known as ‘Don Rs’, which included female riders of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) who were already used to driving trucks in convoys. In 1940 the army had been using machines such as the Ariel WMG 350cc but following the retreat from Dunkirk those machines still in service were issued to the RAF because the army required more powerful motorcycles. The new models included the BSA WD M20 design, rated at 500cc, from around 1942, but some of these were replaced by the Jeep when they came into service in numbers. Some lighter motorcycles remained in service such as the Matchless 350cc, while for the specialist role with the airborne divisions the James ML, rated at 125cc, was developed and nicknamed the ‘Clockwork Mouse’ by the troops; these could be dropped by parachute or carried inside aircraft such as the Hamilcar or Horsa gliders and used during operations such as Market Garden at Arnhem in Holland in September 1944.

British Army BSA WD M20 500cc motorcycle.

BSA 500cc M20 motorcycle combination of the British Army in REME colours and BSA WD M20 1942 500cc with dispatch rider in full clothing of period.

ML Airborne, 1943 125cc ‘Clockwork Mouse’as flown into the Arnhem bridgehead by glider in September 1944.

RAF motorcycle, Ariel WMG 350cc 1940. Originally army then RAF after Dunkirk.

Vehicles of the 79th Armoured Division

The Churchill tank was fitted with a spigot mortar to launch a powerful demolition charge of 40lb to destroy obstacles. The vehicle was called the ‘Petard’ and the projectiles it fired were called ‘Flying Dustbins’ due to their size and shape. Flail tanks based on the Sherman, known as ‘Crabs’, were designed to beat a path through minefields in the same manner as the Matilda Scorpions used in North Africa. The ‘Bobbin’ was a massive reel of canvas matting that was carried on a drum mounted on a Churchill tank and was designed to unroll in front of the vehicle as it advanced. This system was to permit light-wheeled vehicles such as Jeeps and trucks to drive over soft sand without becoming bogged down. Another design developed by the 79th Armoured Division was the duplex drive, which was an amphibious tank based on the Sherman. The method of making the tank float for amphibious operations consisted of fitting a canvas screen inflated by a cylinder of compressed air and kept rigid by a series of wooden slats. A propeller was fitted at the rear and operated by power take-off from the main drive shaft. The concept had been trialled on the Valentine but the Sherman had been chosen because it was more numerous in service and a modern design. Together, all of these designs and many others were built and prepared in readiness for the D-Day landings at Normandy in June 1944. Other designs were quite simple, such as the Universal Bren gun carrier which was fitted with higher sides to cope with the deeper water. The Bren carrier was also used as the carrier vehicle on which to mount a structure containing two Bren guns, which could be elevated in order to fire over hedgerows. Trials were conducted but it was decided not to pursue it to the development stage and only a few prototypes were built. For the most part these vehicles of 79th Armoured Division worked well but there were some occasions when they failed but this was largely due to misunderstanding how they should be used and their limitations.

British Army Specialised Units

The British Army was also forming yet more specialised units in 1943 such as the 79th Armoured Division. This unit had originally been formed in 1942 but it was reorganised and its composition was changed in April 1943 with the specific intention of creating specialist armoured units after lessons learned in the aftermath of the disastrous Dieppe raid in August 1942. It was realised that specialist vehicles had to be developed based on existing tank chassis to cope with certain difficulties on the battlefield, including the clearance of obstacles such as anti-tank walls and ditches, bunker emplacements and minefields. The 79th Armoured Division had originally been intended to serve as an ordinary unit equipped with a standard range of AFVs and in March 1943 it was about to be disbanded due to lack of equipment. Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke CIGS intervened, however, and suggested that the division be turned into a specialist unit to develop equipment and vehicles to deal with obstacles. Command of the new unit was given to Major General Sir Percy Hobart who had seen service in France and the Middle East during the First World War, winning the Military Cross. He was very much influenced by the writings of Basil Liddell Hart, and it would be under his direction that many useful vehicles would be developed, such as the Churchill ‘Ark’ which could lay a bridge to span gaps and natural water obstacles. The Churchill proved ideal for this type of work and other designs based on the Churchill included a flame-thrower called the ‘Crocodile’ and another which could unload a tightly bound roll of wooden staves known as a fascine, which could be dropped into tank traps to fill the gap quickly and easily so that vehicles following after could drive over the obstacle unimpeded.

Wrecker and Recovery Trucks

All armies during the war came to realise that it was usually best to have more than one vehicle to operate in specialised roles and the policy applied to armoured vehicles, liaison vehicles and even trucks used for transportation. For example, the US Army developed a range of vehicles known as ‘wreckers’ that were used for the recovery of vehicles and for lifting heavy loads using cranes on board the vehicle. One particular design of this type of vehicle was the Diamond T 969 wrecker truck, which was also built in two other versions known as A and B. The vehicle was basically a standard truck body built by the Holmes Company but configured to the role of recovery or wrecker truck. It initially entered service with the US Army in 1941, having been designed and developed in 1939, but later it went on to be used by the British and Canadian armies and by the end of the war a total of 31,245 vehicles in all models were produced, including variants known as 970, 972 and 975, of which some 6,420 were wreckers.

Vehicle Name	Manufacturer	Production Date	Armament	Weight	Max. Speed
Diamond T 969	Holmes Company	1941	Some fitted with a .50in-calibre machine gun	9.6 tons	40mph
969 A	Holmes Company	1943	Some fitted with a. 50in-calibre machine gun	9.6 tons	40mph
969 B	Holmes Company	1943	Some fitted with a. 50in-calibre machine gun	9.6 tons	40mph
M1A1	Ward La France/Kenworth	1943	Some fitted with a. 50in-calibre machine gun	15.5 tons	40mph

The Diamond T 969 was 24.3ft long, 8.4ft wide and 9.25ft high to the top of the driver’s cab. It was a heavy vehicle weighing 9.6 tons and it had to be in order to deal with the heavy duties it was expected to cope with. It was fitted with a Hercules RXC six-cylinder 8.7-litre side-valve engine rated to 131bhp mounted to the front and covered with a curved bonnet, which was distinct from other wrecker designs. It had a five-speed gearbox with a two-speed transfer, allowing road speeds of almost 40mph, which was sufficient to move in convoy. The front set of wheels were basic truck tyres, with the two sets of rear axles fitted with double tyres in keeping with other truck designs. It had a fuel capacity of 50 gallons and this allowed an operational range of over 130 miles. The vehicle was never intended to operate off-road but sometimes road conditions were bad due to artillery and the 969 could wade through water obstacles of up to 24in deep.

The Diamond T wrecker was used extensively during the European theatre of operations. The lifting booms on the Diamond T could cope with heavy loads in all weathers. The Diamond T dealt with trucks and tanks equally well.

The first version of the 969 to enter service was the closed cab type, but after 1943 the open cab version, which was actually a canvas-topped model, was introduced. These were also built in the variants known as the 969A and 969B. The first production vehicles in the 969 range had been built using civilian components but later it was decided to change over to military standard components, and this became the standard 969A. The 969B version was the design supplied to overseas armies and was not used by the US Army. However, they did retain certain distinguishing features such as the drop-down tailgate and the ‘rounded-off’ mudguards over the front wheels. One in four vehicles were fitted with an M36 ‘race-ring’ mounting on top of the cab so that a .50in-calibre machine gun could be fitted to provide self-defence against low-flying aircraft and as protection in case of attack by ground troops.

Mounted on the rear of the vehicle was a Holmes W–45 crane with a twin boom design with each one rated for a 5-ton lift capacity, giving a combined lift capability of 10 tons. This was useful for many duties, including being used to lift disabled aircraft on to trailers for removal. A large number of 969 vehicles were fitted with front-mounted winches, which were useful for recovery duties where a vehicle had simply skidded off the road and got stuck. The winches were rated for 6.6 tons and could haul damaged vehicles into a position where the vehicle’s on-board crane could be used either to lift it on to a recovery trailer or tow it away for repair. The vehicle could tow loads of over 11 tons, which meant that it could cope with all but the heaviest armoured vehicles. The vehicle was equipped with a range of tools and equipment to allow the crew to complete vehicle maintenance in the field and this range of equipment included an air compressor for the workshop.

Another design of wrecker truck was developed by the company of Ward La France, which already had a pre-war reputation for providing specialist 6x6 trucks fitted with cranes that could be used for heavy recovery duties. This manufacturer, along with others such as Kenworth, increased their production of vehicles of all types, especially recovery vehicles, which the armies would need in order to tow abandoned vehicles back to base for repair. From 1943 onwards this included a series of recovery trucks called the M1A1, also known as a ‘wrecker’, which was standardised for the vital role of retrieving tanks and other damaged heavy equipment such as artillery from the battlefield. Like other American-built trucks this too would enter service with the British Army and serve with the light aid detachments of the REME and be used in Italy and the Middle East.

The M1A1 had a number of features that set it apart from other similar vehicles, such as ‘squared’ mudguards and lacking full doors, which led to the term ‘open’ cab, the roof of which was fitted with a folding canvas cover. Some vehicles had a race-ring fitted above the cab to permit a .50in-calibre machine gun to be mounted for self-defence. Between them the two manufacturers, Ward La France and Kenworth, built 3,735 M1A1s, producing 3,425 and 310 respectively, but some sources put this figure much higher. It was operated by a two-man crew, driver and co-driver, and the vehicle was equipped with all the tools necessary to undertake repairs in the field or to tow badly damaged vehicles back to a base workshop where there were the facilities to deal with them. Some wreckers towed trailer workshops for repairs in the field, complete with all the tools essential for maintenance including cutting and welding equipment. In addition to the rear-mounted crane, which had a 9.75-ton rating, winches were fitted front and rear. The front winch had a rating of 13 US tons while the rear winch had a rating of 22 US tons, making it suitable to recover most armoured vehicles and field guns.

The crew of the M1A1 and other specialists could work in the caravan in all weathers to repair vehicles.

The M1A1 wrecker was fitted with a powerful 8.2-litre six-cylinder Continental Model 22R petrol engine, which gave 145bhp at 2,400rpm to provide road speeds over 40mph. Its massive weight of over 15.5 tons helped with tackling heavy loads but it came at a price, with the fuel capacity of 84 gallons allowing an operational road range of only 250 miles. The transmission was a five-speed Fuller 5A620 and the 6x6 drive featured double tyres on the two sets of rear wheels as standard. The overall length of the M1A1 was almost 26ft, and it was just over 10ft high and 8.2ft wide. Along with the Diamond T 969 and the British vehicles, they provided the Allies with a fleet of recovery vehicles to keep the armies on the move.

The recovery of vehicles from the battlefield had been developed properly during the fighting in the desert and was continually being improved, which in turn led to the development of one of the best specialist recovery vehicles in late 1944. This was based on the Churchill Mk III tank and was known as the ARV (Armoured Recovery Vehicle) Mk II. It was fitted with a winch rated to a 25-ton pull capacity and a rear-mounted jib with a 15-ton lift capacity; another jib, which could be dismounted, was fitted forward and this had a lift capacity of 7.5 tons. The Americans assessed that an average of at least 60 per cent of vehicles damaged in battle could be repaired using resources such as these. The British 21st Army Group believed that 30 per cent of repairs undertaken in field workshops were completed on vehicles that had sustained battle damage and the other 70 per cent of work was to vehicles that had sustained mechanical failure. In one particular operation a division lost forty-eight Sherman tanks damaged while negotiating a minefield. The REME recovered and repaired thirty-two of them, returning the tanks to their unit within forty-eight hours. This represents a two-thirds recovery and repair rate, something that was not thought possible in the early days of the war. Such capabilities were as a result of lessons learnt during the early campaigns of the war, such as Operation Battleaxe during the North African campaign in 1941 when 135 Matildas had been overhauled in field workshops in forty-eight hours and many other vehicles were also repaired and maintained to continue operating in the battle.

The driver’s position with all the controls to drive the vehicle over the roughest terrain (top left). The M1A1 wrecker served in the same role as other similar vehicles but was an entirely different design. The M1A1 booms could be used to lift aircraft fuselages to clear crash sites on airfields.

The M1A1 wrecker towed a trailer which served as a field workshop to repair vehicles without the need to return to base depots.

The M1A1 wrecker was powerful enough to tow tanks such as this example seen at a military vehicle show.

Prime Movers and Anti-Aircraft Gun Towing Vehicles

All armies also used vehicles known as prime movers to tow artillery. This series of vehicles was very versatile but perhaps the most diverse range was that used by the German Army throughout the Second World War. The vehicles that operated in this role proved themselves to be highly useful in a range of roles other than that for which they were originally intended. The most versatile of all these were the half-tracks, such as the SdKfz 251, which was configured into no fewer than twenty-three separate roles, with further designs planned, but the war ended before they could enter service. Half-tracks came in a variety of sizes and were produced throughout the entire war, being among some of the last vehicles still being built by German factories right up to the time of the surrender. Because of their adaptability to serve in any role they could be seen as the workhorses of the German Army and were deployed to all theatres of fighting and engaged in all campaigns.

German Vehicles

Vehicle Name	Manufacturer	Production Date	Armament	Weight	Max. Speed
SdKfz 7	Krauss-Maffei, Borgward, Saurer	1939	N/A	11.3 tons	30mph
SdKfz 7/1	Krauss-Maffei, Borgward, Saurer	1943	4x 2cm FlaK 38	12.8 tons	30mph
SdKfz 7/2	Krauss-Maffei, Borgward, Saurer	1943	3.7cm FlaK 36 L/98	13.2 tons	30mph

One of the most important types of the prime mover series of vehicles was the SdKfz 7, not because of the number of variants made, but for the fact that it was used to tow the formidable 88mm gun in either its anti-aircraft or anti-tank role. Development of the SdKfz 7 began in 1934 when Germany started its rearmament programme in earnest. The vehicle was designed in response to the army’s need for an 8-ton half-track for towing and supply transportation purposes. The first model appeared in 1938 and during the war three main companies became involved with either its direct production or one of the variants derived from the basic version. These were Krauss-Maffei and Borgward, who were joined later by Saurer. Almost from the beginning the SdKfz 7 was seen as a Gepanzerte Zugkraftwage (armoured gun tractor), and became the main half-track prime mover of the German Army. It was used to tow not only the 88mm gun, but also much larger and heavier guns such as the 150mm-calibre sFH18 howitzer. The first SdKfz 7 vehicles were issued to the Schwere Panzerjäger Abteilungen (heavy anti-tank gun battalions) of the Wehrmacht in 1939 and were ready to participate in the Polish campaign in September that year. The vehicle would also be used by the Waffen-SS for its artillery and the Luftwaffe would use it for its anti-aircraft units with 88mm guns. Apart from being able to tow all main types of 88mm gun the vehicle could also transport the gun crew of up to twelve men with their personal kit and a supply of ready-to-use ammunition. Further supplies of ammunition were transported by other accompanying vehicles.

The driver was seated to the left with his co-driver alongside and the rear seating layout for the gun crew arranged in rows facing forward. A space behind the driver’s position was provided for the storage of personal kit, weapons and ammunition. The SdKfz 7 had a soft canvas top that could be erected during inclement weather but it is more usually seen in wartime photographs without this fitted. The vehicle was open-sided, which allowed the crew to deploy quickly, but it also meant that they were exposed to enemy fire. Some vehicles did have armoured superstructures added to the sides for protection, but apparently this was not standard and may have been fitted by field workshops. The driver’s cab and engine compartment were the only parts to be fitted with standard armour protection and even then only to 8mm thickness. As the war progressed production was modified to contend with the shortages in raw materials and reduce the use of metal, and a simplified version of the SdKfz 7 was developed. This used wooden side frames, which gave it a truck-like appearance. The seats were wooden and the crew had to board and leave by means of a drop gate at the rear.

The SdKfz 7 was 22.4ft long, 7.7ft wide, 8.6ft high and weighed 11.3 tons. It was capable of towing loads of up to 8 tons and when towing an 88mm gun the barrel always faced forward, as is evidenced in all wartime photographs and film footage. It was this capability to tow heavy loads that led to the SdKfz 7 being used as a recovery vehicle when it was available, and some were fitted with integral winches to improve this capacity. Powered by a Maybach HL62TUK six-cylinder petrol engine developing 140hp, the SdKfz 7 could reach speeds of up to over 30mph on roads with an operational range of 155 miles on roads and around 75 miles cross-country. It was fitted with a gearbox layout that gave 4x2 forward gears and 1x2 reverse gears. The front wheels were fitted with hydro-pneumatic tyres, which provided steering through a conventional steering column and wheel configuration. Torsion bars provided the suspension to the track layout, which comprised seven pairs of double wheels overlapping with the drive sprocket at the front on either side. From the desert wastes of North Africa to the sub-zero steppes of Russia and all across Europe the SdKfz 7 was to be found serving in the role of prime mover for artillery. Three main variants of the SdKfz 7 were developed, two of which were configured into the self-propelled anti-aircraft role. The third was fitted with an all-enclosing armoured superstructure and used in the highly specialised role of launching the mobile versions of the long-range V2 rocket. This variant was called the Feuerleitpanzerfahzeug Fur V2 Raketen auf Zugkraftwagen 8t and little resembled the original SdKfz 7 on which it was based. These vehicles served as the towing unit for the massive rockets but they also provided the command, control and communications centre for firing instructions.

Fully restored SdKfz 7 half-track prime mover used to tow the 88mm anti-tank gun.

Prime mover SdKfz 7 towing a PaK43 88mm anti-tank gun on the Eastern Front.

The SdKfz 7 prime mover towing an 88mm anti-tank gun at a vehicle display.

The SdKfz 7 carried the gun crew and all their kit on the vehicle and some ammunition as well.

The anti-aircraft gun platform vehicles were termed the SdKfz 7/1 and SdKfz 7/2 and were armed with four 2cm FlaK 38 and a single FlaK 36 of 3.7cm calibre respectively. The SdKfz 7/1 was referred to as the 2cm Flakvierling 38 auf Fahrgestell Zugkraftwagen 8t. A total of 319 were built between mid-1943 and October 1944 and used exclusively by the FlaK units of the Luftwaffe. Everything about the basic vehicle remained the same except the rear seats were stripped out to permit the fitting of the gun mounting for the quadruple 2cm FlaK 38. A full 360-degree traverse by hand was permitted and the guns could be elevated between −10 degrees and +100 degrees to allow ground and aerial targets to be engaged. The SdKfz 7/2 was fitted with a single FlaK 36 L/98 3.7cm calibre on a mounting in place of the rear seats. This was termed the 3.7cm FlaK 36 auf Fahrgestell Zugkraftwagen 8t. The gun could be traversed through a full 360 degrees by hand and elevated between −8 degrees and +85 degrees to permit both ground and aerial targets to be engaged. About 123 examples of this version were built from around 1943 until February 1945, again being used exclusively by the FlaK units of the Luftwaffe. Both versions were fitted with the Flakvisier 40 for aiming and each appeared with either an armoured and unarmoured cab for the driver. The SdKfz 7/1 towed a special trailer called the Sonder Anhanger 56, which carried extra ammunition. The SdKfz 7/2 towed a similar trailer called the Sonder Anhanger 57 for its ammunition supply. Development of a third self-propelled anti-aircraft gun version of the SdKfz 7 was started and this would have been the fourth variant of the basic vehicle. This was to have been armed with the 5cm FlaK 41 gun to become the Sonderfahrgestell (Special Purpose Chassis) auf Zugkraftwagen 8t. It is understood that only a very few pre-production vehicles were made in this series in 1942 and evidence points to the fact that it is unlikely the version ever went into production and the few pre-production models almost certainly never entered service. Photographs of the version exist and show it to be a well-designed vehicle with a gun capable of engaging both ground and aerial targets like the other anti-aircraft versions.

Allied Vehicles

Vehicle Name	Manufacturer	Production Date	Armament	Weight	Max. Speed
Mack 7 (G532)	Mack	1943	.50in-calibre machine gun	14.4 tons
AEC Matador	Leyland	1930s	N/A	7.5 tons	30mph
Retriever	Leyland	1930s	N/A	7.7 tons	30mph
The Quad	Morris	1937	N/A	3.3 tons	50mph

The US Army often used wheeled trucks as prime movers and one of the manufacturers to produce these kinds of trucks for this role was the North Carolina-based vehicle manufacturer Mack, which between 1941 and 1945 used its pre-war experience of producing heavy trucks for the civilian market to supply a total of more than 35,000 trucks to the US Army, along with the British, Canadian and French armies. These were mainly the ‘N’ series, which made up almost 27,000 vehicles of that figure alone. Some 2,053 ‘NO’ 6x6 models were built up to 1945 with the Mack NO 7yd (21ft) 2-ton vehicle being used for towing large pieces of artillery such as the M1 155mm-calibre Long Tom field gun, capable of firing shells weighing over 90lb out to a maximum range of 14.5 miles. The Long Tom in its basic M1 version had a barrel length of 22.8ft and was served by a crew of fourteen, who travelled in the rear of the truck, and it could fire forty high-explosive shells an hour.

The Mack 7 vehicle had been developed specifically as a prime mover for the role of towing such large and heavy artillery and the ‘NO’ series ran through models 1 to 7. The vehicle was operated by a five-man crew and to help manoeuvre the Long Tom into and out of its firing positions a Gar Wood 5MB winch with a 40,000lb capacity was fitted to the front of the Mack 7. In the rear area a hoist was mounted and this was used to lift the trail arms of the Long Tom. The vehicle had a canvas cab and the cargo body was sometimes made from wood, but even so the Mack 7 (G532) still weighed 30,000lb when empty. It could carry loads of up to 10 tons and pull loads of up to 25 tons, so the 30,600lb load of the Long Tom was well within its capacity. The Mack 7 was powered by a Mack EY six-cylinder 707 cid engine, which produced 159hp at 2,100rpm. It had a five-speed transmission and for self-defence an M36 race-ring mount for a .50in-calibre machine gun was fitted over the roof of the driver’s cab.

The British Army had its own version of the Mack – the AEC Matador. This 7.5-ton heavyweight truck could be used to recover abandoned vehicles but more commonly it was used as an artillery tractor for the 5-ton 5.5in-calibre field gun. Some 11,000 of these were built and they were equipped with a winch rated at 5 tons with 250ft of steel cable for the purpose of recovering guns or vehicles. In the artillery role the Matador could be used to carry the entire gun crew and all their kit. It was powered by an A187 7.7-litre diesel engine delivering 95hp to give road speeds of up to 30mph. Another British truck that could be fitted out for a range of tasks on the battlefield was the Retriever, of which some 6,500 were built by Leyland Motors. Originally produced from 1933, the vehicle was beginning to show its age by the time war broke out but nevertheless it was still serviceable and could be fitted out for use as a field workshop complete with breakdown gantry. Powered by a 6-litre, four-cylinder Leyland engine rated at 73bhp, it had a standard road range of 195 miles with a fuel tank capacity of 31 gallons. Retrievers were also used to transport pontoon boats for river crossings and even as mobile platforms for searchlights, but perhaps the most famous role was the vehicle in this range which served as the campaign caravan for General, later Field Marshal, Montgomery.

During the rearmament period of the mid-1930s the British Army began experiments to use wheeled vehicles in a wide variety of roles, including as platforms on which to mount light anti-aircraft guns such as the 20mm-calibre Polsten. As war approached the army’s fleet of vehicles was stretched to its capacity to meet demands and so it was essential that manufacturers produced as many vehicles as possible. Sometimes demands actually exceeded output, as was the case with the vehicle that would come to be universally referred to throughout the British Army simply as the ‘Quad’, and other manufacturers had to come in to help the main producer maintain production. When war was finally declared in September 1939 the Guy Motor Company was already producing the design of a 4x4 Field Artillery Tractor (FAT) vehicle, which became the Guy Quad ANT and had been unveiled in prototype form in 1937. It was designed specifically for use as the prime mover or tractor for the new 25-pounder field gun just beginning to enter service. By coincidence the Morris Motor Company was also producing a similar vehicle, the Commercial C8. As demands for these specialist towing vehicles increased so it was that Morris took over production of the new FAT and so is synonymous with its wartime output. The Quad would go on to be built by other manufacturers and large numbers were even built by General Motors in Canada. In total some 10,000 Quads were built during the war and were used by British and Commonwealth troops including Canadian and Australian forces.

The 155mm Long Tom field gun was a heavyweight piece of artillery used in Italy and Europe. The Mack 7 and Long Tom combination took up its fair share of space on the road but they were essential in supporting operations. The Mack 7 truck was used to tow the heavyweight artillery and could also carry ammunition and the crew.

The 25-pounder field gun in North Africa camouflage and Eighth Army badge (top). Interior of the Quad showing the basic controls in the driver’s position (above left). The limber used to carry ammunition for the 25-pounder field gun and towed by the Quad (above right). The Morris Commercial Quad used to tow the 25-pounder field gun seen here in Eighth Army colours for the North Africa campaign (left).

The AEC Matador was a heavyweight truck used to tow the large guns for the Royal Artillery such as the 5.5in field guns.

The Quad had a distinctive shape with the rear portion from the roof dropping away in a marked manner that identified it from other vehicles and especially artillery tractors. In fact, it was this feature in the design that allowed the Germans to know when artillery was about to be directed against them for they had come to associate the shape of the vehicle with artillery. To counter this a canvas screen was developed to disguise the characteristic shape. The Quad was associated with the 25-pounder gun but it could also tow the 17-pounder anti-tank gun and the hybrid 17/25-pounder gun known as the ‘Pheasant’, which was produced in limited numbers. On the battlefield the Germans learned to identify the Quad coming into action and they would either take cover from the artillery barrage they knew was imminent or, if they could engage first, would direct their own guns against the Quads in a counter-battery barrage.

The Quad in all its forms, and there would eventually be three variants, was unarmoured even though the Mk I had an all-metal body design including the roof. The Mk II had a canvas top that could be rolled back and the Mk III was the C8 GS. In addition to the tow hook for the gun and ammunition limber, the vehicle was fitted with a winch that could be useful in hauling artillery and recovery purposes. The interior was cramped but the crew always managed to store their kit and personal weapons, even if it meant hanging excess baggage on the outside of the vehicle.

The basic Quad measured 14.7ft long, 7.2ft wide and 7.4ft to the top of the roof. It weighed 3.3 tons and had the seating capacity to take five men in addition to the drivers, who served as crew for the 25-pounder gun. It was powered by a Morris EH four-cylinder 3.5-litre petrol engine that developed 70bhp, giving road speeds of up to 50mph and a range on roads of over 150 miles. It pulled the ammunition limber and the 25-pounder field gun, which weighed almost 1.8 tons alone, and could cope with most cross-country conditions. Britain did not follow the route taken by America or Germany and develop a half-track vehicle for towing artillery, and instead relied almost entirely on wheeled vehicles such as the Quad to do the job. Despite not being armoured its reliability on the battlefield in all theatres, from the blazing heat of North Africa to the damp muddy fields of Europe and the humid tropics of the Far East, meant that the Quad could always be depended on to give service.

Stalemate in Italy

The year 1944 began with the Allies facing stalemate in Italy. The troops in the line looked at the foreboding Monte Cassino rising to an elevation of over 1,700ft. This was not tank country in the true sense of the word and although the Allies committed 1,900 AFVs to the coming battle it would be the infantry, artillery and massive air support that would win the battle. Four distinct battles would be fought before the positions held by the Germans were finally taken and the western end of the Gothic Line penetrated. The first attack was made by American troops on 20 January and proved to be a disastrous engagement with 1,000 killed out of 6,000 men in the fight. The Allies had a plan to help take the pressure off Monte Cassino by making an amphibious landing over 50 miles behind German lines at Anzio, which, it was hoped, would make the Germans divert troops away to respond to the landings. The Anglo-American operation was known by the code name Shingle and was under the command of US Major-General John Lucas, whose forces included the US VI Corps. British Intelligence believed the landings would be unexpected and therefore resistance would be very light. On the other hand, Lucas’ commanding officer, Mark Clark, thought it would be as bad as Salerno, if not worse.

The landings were made under cover of darkness at 2 a.m. on 22 January. The force of 40,000 men with 5,200 vehicles had been transported to the beachhead by a convoy of 289 vessels, which also provided a covering naval bombardment to suppress defences. Lucas shared Mark Clark’s worries, and believed he faced a very real threat of a strong counter-attack. No commander ever feels he has sufficient troops or resources for the battle ahead and Lucas wanted to wait until his reinforcement force of 60,000 troops, thousands of vehicles and supplies had arrived before making a concerted breakout. On the day of the landings the Allies consolidated their positions and landed 36,000 troops and 3,200 vehicles, and the British 1st Division had moved 2 miles inland, facing little opposition. The Americans had also moved inland and a defensive perimeter was established, all for the cost of 154 killed, wounded and missing. The way to Rome appeared open, but Lucas did nothing to break out of the beachhead, leading Churchill to comment: ‘I had hoped we were hurling a wild cat on to the shore, but all we got was a stranded whale.’ Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, commander-in-chief of German forces in Italy, ordered units from locations across Italy to move on Anzio and these were reinforced by troops from France and Germany. By 24 January he had 40,000 troops to deploy against the Allied beachhead, which now measured 16 miles wide and 7 miles deep. The Allies continued to land at Anzio so that by 29 January there were 69,000 troops crammed into the beachhead along with 508 pieces of artillery and more than 200 tanks, as well as thousands of other vehicles. The German Fourteenth Army, commanded by General Eberhard von Mackensen, had built up their numbers to 90,000 men with armoured support and long-range artillery to fire on the landing beaches. These massive weapons were of 210mm and 240mm calibre, with one of 280mm capable of firing a shell weighing 560lb from its position 40 miles away. The Allies famously nicknamed this gun ‘Anzio Annie’. The first real clash of forces came on 30 January as Lucas attempted to break out, with the British initially making good progress towards Campoleone. The Americans attacked Cisterna where the 1st Armoured Division became a victim of minefields. US rangers were caught by German forces in an ambush using tanks that was so effective that only six men out of a force of 767 made it back to the beachhead. The British were being badly assaulted but the Allies were determined to hang on because having come this far they were in Italy to stay and were not going to be pushed out.

The German propaganda machine made much capital of the Allies’ progress with reference made to it as being slower than a snail’s pace. The weather had turned and washed away roads, and rivers burst their banks causing flooding. The mountainous terrain also caused delays and destroyed bridges had to be repaired. Italy had become a ‘tough old gut’ but the Germans were in retreat. Fighting was fierce at Anzio and Monte Cassino; with no headway being made, Lucas was relieved of his command by Mark Clark, who replaced him with Major General Lucien Truscott Jr, who was a ‘fighting’ general in the true sense of the word and well liked by the British. Even so, he had a tough battle ahead of him. There was an Allied air raid on Monte Cassino on 15 February that dropped 450 tons of bombs on the site. It made no difference and the Germans continued to hold the position and repulsed all attempts to take it. Exactly a month later, on 15 March, another air raid attacked the position and surrounding area, dropping 1,000 tons of bombs, and the artillery fired 195,000 shells. Finally, on 13 May, Truscott was able to begin breaking out from the beachhead and by 18 May they were advancing on the Italian capital of Rome. That day the Polish forces fighting at Monte Cassino made it to the summit and the western end of the Gustav Line was penetrated. Rome had been declared an ‘open’ city by the Germans, which is to say that they had evacuated and were not going to defend it.

On 26 May troops from the Anzio beachhead and those who had fought at Monte Cassino met up. The German Tenth Army pulled back, heading northwards to new defensive positions. Mark Clark entered Rome on 4 June but the Allies did not let this prize prevent them from keeping up the pressure on the retreating enemy and they pursued the Germans over a distance of 90 miles in twelve days. The pace then slowed until finally they came face to face with the Gothic Line, which extended 200 miles across Italy. It had been started when Sicily had been evacuated in August the previous year and now comprised anti-tank obstacles, minefields and belts of barbed wire that extended up to 10 miles deep in some places. Fortified defences included the turrets of some thirty tanks that had been removed, complete with their 88mm guns, and positioned in concrete foundations, almost 2,400 machine-gun positions, 479 artillery positions, 100 steel-lined shelters and miles of tunnels and trenches for the infantry defenders. The Allies eventually stormed the position in September using 80,000 vehicles, artillery and overwhelming air support, and the US Fifth Army and 8th Division from the British Eighth Army. By late October, Mark Clark was deep into north Italy and holding secure positions.

Polish troops moving 5.5in artillery forward in Italy; probably heading for Monte Cassino. They are escorted by motorcyclists.

German Vehicles

The HK Half-Track Vehicle Series

By now the Allies had encountered a wide range of German vehicles, not all of which were equipped for fighting. These were liaison types such as the Kubelwagen, which was the Germany’s equivalent to the Jeep, and an extraordinary design called the Kleines Kettenkrad (little chain cycle), a handy machine developed and built by NSU and Stoewer Company and officially designated the SdKfz 2. As the German Army re-equipped with a range of modern vehicles, the fleet included wheeled and half- and three-quarter-tracked designs, one of which was a very compact half-track vehicle, introduced in 1939, with the designation HK 101. It was proposed that it would serve as a utility vehicle capable of operating in a variety of roles, including liaison and communications. The HK 101 was only 9ft 10in long, 3ft 3in wide and a mere 3ft 11in high. Despite this compact design it could still tow loads of almost 0.5 tons, which meant it was ideal for roles such as the re-supply of ammunition or the transportation of medical stores. It weighed 1.5 tons and comprised a small tracked unit, between which was the engine and what amounted to the front half of a motorcycle. The driver’s position was fitted with a motorcycle saddle and was steered through the front wheel by means of motorcycle handlebars, which were linked to the transmission to control the differential movements of the tracks as in conventional tracked vehicles. The HK 101 was fitted with a water-cooled Opel Olympia four-cylinder petrol engine of 1,478cc, which developed 36bhp at 3,400rpm to give a top speed of 40mph. However, it was only in service between 1939 and 1940, after which an improved version was introduced in 1941.

The improved version was designated the HK 102, and, apart from being slightly larger, basically looked the same as the earlier HK 101, and still retained the designation of SdKfz 2. This model was slightly larger overall with a fully laden weight of 2.2 tons. Internally it differed from its predecessor in having a larger engine: a water-cooled, Stump K–20 four-cylinder petrol engine of 2,000cc, which developed 65bhp at 3,500rpm to give a top speed of 50mph. Apart from the slightly longer track there was virtually no external difference between the two versions. It was the HK 102 version that gave service throughout the rest of the war, being employed extensively on the Eastern Front. There were two radiators mounted between the driver and the two passengers it carried in rear-facing seats, through which cooling air was drawn. Warm air from the engine could be ducted towards the driver, which was very useful in the Russian theatre of operations where the temperatures could plunge to extreme lows.

The Kettenkrad

Vehicle Name	Manufacturer	Production Date	Armament	Weight	Max. Speed
SdKfz 2 Kettenkrad	NSU Werke, Neckarsulm, Stoeuer Werke	1941	N/A	1.5–2.2 tons	50mph

The Kettenkrad was usually steered in normal operations by means of motorcycle-type handlebars, which permitted standard road use. For more severe terrain and cross-country use the driver changed direction by varying the speed of the tracks, but this could only be achieved at low speeds. The vehicle was fitted with torsion-bar suspension and the drive was through a six-speed gearbox. The track drive sprocket was mounted at the front with the idler wheel at the rear, and four over-lapping road wheels on either side, to provide extremely good traction. Although the vehicle was credited with road speeds of 50mph, it was almost impossible to control at speeds greater than 40mph. However, when towing any load the driver kept the speed even lower for better control. It could transport two fully equipped infantrymen in rear-facing seats, but the position was very cramped. They had clamps for their rifles, which meant that if they had to deploy as part of an anti-tank gun team, if necessary they could leave their weapons on the vehicle and move straight into action. The Kettenkrad was sometimes used for towing light anti-tank guns, Nebelwerfer rocket launchers and troops in airborne units operating as infantry used it to haul their recoilless guns. Under certain conditions and at reduced speeds, it was possible for the Kettenkrad to pull loads of up to 4 tons over short distances, but such feats put a severe strain on its capabilities. The SdKfz 2 Kettenkrad was a vehicle design unique to the German Army. It served throughout the entire war in all theatres with all branches of the army, including armoured units, and airborne formations. In total some 8,345 examples of the Kettenkrad were built, and in post-war use were employed in a variety of roles including forestry work, where its cross-country capability was greatly appreciated.

Kettenkrad in use towing a small trailer to move supplies.

The Kettenkrad could tow light anti-tank guns or trailers with supplies over short distances to move essential loads. It also had a number of functions on the battlefield including laying cables for telephones. The vehicle could carry two men on the rear such as medics or signallers with their equipment in a trailer.

Volkswagen

When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933 he asked manufacturers to begin production of trucks and cars that would have a military application as well as civilian use. One such manufacturer was Ferdinand Porsche, whom Hitler asked to develop a Volkswagen or ‘People’s Car’ that was inexpensive and easy to manufacture. It was intended to be a mass-produced family vehicle, but what resulted was ideally suited as the basic vehicle for military use. In the 1930s the German motor industry underwent a radical change in an attempt to reduce development and production costs. For example, four companies, Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer, combined to form the Auto Union AG in November 1931, with the government of the Weimar Republic at the time investing financial backing into this amalgamation. Two years later, when Hitler and the Nazi Party was elected, even more money was ploughed into developing the motor industry and it has been estimated that investment more than doubled in two years from 5 million marks in 1933 to some 11 million marks by 1935, at a time when around thirty-six companies were producing vehicles.

All branches of the German armed forces used the Kubelwagen for liaison duties. This reproduction version of the Kubelwagen built for the film Where Eagles Dare shows how it could be armed with a machine gun for self-defence (above right).

With the Anschluss, or annexation of Austria, in 1938, Germany acquired the motor industry of Czechoslovakia, which provided a huge manufacturing base with the capacity to produce all types of motor vehicles. Thousands of Czechoslovakian factories produced millions of tons of chemicals, textiles, steel, ammunition and leather for boots. The tanks were used to equip the newly formed 7th and 8th Panzer Divisions which would serve in the campaigns of 1940 and the rail network would be vital, also. There were 1,500 aircraft in service with the air force in 1938 and the Czechoslovakian Army had thirty-five divisions. Some troops would continue to fight as German allies until May 1945.

By now there were over 100 different types of trucks being produced, some fifty-five types of cars and 150 forms of motorcycle. It was obvious that streamlining had to be introduced and this number was reduced to create a more efficient industry. The number of truck designs was reduced by a massive 80 per cent so that only nineteen types were produced. The different types of cars were reduced down to thirty, from which Ferdinand Porsche’s Volkswagen would emerge. It was a radical move but it reduced waste and introduced a range of commonality in parts. When war broke out the Type 62 car was already being used in a range of liaison roles. However, following experiences in the Polish campaign, the army asked for a more refined vehicle with better off-road capabilities. This resulted in the Type 82 or Kubelwagen (bucket-seat car). It was a very basic vehicle with no frills, which lent itself to a range of duties and was even developed into some variations, not all of which were successful. There were types of vans and even an ambulance version, while the Type 82/1 was a radio vehicle with three seats and the Type 82/7 was a command car. Production of the Type 82 commenced in February 1940 and continued until 1945, by which time almost 50,500 vehicles had been built.

The Type 82 Kubelwagen

Vehicle Name	Manufacturer	Production Date	Armament	Weight	Max. Speed
Type 82 Kubelwagen	Ferdinand Porsche	1940	7.92mm machine gun	0.7 tons	50mph

It was a basic 4x2, four-seat vehicle fitted with a four-cylinder, air-cooled engine rated at 985cc, 23bhp, to give speeds of up to 50mph. In 1943 a larger engine of 1,131cc, 25bhp was fitted which gave more power. The vehicle was highly successful in service, especially in Russia. The Kubelwagen measured 12ft 6in long, 5ft 4in wide and the height with the canvas roof erected was 5ft 6in. The windscreen could be folded down and the driving controls were very simple. It weighed 0.7 tons in its basic form but weights varied according to the role and the version. For example, the Type 276 Schlepperfahrzeug version, produced in 1944, was fitted with a tow hook that allowed it to tow the 3.7cm-calibre PaK35/36 anti-tank gun and carry the gun crew and ammunition.

The Volkswagen Schwimmwagen

Another liaison vehicle used by the German Army was the Volkswagen Schwimmwagen, of which more than 15,500 were built between 1941 and 1944. The Schwimmwagen used many of the same automotive and electrical systems as the Kubelwagen and the Type 87 command car, having a rear-mounted VW Boxer four-cylinder air-cooled petrol engine rated at 1,131cc to give 25hp at 3,000rpm. This allowed the vehicle to be driven at speeds of up to 50mph off-road, while its fuel capacity of 11 gallons, stored in two separate tanks of 5.5 gallons each, gave it an operational range of over 320 miles. Initially it was intended that the vehicle would serve as a replacement for motorcycle combinations and indeed the term Kradschützen Ersatzwagen (motorcycle troops replacement vehicle) was given to the first production models. These early vehicles had a wheelbase length of 7.8ft and were referred to as the Porsche 128. The design was almost certainly the creation of Erwin Komenda, a leading design engineer at Porsche. The first vehicles proved the feasibility of the amphibious design, but they also showed up a structural weakness in the hull that caused stress fracturing during cross-country operations.

This problem was overcome by reducing the length of the wheelbase to 6ft 6in exactly and this became the most commonly produced version, known as the Volkswagen Type 166 or Schwimmwagen. The German Army had never really seen a need for light amphibious vehicles and although an earlier design called the Trippel had preceded the Type 166 by a few years it was never built in the same numbers as the Volkswagen vehicle. The Schwimmwagen was a 4x4 and entered service with the German Army and Waffen-SS units, who deployed it to units across Europe and into Russia where its fording capabilities made it valuable in crossing the many rivers. In the freezing winter conditions of the Russian steppes a special cold weather starting fluid had to be used on the vehicle and this was kept in containers in the engine compartment, but the engine’s air-cooled design meant that it suffered less in the sub-zero conditions than the conventionally liquid-cooled engines on heavier vehicles.

The four-speed gearbox provided 4x4 drive but only when driven in first gear. There were no doors for the obvious reason that they would have compromised the watertight design. The body was made of an all-welded design known as a unitised ‘bodytub’ structure, which gave it the appearance of a cross between a bathtub and a dinghy fitted with wheels. The body had a sharp incline to the front end that permitted it to be driven directly into the water smoothly and to exit most riverbanks. The Schwimmwagen was approximately 12.5ft in overall length and measured 4.8ft wide and 5.2ft high. It weighed just over 2,000lb and, while it could be armed with a machine gun such as an MG34 or MG42, the vehicle did not always carry armament, apart from the personal weapons of the crew. It was usually operated by two men but four could be carried to operate in the liaison role, although this would have been a very tight squeeze. A canvas cover could be erected in inclement weather, but most wartime photographs show it without the cover.

Owner of a restored Schwimmwagen testing it in the water (top). The Schwimmwagen was a useful liaison vehicle on the land as well as being amphibious.

The vehicle’s propeller system, for movement in the water, comprised a triple-bladed propeller that was stored upright when driving on roads and manually lowered only on entering water. Power take-off came from the engine crankshaft and through the mechanism, which engaged in a dog clutch. The propeller provided forward motion only and the driver turned the steering wheel to turn the front wheels to guide the vehicle in the direction required, the same as driving on the road. If the vehicle had to reverse in the water or if a river crossing had to be completed in silence, paddles were provided. An alternative method of reversing in the water was for the driver to engage reverse gear and simply drive the vehicle with the rotation of the wheels providing momentum. Due to the propeller design the Schwimmwagen could never be used to tow trailers because a tow hook would have got in the way, so it was restricted to liaison duties.

Under its own power in the water just as it would have been when in service (left). Very basic driving controls of the Schwimmwagen (right).

Preparations for the Normandy Landings

At the beginning of 1944 Germany had 320 divisions either fighting or serving as occupation forces. Of this figure there were 206 divisions fighting in Russia, fifty in France and the Low Countries, twenty-two in Italy, twenty-four in the Balkans and eighteen in Norway and Denmark. In June 1944 the Russian offensives were in danger of running out of supplies because of the rapidity of their advance, which meant the supply columns could not keep up with the tanks and troops. This was what the Germans had experienced three years earlier as they advanced on Moscow, Stalingrad and Leningrad, but following their failure at Kursk in 1943 General Manstein stated that ‘the initiatives in the Eastern Theatre of war finally passed to the Russians’. But unlike the German Army, which was always short of provisions, the Russians had plenty of supplies, manpower and, above all, time. At the same time that Mark Clark was entering Rome, decisions were being made in England that would affect the entire course of the war in Europe. Supreme Allied Commander General ‘Ike’ Eisenhower was about to give the word to launch the invasion of Europe. On the evening of 5 June, ships from ports all along the south coast of England and up the west coast to Wales set sail to rendezvous in total darkness in the middle of the English Channel at a point code-named Piccadilly Circus. An elaborate deception plan known as Fortitude South had led the Germans to believe the invasion would be directed against the Pas de Calais coast, the shortest crossing point between England and France. The deception created a phantom force called First US Army Group (FUSAG), but beyond some vehicles pouring out radio signals there was no such unit. The Allies knew that the Pas de Calais area was heavily defended and Brittany was too far away, which only left the Normandy coast as a credible landing point. Over many months the Allies had been building up a detailed picture of the landing points where their invasion force, larger than anything seen before, would go ashore.

The build-up for the invasion turned Britain into one gigantic airfield and vehicle parks sprang up all over the place such as Saltram Park in Devon where elements of the US 4th Infantry Division were based along with other units such as the 75th Medical Battalion (Armoured), 858 Quartermaster Fumigation & Bath, Company M, Detachment M and the 4059 Quartermaster Service Corps, 389 Engineer General Service Regiment, 2nd Battalion, Company D. All across the country, lanes, roads and fields were all used to disperse tanks and hide artillery and trucks to prevent them from being spotted by German reconnaissance aircraft. The Americans arriving in Britain had a lot to learn when it came to understanding the ways of their Allies. First was the fact that they had to learn to drive on the left-hand side of the road, which, to them, was the wrong side. When they arrived in Europe it was back to normal for them and driving on the right-hand side. They also had to come to terms with phrases for everyday things such as petrol, for which they used the term ‘gas’ from gasoline. Part of a humorous poem penned to highlight these differences included the lines:

I drive on the left here in England,

By ‘lorry’ and not in a truck;

And when I’m spending my money

‘Five Shillings’ is limey for buck.

My auto won’t run without ‘petrol’,

And ‘cheerio’ I use for goodbye;

A ‘clippie’s’ a street-car conductor,

I say ‘bloke’ instead of guy

The Tank Destroyer

One particular form of armoured vehicle that began to arrive in readiness for the invasion was the category known as the tank destroyer. The Americans would come to make good use of these powerful vehicles when they engaged German tanks in Europe. One design of tank destroyer that earned a very good reputation for total dependability in combat was the M18 Hellcat. The origins of this vehicle were chequered and the development of the concept was not without its fair share of problems. It was initially planned to arm the new tank destroyer with a 37mm-calibre gun, but when the poor performance of this calibre weapon was observed in combat it was revised and a larger weapon of 57mm calibre was called for. The development programme was designated the T–49 gun motor carriage and would still be subject to further modifications. For example, the suspension was originally to be Christie-style and the vehicle was to weigh around 11.8 tons. What resulted was a vehicle fitted with helical springs that were not of the Christie type and powered by twin Buick engines that gave an impressive speed of 50mph. It all seemed to be a promising start but even so there were those who believed that there was still room for improvement. Changes were made and further weapon-firing tests led to the recommendation that an M3 75mm-calibre gun, of the type being fitted to the M4 Sherman tank, be used in place of the 57mm gun. This resulted in the T–67 version of the tank destroyer and although approved by the Armoured Vehicle Board it would be modified even further. Tank Destroyer Command suggested increasing the calibre of the gun to 76mm and adding torsion-bar suspension and an air-cooled Continental R–975-C4 nine-cylinder petrol radial engine. This developed 400hp at 2,400rpm to produce road speeds of 55mph, making it one of the fastest vehicles of its type to see service during the Second World War.

M18 Hellcat tank destroyer had a long development history and was a latecomer into the war.

What the many changes had produced was in effect an entirely different vehicle from the original idea. In all, six pilot vehicles were prepared for trials in the programme, which was now designated T–70. These trials met with favourable comments despite the fact that the vehicle now weighed almost 19 tons, a big difference compared to the original design limit. The new M1A1 76mm gun with its muzzle brake was fitted in an open-topped turret with a full 360-degree traverse capability with elevation between −10 degrees and +19 degrees, and would prove to be highly effective against enemy armour. For example, the M62 armour piercing ammunition had a muzzle velocity of 2,600ft per second and could penetrate 102mm of armour. A total of forty-five rounds were carried for the main armament and almost 1,000 rounds for the .50in-calibre heavy machine gun mounted on a race-ring in the top of the turret, which was used for close support.

The M8 armoured car, known to the British as the Greyhound, was a fast, useful reconnaissance vehicle. The .50in-calibre machine gun could be fitted on a race-ring or pintel mounting. The M8 was armed with a 37mm main gun, a .30in co-axial machine gun and a heavier .50in machine gun. Weapons had to be cleaned using rods fitted with brushes (above).

The Army Service Forces were impressed enough by this version that they placed an order for 1,000 vehicles of the T–70 design. The bow machine gun, which was a feature on other US tank designs such as the M4 Sherman, M24 Chaffee and M3 light tank, was omitted on the T–70 thereby removing a man from the vehicle’s crew. The new tank destroyer was operated by a five-man crew in keeping with tank crew numbers. By February 1944, as the final plans were being drawn up for the D-Day invasion and the build-up of equipment continued, the T–70 was officially designated the M18 tank destroyer with the term ‘Hellcat’ being applied. The Hellcat was 21ft 10in long, 9ft 5in wide and 8ft 5in high to the top of the turret. Savings had reduced the combat weight down to 16.8 tons and, with tracks slightly wider than usual, it had a very low ground pressure. The new vehicle had five road wheels and four return rollers with the drive sprocket at the front and the idler wheel at the rear. It had an operational road range of 104 miles, which may not sound a lot, but it was comparable to the Sherman and Chaffee tanks, although less than the M10 tank destroyer. The Hellcat was an ideal ambush vehicle and could be manoeuvred into position to catch enemy tanks unawares, which was just as well because in a fire-fight against, say, a Panzer IV, it would not have survived due to the fact that the armour protection was only between 7.9mm and 25.4mm in thickness. The Hellcat could negotiate vertical obstacles of up to 3ft, span trenches of more than 6ft wide and cross water obstacles up to depths of 4ft.

The M8 was used from 1943 onwards and used throughout the European campaign in 1944–45.

Vehicle Name	Manufacturer	Production Date	Armament	Weight	Max. Speed
M18 Hellcat	Buick Motor Division of General Motors	1943	57mm-calibre gun	16.8 tons	50mph
M10	General Motors	1942	76mm M7 gun or M36 90mm-calibre gun	29.5 tons	30mph
Achilles	Royal Arsenal Woolwich	1943	17-pounder anti-tank gun	29 tons	32mph

The crews who served in tank destroyer units liked the Hellcat, and its usefulness on the battlefield was recognised. Indeed, by October 1944 more than 2,000 M18s had been built by the Buick Motor Division of General Motors and plans were on the drawing board to develop a series of variants from the basic vehicle. In August 1944, for example, the Ordnance Department planned to produce a version armed with a T–12 105mm howitzer in a programme called T–88. In the end only a prototype was produced and the project was dropped in August 1945. As early as June 1944 the idea of developing the M18 into a prime mover known as the M39 Armoured Utility Vehicle was considered for towing the M6 3in anti-tank gun, and another idea was to develop a reconnaissance version, the T–41E1, followed by an APC vehicle. In each case the turret, with its distinctive bustle, would have been removed, the internal layout modified and the number of crew reduced to three men. By the end of the Second World War, 640 versions had been produced for other roles including reconnaissance and command vehicles. Other tank destroyer designs were also developed such as the 29.5-ton M10 armed with 76mm M7 gun, which entered service in 1942 and was also used by the British Army. The British Army also used the British-developed ‘Achilles’ armed with the 17-pounder anti-tank gun. The M10 had a road speed of 30mph and an operational range of 200 miles on roads. By the time of the Normandy campaign some M10 tank destroyers had been produced armed with the more powerful M36 90mm-calibre gun. It was these types of vehicles and others such as the M8 armoured cars, known to the British Army as the ‘Greyhound’, M7 SPG, half-tracks and M5 light tanks that were all being assembled for the invasion of Europe.

Harley-Davidson

Vehicle Name	Manufacturer	Production Date	Armament	Weight	Max. Speed
Model 50 WLA	Harley-Davidson			562lb	65mph

Lighter vehicles such as the Jeep became a familiar sight on the roads all across Britain and were joined by other wheeled vehicles including the heavy, powerful military motorcycles built by Harley-Davidson. The most widely used type was the Model 50 WLA fitted with a 45 cid flat-head side-valve engine, which could reach speeds of up to 65mph and was used for duties such as convoy escort, traffic control, liaison and for dispatch riders. The machine weighed 562lb and the fuel tank had a capacity of over 3 gallons, giving it an operational range of 120 miles. It could ford water obstacles of up to 16in deep and panniers or saddlebags were fitted over the rear wheel for carrying various items of kit. A holster for the rider’s personal weapon was fitted by the front wheel for easy reach.

Harley-Davidson combination equipped as a medical support vehicle. It also carries spare fuel cans for extended operations.

It was in 1903 that two friends, William S. Harley and Arthur Davidson, both motorcycle enthusiasts, set up the company that bore their name in Milwaukee in Wisconsin. Their machines soon gained a reputation so that by 1916 the US military were using them for patrol duties during the Mexican Border War. When America entered the First World War in 1917 Harley-Davidson supplied the military with 15,000 machines. Between the wars times were hard, but sales to the military still remained, albeit in reduced numbers. When America entered the Second World War in 1941 it was only natural that Harley-Davidson should supply motorcycles to the army. This was the 740cc WL design, which was given a suffix letter ‘A’ to denote army; while the US Navy also used the motorcycles the army used the greatest number of the 90,000 machines supplied. Harley-Davidson also built machines for the Canadian forces, known as 43 WLC and even supplied 30,000 more to the Soviet Union under the Lend-Lease Act from 1941. In 1942 the company built the XA model, which was a copy of the German BMW R71 motorcycle but it proved too expensive to produce and only around 1,000 were ever built.

The Harley-Davidson was a powerful machine able to cope with most conditions. Here it is fully equipped for dispatch-riding duties. It is also fitted with a holster for the rider’s personal weapon.

Operation Overlord

Training in preparation was conducted in areas around Britain where locations were found that were similar to those facing the Allies in France. For example, US rangers trained with Royal Marine Commandos on the cliffs in Swanage Bay, Dorset, where the chalky rock face resembled the feature at Pointe du Hoc, which the rangers would have to climb to attack a gun battery. Villages such as Castlemartin in Wales and Imber in Wiltshire were evacuated to allow the troops to practise firing and vehicle tactics. Villages in Devon were also evacuated, including Blackanton, Chillington, East Allington, Sherford, Slapton, Stokenham, Strete and Torcross. As the invasion date approached so the intensity of the training increased. British airborne forces practised on a specially constructed site at Inkpen, near Reading in Berkshire, and in Devon some 30,000 US troops began to arrive from December 1943 along with 16 million tons of stores and equipment to train for amphibious landings. For five months one major exercise after another was conducted, culminating in Exercise Tiger, which was scheduled to last for eight days. On the night of 27/28 May 1944 a convoy of several vessels left Plymouth and headed towards Slapton Sands in Lyme Bay, where the landings were to take place including vehicles and infantry. A chance encounter by German Schnellboots (torpedo boats) intercepted the convoy in the dark and fired a number of torpedoes that hit some of the vessels. A total of 749 soldiers and sailors were killed and many vehicles were lost including Sherman duplex drive (DD) ‘Swimming’ tanks, which had been developed for the actual invasion. There is discrepancy in the total figures and some sources put the figure higher. A memorial has been established to commemorate the tragic loss and the figures quoted here are taken from the roll of honour, which lists the names of those killed.

The incident did not affect the decision to mount Operation Overlord, as the invasion plan to land along the Normandy coast was designated. The Allies had learned many valuable lessons from operations such as Dieppe in 1942 and other raids had added to this and also helped them to build up a comprehensive intelligence picture concerning German defences and dispositions. They had also developed a whole range of specialist vehicles and a series of massive floating pontoons code-named Mulberry harbours, which would be towed across to the landing beaches where they would be assembled to allow vehicles and supplies to be taken ashore to support the troops. These massive structures had been built because operations had shown how vital it was to have port facilities to unload supplies to maintain the offensive. There would be two such harbours, which were designed with roadways that floated up and down with the tide to allow unloading to continue regardless of the state of the tide. The ‘A’ Mulberry was the American structure for the landings on the Omaha beachhead and the ‘B’ British harbour was built at Arromanches. The operation was the largest ever undertaken by the Allies during the entire war.

On the morning of 6 June 1944 an armada of 5,000 vessels of all types assembled off the Normandy coast, preparing to land 160,000 troops at five separate beachheads at different times due to the state of the tide. Some were designated as ‘LSIs’ (landing ships infantry) and others with bows that opened to permit vehicles to be driven out were called ‘LSTs’ (landing ships tank), but nicknamed ‘large slow targets’ by the Royal Navy. During the night of 5/6 June, 24,500 British and American airborne troops were landed by parachute or glider but scattered over a wide area, causing the Germans to dispatch troops to search for and capture them. The first landings over the beaches were made following a massive naval bombardment with air support from 8,000 aircraft. The troops had been given specific targets that they were designated to capture by nightfall, including the city of Caen, but this was not achieved and only a few objectives were taken. This was the first phase of the operation – to break in. The second phase would be to hold and the third phase would be the breakout.

At the end of the first day of fighting during Operation Overlord, the Allies managed to land some 150,000 troops across a 50-mile-wide area. Of the five beachheads only the western flank of the Canadian beach at Juno succeeded in linking up with the eastern flank of the British Gold beachhead, but the other three would not link up properly for some days to come. The German 21st Panzer Division did attack between the eastern flank of Juno and the western flank of the British Sword beachhead, but anti-tank gunners drove them back. The Juno beachhead was designated to be assaulted by 21,500 troops, and so many vehicles landed that it became congested and the movement area was reduced by 25 per cent, which threatened to bring operations to a halt. Things were eventually sorted out by beach masters and traffic controllers. The landings were supported by DD tanks and other specialist vehicles of the 79th Armoured Division. At some points the DD tanks were landed ‘dry’, which is to say that they were not launched at sea but were brought directly to the beaches and driven ashore. At the American beachhead code-named Omaha, the landing craft bringing the troops ashore were launched 12 miles out to sea. There were thirty-two DD Sherman tanks designated to support the landings here and these were launched 3.5 miles out from the beach, a distance they were never designed to cover. They became caught in a cross current and, not being able to cope with such conditions, twenty-seven sank. The Americans also turned down the use of specialist vehicles from the 79th Armoured Division and the landings were fiercely contested with over 2,000 casualties by nightfall. At the second American beachhead, code-named Utah, the landings were opposed but casualties were relatively light with only 214 men killed. But problems did arise and the landings here fell behind schedule and two days after the landings 32,000 men of a planned 39,722 had been landed, along with 3,200 vehicles out of a planned 4,732. The level of supplies was also greatly reduced, with only 2,500 tons landed out of a planned 7,000 tons. Nevertheless, Utah beach would come to be more important later in the campaign and the numbers of troops, vehicles and supplies passing through the area would be staggering.

The Germans mounted stiff resistance but the Allies continued to land and managed to get some 900 tanks and other AFVs ashore. Over the next forty-eight hours 1,500 tanks were landed across the beaches, which would be the number of tanks the Germans would lose during the Normandy campaign. Germany once again now found itself fighting a war on three fronts: in Italy, Russia and now France. The pressure on the fighting forces of the German Army was relentless and they were being squeezed by armies that between them had more than 20,000 tanks and thousands more other types of AFVs including SPGs, and vast fleets of trucks to haul supplies and artillery. The Allies had unrestricted access to oil for fuel while Germany by contrast was running out and having to resort to other means of obtaining fuel for the tanks and trucks. Germany, for example, had vast reserves of coal and scientists developed a method of extracting synthetic oil from the coal to keep the vehicles moving. In 1938 Germany had been producing around 3.8 million barrels of synthetic oil annually but by 1944 this had been increased to 12 million barrels to supplement the oil still coming from the Romanian fields. The crisis could only deepen as the war continued and by November 1944 it was reported that the army ‘had become virtually immobile because of the fuel shortage’. It was all very well with the factories still producing vehicles and tanks and ammunition and guns, but without fuel to power them and no crews to drive them they were completely useless. Between the shortage of fuel and the effects of the bombing campaign, the level of supplies required could not get through to the front-line units; the war had entered a stage of attrition and it was only a question of time before Germany ran out of everything from troops to trucks and could no longer fight. That would take time, which was something the Allies had, but it would be in their interest to finish the war sooner rather than later. In the period leading up to the invasion of France, the Allies had bombed bridges, railway depots and roads, the loss of which would disrupt lines of supply. In fact, of the 2,000 locomotives in France at the time, it is estimated that air attacks destroyed 1,500 and reduced the rail capacity to 40 per cent of its full capability. To make good these deficiencies the Allies also brought replacement locomotives with them.

Mulberry Harbours

The first parts of the massive Mulberry harbours were brought into place on 7 June and the construction of the whole operation was undertaken by a workforce of engineers. It was planned to use the structures to bring 7,000 tons of supplies ashore each day by D+4 (or 10 June). By D+8 (or 14 June) the average daily rate of supplies being unloaded through the Mulberry harbours was 12,000 tons and the British Mulberry at Arromanches allowed 16,000 troops to be brought ashore. At the American Mulberry harbour, 20,000 reinforcement troops were being landed and by D+11 (or 17 June) 22,000 tons of supplies were brought ashore being driven directly from ships on trucks and DUKWS, which could drive inland to supply depots. On D-Day, 6 June, a fleet of 2,000 DUKWs were used to bring supplies directly to the shore and delivered an estimated 40 per cent of all supplies on the day of the landings. On 18 June a powerful storm hit the Normandy coast, badly damaging the Mulberry harbours and destroying around 100 landing craft at the American Mulberry, which was declared irreparable but was still used. About 850 other vessels were destroyed or damaged along the landing area, but troops and supplies were still landed even if the levels did drop until repairs were completed. The British Mulberry continued to be used, allowing 12,000 tons of supplies to be landed even during the storm. The Mulberry harbours were only intended to be used for 100 days or until a deep-water port was captured, but this was not achieved until the port of Antwerp in Belgium was captured several months later, meaning that all supplies to support the Allied advance had to be brought over the Utah beachhead and through the British Mulberry harbour at Arromanches. The capture of the port at Cherbourg did help the situation but the facilities there had been badly damaged by the Germans, which limited the services it could provide. By late 1944 the Allies had brought 2.5 million men into the European theatre of operations this way, along with 500,000 vehicles and 4 million tons of supplies.

Memorial dedicated to the villagers of Devon who gave up their homes to allow training for D-Day to take place.

Memorial to the tragic loss during Exercise Tiger at Slapton Sands in Devon.

Sherman tank memorial at Slapton Sands.

Example of the beach obstacle facing the tanks on D-Day and which had to be dealt with by specialist armour or engineers.

View across Omaha beachhead, where twenty-seven of the Sherman DD ‘Swimming’ tanks sank on their way to the shore.

Rommel was absent in Germany, where he had been asking for more armour to be released to the Normandy area but Hitler was adamant that those divisions in the Pas de Calais region would remain where they were. On the night of the invasion, Hitler had taken medication to sleep and although the alert was sounded, no one wanted to wake him. The result was crucial to the German Army and favourable to the Allies. It had been Montgomery’s intention to draw as much German armour on to his Anglo-Canadian beachheads as possible in order to give the Americans some respite. His tactics worked and by comparison only a fraction of armoured units faced the Americans, but they would encounter strong resistance as they moved inland into the part of the countryside known as the Bocage. This terrain consisted of farmers’ fields fringed by dense hedgerows, which made ideal camouflage for tanks to conceal themselves behind. To overcome this problem Sergeant Curtis Culin, serving with the 102nd Cavalry Reconnaissance, devised an attachment that could be fitted to the front of tanks to rip through the hedgerows. He suggested that metal girders that had been used as obstacles by the Germans be cut up and welded to form ‘teeth-like’ frames that could be mounted on the front of tanks such as the M5 Honey or M4 Sherman. The conversion could be made in the field using equipment and material to hand so there was no delay. The idea was an instant success and the device was referred to as the ‘Culin Cutter’.

The M5 Stuart Light Tank

Production of the M5 Stuart light tank started in March 1942 on the Cadillac assembly line in Detroit. Its design from the earlier M3 Honey was apparent in the style but it was built using welded construction as opposed to rivets. There was no real difference between the M5 and M5A1 version, except that the latter was heavier by some 300lb and the fuel capacity was 3 gallons less, which reduced its combat range by several miles. Both versions were 14ft 6.75in long, 7ft 4.5in wide and 7ft 6.5in high. The main armament was a 37mm gun for which 123 rounds were carried, including high explosive, armour-piercing and canister, which could be used against infantry and soft-skinned vehicles. Top speed was 40mph and vertical obstacles up to 2ft high were not a problem to this vehicle, which weighed less than 15 tons in either version. One .30in-calibre machine gun was mounted co-axially in the turret, a second was fitted in a ball mounting in the bow and a third dismountable machine gun could be fitted to the roof of the turret. The M5 was used in combat for the first time during Operation Torch and they were deployed to the Pacific to combat the Japanese tanks and bunkers on the islands. During the Normandy Landings some were fitted with extensions to their exhaust for deep-water wading. Three other variants were also built including the command vehicle, which lacked a turret and was armed with only a .50in-calibre machine gun. The M5 Dozer also lacked a turret and blade for moving earth was fitted to the front. The M8 howitzer motor carriage was armed with a 75mm howitzer for which forty-six rounds were carried. In all some 1,800 of these were built and used in action in Europe.

Equipped with the Culin Cutter, the M5 could break through hedgerows to surprise the enemy.

The command version of the M5 Stuart light tank lacked a turret and carried a .50in-calibre machine gun and a .30in-calibre machine gun

The command version of the M5 Stuart light tank was one of several variants. The gunner’s position inside had a cramped interior (top right). The M5 Stuart light tank saw service in North Africa (above).

Vehicle Name	Manufacturer	Production Date	Armament	Weight	Max. Speed
M5 Stuart light tank	Cadillac Division, General Motors	1941	37mm gun and 2x .30in-calibre machine guns	15 tons	40mph

The M5 Stuart light tank was a useful vehicle for reconnaissance roles and was used during the Normandy Landings in June 1944. For wading through deep water it was fitted with extensions to the exhaust.

During the Normandy campaign the Germans lost men and equipment at an alarming rate and at one point Rommel received only 6,000 troops to replace 29,000 casualties. Vehicles could not be easily replaced and his men were fighting hard actions such as that conducted by SS-Obersturmführer (Lieutenant) Michael Wittmann at the town of Villers-Bocage on 13 June. Wittmann was serving with Schwere SS Panzer-Abteilung 101 and was a veteran of the fighting in Russia, where his personal score of enemy tanks was eighty-eight destroyed, along with numerous other vehicles. On 13 June Wittmann was in his Tiger tank when he encountered a column of vehicles of 22nd Armoured Brigade of the 7th Armoured Division parked up and not fully alert. Wittmann engaged the convoy and destroyed five Cromwell tanks, one Sherman Firefly, three M5 Honey light tanks, two observation tanks and several other vehicles including half-tracks. His attack was only ended when his tank was knocked out by a 6-pounder anti-tank gun, but Wittmann survived. By July the Allies had achieved two phases of the invasion by breaking in and succeeded in holding the gains they had made. Now they had to break out, and Montgomery had plans to do just that; Patton, who did not arrive in France until 6 July, would be part of the breakout. On 26 June Montgomery ordered the start of Operation Epsom, which was to penetrate to the west of Caen. Four days later, after encountering fierce opposition, the attack was called off with 4,000 casualties, but they had inflicted at least 3,000 casualties on the Germans and destroyed 126 tanks. Montgomery tried again on 18 July by ordering Operation Goodwood to attack east of Caen with more than 1,100 tanks available to the attack. Again the Germans mounted fierce resistance and destroyed or seriously damaged 400 tanks and inflicted 4,000 casualties. The Germans had sustained high losses, which have never been accurately computed, but they had lost 2,500 taken prisoner and 100 tanks destroyed by the time the attack was suspended on 20 June. Over to the west the Americans, commanded by Patton, were planning their own operation, code-named Cobra, which began on 25 July with the support of 2,451 tanks and tank destroyers. Facing them the Germans had deployed 190 tanks and assault guns including the Sturmgeschütz III, often abbreviated to simply StuG. III and being a specialised vehicle it was given the Sonderkraftfahrzeug title of SdKfz 142.

The StuG. III

The StuG. III was developed between 1935 and 1936 following the specifications as laid down by the German Army Weapons Department. The armaments manufacturer Daimler-Benz was responsible for providing the chassis, which was based on the design used on the Panzer III tank. The engine was a Maybach HL120TRM V–12 water-cooled petrol engine, of the same type as fitted to the Models E to N of the Panzer III, which developed 300bhp at 3,000rpm to give a road speed of 25mph and a cross-country speed of 15mph. The gun chosen to arm the StuG. III was of 75mm calibre and as an assault gun the design of the new vehicle was a departure away from conventional tank design lacking, as it did, a turret and upper superstructure. The StuG. III had an extremely reduced silhouette which meant that the gun was mounted very low down in the hull. The overall height was kept down to 9ft 6in, making it one of the lowest vehicles in the war. The main armament was a short-barrelled StuK 37 L/24 of 75mm calibre, for which at least forty-five rounds were carried, fitted into a fixed mounting, slightly offset to the right with the fighting compartment accommodating the crew with the driver’s position to the left of the gun.

Vehicle Name	Manufacturer	Production Date	Armament	Weight	Max. Speed
StuG. III Ausf. A	Daimler-Benz	1940	75mm-calibre StuK 37 L/24	19.6 tons	25mph
StuG. III Ausf. B	Daimler-Benz	1940–41		20.2 tons	25mph

The first examples of the StuG. III were given the Ausf. A designation and only thirty production vehicles of this design were built before modifications were introduced. This led to the Ausf. B version, of which 320 were built. The first StuG. III vehicles entered service in January 1940, which according to some sources were five prototypes that participated in the blitzkrieg into France in May that same year. Production did not begin in earnest until July 1940, and even so deliveries were slow and by the end of the year only 184 had been built, with an average monthly production rate of only thirty vehicles. However, once production was up and running, factories built over 9,400 between 1940 and 1944 with models A to G. Units equipped with the StuG. III recorded 20,000 enemy tanks destroyed using this one type of vehicle alone and the vehicle was deployed to actions such as Kursk.

German Resistance and Allied Tactics

By the time Operation Cobra was concluded on 31 July the Germans had lost 100 tanks in the fighting along with more than 250 other types of AFV. The Allies were becoming more secure each day and although progress was slow they were pushing the enemy back, and the capture of three bridges intact at Avranches gave them a route across the River Sèe. Aircraft were destroying German armour and Panzer Lehr was 70 per cent ineffective and virtually finished as a fighting force. Between 6 and 8 August the Germans mounted a counter-attack, code-named Operation Luttich, aimed at Mortain, but after initial gains the attack faltered. On the day Luttich was halted, the Germans suffered another blow to morale when their tank ace Michael Wittmann was killed during a counter-attack near the village of St Aignan de Cramesnil in an attempt to recapture a feature known as Hill 112, which had been captured during the opening stages of the Anglo-Canadian attack, Operation Totalise. Several Tigers from SS Panzer Abteilung 101 supported by a number of PzKw IV tanks and other vehicles were engaged by a squadron of Sherman Fireflys from the 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry of 33rd Armoured Brigade. Close to the wooded area of Delle de la Roque a Firefly opened fire with its 17-pounder gun and destroyed Wittmann’s tank.

German resistance was crumbling but they kept fighting even though they were receiving almost no reinforcements. Fighting had moved inland and in the small town of St Lambert a single PzKw V known as the Panther, with the designation SdKfz 171 and armed with a 75mm gun, halted the Canadian advance. Weighing 44.8 tons, the Panther had been the bane of Russian tank crews and in Normandy it had given the Allies an equally difficult time. It had been developed specifically to combat the Russian T–34 tank and between 1942 and 1945 5,508 were built. The Maybach HL230P30 twelve-cylinder was rated at 70hp to give a speed of 29mph on roads with a combat range of 124 miles. The first models were not reliable, being overweight and underpowered, and of the 200 deployed at Kursk, 160 were out of action due to mechanical failure. Even when repaired and sent back into action they were not improved and at the end of the battle only forty-three were still effective. In Normandy it was the powerful gun and the thickness of the armour, up to 100mm, that gave them a true edge over the Allies. After destroying fourteen Sherman tanks in succession, the Canadians approaching St Lambert decided on a different tactic. The next morning the aptly named Lieutenant Armour led a section of his men to attack the tank. They took it by surprise and, finding the hatch open, Lieutenant Armour dropped a grenade inside and the tank was destroyed. On the same day the Allies landed in the south of France in Operation Dragoon. With air support and airborne landings, a fleet of 880 vessels and 1,300 landing craft, a Franco-American army that would eventually build up to a force of 200,000 men was landed at points along the coast such as St Tropez and St Raphael. German resistance to the landings was relatively light and it was only when the fighting moved inland that the battle intensified. The campaign lasted until 14 September, during which time the Allies suffered around 20,000 killed, wounded and missing. The Germans lost 7,000 killed, 20,000 wounded and eventually the 130,000 trapped in the area would be taken prisoner. On the first day of the landings 11,000 vehicles were put ashore and the port facilities were intact, unlike those in the north of France which had been badly affected by the fighting. Indeed, so good were they that the Allies could unload 17,000 tons of supplies each day to support the campaign. Dragoon was a victory but it was also a victim of priority as the bulk of supplies still went to northern France.

A real StuG. III showing it was an efficient tank killer from Russia to France.

The StuG. was a tank killer with over 20,000 victims to its credit according to some sources.

Recreated StuG III. during a battle re-enactment showing how infantry rode into battle on its hull.

Looking very realistic this recreated StuG. III enters a battle re-enactment carrying infantry. The side plates are to protect it against anti-tank weapons.

Bombing the French railway system had served to make it difficult for the Germans to move reinforcements and supplies forward but as they retreated the advancing Allies came to face the same problem, caused by their own air forces. The solution was to create a special convoy system of trucks to move the mass of supplies forward. Supplying fuel to so many vehicles would be a problem and tankers would not be able to cope with demand. Instead a solution was devised whereby an underwater pipeline would be laid through which fuel would be pumped from England to depots in France. Being underwater it was safe from damage by enemy action. Called ‘Pipe Line Under The Ocean’, or ‘PLUTO’ for short, the first pipes were laid in August 1944 covering a distance of some 70 miles from Shanklin on the Isle of Wight to Cherbourg, and this was joined by other pipes as the Allies moved eastwards. Eventually there would be four pipes laid between Shanklin and Cherbourg. By January 1945 around 300 tons of fuel was being pumped through the pipes each day and this increased to 3,000 tons per day by March 1945. In total around 172 million gallons of fuel had been pumped by the time the war ended in May 1945.

Casualties and Ambulances

In England thousands of beds had been prepared at hospitals in readiness to receive the wounded coming back from France. Casualty clearing stations would have already treated the wounded, but they had to be evacuated from the battle area. The wounded were put into ambulances such as the American WC54 or the British-built Austin K2Y, nicknamed ‘Katy’ by the troops and RAMC staff that drove them. More than 13,000 of these useful ambulances were built between 1939 and 1945 and they served in all theatres and were capable of 50mph. They could carry four stretcher cases or ten seated or ‘walking’ wounded under normal conditions, but one exceptional account reports a K2Y ambulance carrying twenty-seven wounded during the North African campaign. The vehicle weighed 3 tons, was 18ft long, 7ft 5in wide and 9ft high. As part of the preparations in readiness for war the British Army formed a female unit called the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) in September 1938. This was not an entirely new idea because the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps had been created in 1917 for women serving as clerks, cooks and telephonists, but this had been disbanded in 1921. Now there was a very pressing need for more service personnel to fill these roles once again and even branch out into other duties. By 1940 there were 65,000 women serving in the ATS and by the end of the war this figure was 190,000. They were serving in mixed batteries of anti-aircraft defence units and thousands had been trained as drivers and some even as dispatch riders on motorcycles. Winston Churchill’s daughter, Mary, served in the ATS and Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain, qualified as a driver on the K2Y ambulance.

Austin K2Y ambulance, nicknamed ‘Katy’, in colours of British Army 21st Army Group in Europe.

Restored Austin K2Y ambulance seen here in RAF colours.

Fuel

It became apparent to the military planners that the amount of collateral damage caused to the railway infrastructure by strategic bombing would create problems in supplying the armies with provisions and reinforcements, including replacement tanks for those destroyed in the fighting. The railway tracks and rolling stock were smashed and the only alternative was to transport everything by road using trucks until the railways could be brought back into proper service. Major General Frank A. Ross, the US Army’s transportation chief, devised the ‘Red Ball Express’, which soon became a byword for re-supply. The rapidity of the German retreat and the speed of Patton’s advance meant that supplies could not be moved forward fast enough by normal methods if they were to keep pace with the advancing units. The term ‘Red Ball Express’ was derived from the US railways, which were known for their fast delivery of freight. It was the only way planners could see of solving the problem of delivering supplies. It operated a one-way road system, which by August ran from St Lô in Normandy to Versailles just outside of Paris. There the vehicles branched either north to Soissons to supply the US First Army commanded by General Courtney H. Hodges, or to the south towards Sommesous to supply the US Third Army under Patton. The system proved itself by supplying 400,000 tons of materiel in just over eleven weeks using an armada of almost 6,000 trucks, which were driven day and night. In one twelve-day period between 25 August and 6 September, the Red Ball Express delivered more than 81,500 tons of supplies, by which time the route extended some 300 miles. The drivers were reckless in delivering their cargoes and infantry marching on the roads risked being run down by the trucks passing non-stop. Soldiers tried to avoid the trucks and as one British soldier commented, the only way to avoid being killed by these trucks was to ‘not only get off the road but climb a tree’. Operating a fleet of trucks of this size was costly in fuel and the vehicles consumed 250,000 gallons each day, but the army had to be kept moving. For the Germans fuel was a scarce commodity, but for the Allies it was in plentiful supply.

Tankers, supply trucks and recovery vehicles were part of the Red Ball Express, which moved everything the army needed to keep fighting. Jimmy fuel tankers could fill the jerricans for individual vehicles.

All Jimmys could be covered at the rear with a canvas tarpaulin to protect the cargo. Driver’s position of the Jimmy seen from the left hand side showing simple driving controls (above left). As well as loads they also towed trailers for water or fuel.

Jimmys could be used to carry extraordinary loads to supply the troops.

Vehicle Name	Manufacturer	Production Date	Armament	Weight	Max. Speed
CCKW	General Motors	1941 onwards	Some equipped with .50in-calibre machine gun	5.3 tons	45mph

The trucks used in this convoy system were CCKW, built by GMC, and known by the troops as either the ‘Deuce-and-a-half’ or the ‘Jimmy’. They were capable of carrying payloads of up to 2.5 tons but in reality many were greatly overloaded due to the emergencies during battle. All could tow trailers and some were also developed for specialist roles such as the 750-gallon capacity fuel tanker and 700-gallon capacity water tanker, while others were converted to be used in bomb disposal, as medical support vehicles and fire trucks; the famous DUKW (‘Duck’) amphibious truck was also developed from the CCKW design. There were two basic types of these 6x6 trucks, the Short Wheel Base 352 and the Long Wheel Base 353 and either the closed cab or open cab versions. The CCKW lettering designated the year 1941 (C), conventional cab (C), all-wheel drive (K) and tandem rear axles (K). The basic version weighed 5.3 tons and measured 21.36ft long, 7.35ft wide and 9.19ft high. Between 1941 and 1945 General Motors produced over 562,000 of these trucks and other manufacturers took the production figure to more than 812,000 vehicles. The Jimmy was fitted with a GMC six-cylinder 269 cid 91.5hp engine, which gave road speeds of up to 45mph. It was thirsty on fuel and a 40-gallon fuel capacity would allow an operational range of 300 miles (7.5 miles to the gallon). Some Jimmys had provision for a .50in-calibre machine gun to be mounted above the cab roof for use in self-defence in case of attack.

The route being followed by the British Twenty-First Army commanded by Montgomery was considerably shorter but they were hit by a crisis when the fleet of 1,400 trucks capable of transporting 800 tons of supplies per day had to be taken out of service because they had been fitted with the wrong parts, which caused gearbox failure and led the vehicles to be withdrawn. The British Army operated a supply system called ‘Red Lion Express’, which was similar to the American system. This could have been a problem but the Allies were able to replace their losses from the huge stockpile of equipment that had been built up in Britain since 1942.

On 20 August the British and Americans finally linked up at Chambois, just south-west of Falaise, to where many Germans had managed to escape on foot. In their wake they left behind the debris of an army in full retreat. It was reminiscent of the British Army’s retreat to Dunkirk four years earlier and just like that army, the Germans had abandoned all their heavy equipment, including tanks, artillery and trucks because they were out of fuel and other non-essentials. They resorted to horses in many instances, which they commandeered from farms. Five days later the French capital Paris was liberated and the Normandy campaign was over. The city had been prepared for destruction, but the commandant, Major General Dietrich von Choltitz, declared it an open city to prevent destructive fighting. The fighting had cost the Germans 500,000 men killed, wounded or captured, the loss of 1,500 tanks, 3,500 guns and 20,000 other vehicles. The Allies had lost almost 210,000 killed, missing and wounded, and in terms of materiel the losses were great, but could be replaced. To supply the great city 2,400 tons of supplies had to be delivered daily by a fleet of military trucks until things began to return to some semblance of normality.

Jimmys were built with hard-topped cabs or canvas cabs as seen in the top image. Some were fitted with a mounting to be armed with a .50in-calibre machine gun (above left). Some were also fitted with front-mounted winches which could be used to help in the recovery of other vehicles (above). Others came with canvas roofs and no doors, but they could still carry a useful payload (left).

The Russian Front

On the Eastern Front the Russians had been biding their time and building up their resources in readiness for a series of massive offensives, but had been engaging the Germans to prevent them from guessing that anything was in the offing. News of the Allied landings in Normandy was delayed until 14 June because Stalin wanted to be sure the attack was a success. On 22 June, three years to the day since Germany had attacked them, the Russians launched an offensive on an unprecedented scale. This was Operation Bagration, which had been planned since April 1944 but the Russians had been conducting other operations since the end of 1943 and kept up a relentless pressure on the Germans. For the Russians, 1944 would become known as ‘The Year of Ten Victories’. The prelude to the first of these came on 14 January 1944 when a massive artillery barrage of 100,000 shells was fired on German forces, investing the city of Leningrad in just over an hour. The following day an even more intensive barrage lasting 105 minutes poured out 200,000 shells. The Germans were shattered and had nothing to respond with. The full weight of the Russian attack forced the Germans to pull back and after only twelve days of fighting the city was finally relieved after a siege lasting 890 days.

The T-34 was used to fight all the way into Berlin in April 1945. The T-34 was the mainstay of the Russian armoured divisions first with the 76mm gun and the more powerful 85mm seen here.

On another part of the front the Russians attacked the German pocket at Korsun, where 60,000 troops were surrounded. Their armoured vehicles were low on fuel and had to crawl slowly over the ice in sub-zero conditions. Supplies had to be pulled on horse-drawn sledges and everything was running out. The Luftwaffe tried to supply the group by airlift, but it was useless and many aircraft were lost as they attempted to drop provisions. By 17 February this outpost was destroyed. At least 30,000 men did escape, but they had to abandon all their equipment. The Russians continued to advance at all points along the front and forced the Germans back to Romania, Poland and Norway. In preparation for Bagration, which concentrated on the region of Minsk, an area held by the German Army Group Centre, the Russians assembled an artillery force of 285 guns per mile. When they opened fire at first light, the T–34 tanks supported by SU–122 assault guns rumbled forward. The Germans held a position called a salient, which bulged forward and allowed the Russians to attack from three sides: north, south and centre. Within three days the Germans had lost 20,000 killed and 10,000 captured, along with all their equipment and vehicles. Operation Bagration itself was completed on 3 July and had inflicted 350,000 casualties on the Germans. The Russians committed 2.3 million troops to the offensive along with 80,000 Polish troops supported by 2,715 tanks, 1,355 assault guns, 24,363 pieces of artillery and fleets of trucks. The Germans had 118 tanks, 377 assault guns and 2,589 pieces of artillery. The overall offensive lasted until 29 August, by which time the Russians had lost 2,957 tanks and assault guns and 2,447 pieces of artillery, and had only thirty-three divisions to face 133 Russian divisions.

Russian Vehicles

Vehicle Name	Manufacturer	Production Date	Armament	Weight	Max. Speed
T–26 light tank	Stalingrad Tractor Factory	1928–31	45mm-calibre gun	7.8 tons	14mph
BT–7 fast tank	KhPZ	1932–41	45mm-calibre gun and 2x 7.62mm DT machine guns	13.6 tons	46mph
T–40 amphibious tank	State factories	1941–42	12.7mm DShK and 7.62mm DT machine guns	4.8 tons	28mph
T–70 light tank	Factory 37 Kirov, GAZ Gorky	1941–42	45mm-calibre gun and 7.62mm DT machine gun	9 tons	28mph
BA–64 armoured car	GAZ	1942 onwards	7.62mm DT machine gun	2.3 tons	50mph
KV–1 heavy tank	Chelyabinsk Tractor Factory, state plants incl. Kirov Factory	1939 onwards	76.2mm main gun and 3x 7.62mm DT machine guns	46.3 tons	22mph
KV–2 heavy tank	Kirov Factory, ChTZ	1939–45	152mm howitzer and 2x 7.62mm DT machine guns	52.2 tons	26mph
T–34	Stalingrad Tractor Factory, state plants	1939 onwards	76.2mm main gun and 2x 7.62mm DT machine guns	27.6 tons	31mph

The KV-1 heavy tank was armed with the 76.2mm main gun.

Russian T-26 light tank was used during the Russo-Japanese War in Manchuria and also against the Germans throughout the war.

Seen here in post-war colours of the Egyptian Army, the Russian-built SU-100 was used by the Russians to destroy heavy German tanks such as the Tiger I and II. The SU-100 was introduced in 1944 and its 100mm gun could destroy the most powerful German tanks. It was used by several armies after the war.

The Russian Army had entered the war with a massive tank force calculated to have been 24,000 vehicles strong, but most of these were obsolete and no match for the fast, modern German tanks. The tactics they employed meant that they did not stand a chance against the massed forces of the panzer divisions. Following one defeat after another, the Russians finally managed to stabilise their position and the hundreds of relocated factories began to produce more modern designs in large numbers. The Russians used vehicles such as the 7.8-ton T–26 light tank and the 13.6-ton BT–7 fast tank, capable of speeds of up to 46mph on roads, both armed with the 45mm-calibre gun. These served in many battles along with other AFVs such as the T–40 amphibious tank and T–70 light tank and BA–64 armoured car, but it is the heavier vehicles that the Russian tank force came back with to counter the German vehicles for which the country is best remembered. The KV–1 and KV–2 heavy tanks were armed with 76.2mm-calibre guns that were later replaced on some versions with more powerful weapons and it was these that were available for the defence of Moscow in late 1941. The chassis of these vehicles also served as the basis for SPG designs and the Tankograd factory produced 13,500 KV tanks. One of the SPG designs based on the KV–1 chassis was the ISU–122, armed with a 122mm-calibre gun and later an even heavier version armed with a 155mm gun was developed. These were used at Kursk in 1943 and continued to be used to the end of the war. The smaller SU–76 SPG entered service in 1943 and was armed with a 76.2mm calibre gun. Like other vehicles of this type it went through a series of variant designs including anti-aircraft versions and by the end of the war some 12,600 had been built.

The 29.1-ton SU–85 appeared in 1943 and the heavier 31.1-ton SU–100 appeared a year later. They were so called from the calibre of their guns, and forced the Germans to build more powerful tanks and develop heavier anti-tank guns. Together with the T–34 tank, which originated from a design in 1939, they helped swing the balance of armoured power in to Russia’s favour. The T–34 would come to form the backbone of the Russian tank forces. By 1941 2,810 had been built and when deployed in the defence of Moscow its appearance shocked the Germans. The T–34 weighed around 28 tons but variants meant that this changed accordingly. The basic version was armed with the M40 76.2mm-calibre gun and was 21ft in length over the hull, 9ft 7in in width and 7ft 10in in height. Fitted with a V–2–34 twelve-cylinder engine delivering 500hp at 1,800rpm, it could reach road speeds of up to 31mph and had an operational range of 188 miles. Served by a crew of four, the T–34 was committed to battle along all sectors of the front. It was developed for mine-clearing roles and in bridging models as well as a flame-thrower. It was even fitted with a more powerful 85mm-calibre gun and fitted with long-range fuel tanks to extend the operational range to 220 miles. The original T–34 carried seventy-seven rounds for its 76.2mm gun, and the version armed with the more powerful 85mm gun carried fifty-five rounds. The T–34/85 version began production in 1943 and by the end of the war 11,000 had been built. It was these vehicles along with the SPGs that entered Berlin in April 1945 to finish the war.

The Katyusha (little Kate) rocket artillery system was used extensively by the Russian Army and developed into several versions mounted on vehicles such as the ZIS or GAZ trucks for mobility. They were built in calibres ranging from 82mm to 300mm and range varied accordingly, but the middle-range calibre of 132 was also widely used. Depending on the calibre of the rocket, the system could fire twelve or sixteen rounds in only seconds. The M31 300 version fired thirty-six rockets from rail launchers on the rear of the transporting truck to saturate an area and whole batteries could pulverise enemy positions. The Germans were also using their trucks as mobile platforms for weapons, most often 2cm guns such as the FlaK 36 2cm light anti-aircraft gun, which could be depressed low enough to engage ground targets. These would carry their own supply of ammunition on board with re-supply coming from vehicles accompanying the gun vehicles.

British Light Armoured Vehicles

The British Army had used tanks designed and produced by British companies in the early days of the war but by 1941, after the Lend-Lease Act with America and with its shortfall in armoured vehicles following the losses during the Dunkirk campaign, it began to benefit from American-designed tanks. Three of these designs, the M3 Honey, M3 Lee-Grant and M4 Sherman, had been battle tested by the British Army before America entered the war. With these vehicles being made in quantity, some British tanks were turned over to other roles such as with the 79th Armoured Division, but designs such as the Churchill remained very good gun tanks and the Cromwell gave excellent service in the Normandy campaign. During the European campaign through Belgium, Holland and into Germany the range of light British armoured vehicles proved themselves in many actions.

The Dingo

The Dingo, a very compact vehicle measuring 10ft 5in long, 5ft 7.5in wide and only 4ft 11in high, was fitted with a rear-mounted 2.5-litre six-cylinder Daimler petrol engine of 55hp to give road speeds of up to 55mph, which made it extremely useful in the reconnaissance role. It had five forward gears and five reverse gears to maintain speed in all situations and the operational range of 200 miles was very useful for extended operations in the scouting role. A two-man crew comprising driver and commander operated the little vehicle, which was usually armed with a single Bren gun, although some vehicles were armed with a Boys .55in-calibre anti-tank rifle. A very few Dingo scout cars were armed with Vickers ‘K’ machine guns. All this, including a No .11 or No .19 radio set and personal kit and rations, was packed into this tiny 3-ton vehicle. It was protected by armour up to 30mm in thickness, which was sufficient against some small arms fire but its light weight and low ground clearance of around 200mm left it extremely vulnerable to mines.

Vehicle Name	Manufacturer	Production Date	Armament	Weight	Max. Speed
Dingo	BSA, Daimler	1939	Bren gun or Boys .55in-calibre gun or Vickers ‘K’ machine gun	3 tons	55mph

The Dingo dated back to 1937 as a result of specifications for a new scout car for the British Army that were placed before the Coventry-based company Alvis by the Mechanisation Board. It was met with a speedy response and Alvis produced a prototype vehicle termed the Dingo, which was a 4x4 wheel drive, served by a crew of two men and armed with a single .303in-calibre Bren gun, which as a weapon itself was just beginning to enter service with the British Army. By coincidence, at the same time as Alvis was undertaking this development work, two other manufacturers were developing their own separate designs for vehicles to operate in the role of scout car. The first was Birmingham Smalls Arms (BSA) whose vehicle was also a two-man design armed with a Bren gun. The other design was by Morris Commercial Cars, which although interesting enough did not match either the Alvis or the BSA vehicles. During 1938 a series of trials was conducted between all vehicles and it was decided that after some modifications the BSA design would be the vehicle for the British Army. At this time BSA was in the process of being acquired by Daimler and so it was that when the vehicle went into production in 1939, under a design team of engineers headed by Sidney Shellard, it was known as Car, Scout, Daimler Mk I, or Dingo for short, which was the name applied to the Alvis design. By the end of the war the vehicle had been produced in five different marks with a total of 6,626 being built – an incredible number considering the original order placed in 1939 had been for 172 vehicles.

The Daimler Dingo had a very low silhouette which was ideal for reconnaissance roles. Indeed, the Dingo served in North Africa as a reconnaissance vehicle for armoured units.

The first version to roll off the production was the Mk I in 1939 and this was fitted with 4x4 steering and a sliding roof. The tyres were of the run-flat type and still allowed for a very smooth ride. This was followed by the Mk IA which had a folding roof and improved suspension. The Mk IB appeared with a reversed engine-cooling fan, but in almost every other aspect differed very little from the original version. The Mk II Dingo was fitted with slightly different radiator grilles and the 4x4 steering was replaced by front-wheel steering only, in order to make it easier for inexperienced drivers to control. The final version was the Mk III and this had a waterproof engine fitted and no overhead cover.

The compact design still allowed for a good range of storage lockers to be provided to stow tools, personal kit and a small cooker for the crew to heat food and make hot drinks when operating far ahead in the scouting role. In the desert, sand channels were carried to help recover the vehicle if it became bogged down in the sand. The Dingo did remarkably well throughout the war and proved itself to be a most resilient vehicle from the early engagements in France in 1940 to the beaches of Normandy in 1944 and beyond.

The Humber Scout Car and Humber LRC

The Humber scout car appeared in 1942 and was not too dissimilar to the appearance of the Daimler Dingo, but was slightly larger and heavier. The company of Rootes built over 4,100 scout cars in two different variants and has been described as being less ‘mechanically sophisticated’ than the Daimler scout car, but it went on to prove popular with crews. The first vehicles were known as the Mk I, of which some 1,698 were built and went into service, followed by the Mk II, which differed by having an improved transmission. The Humber scout car was used by the Guards Armoured Division, Canadian troops, the 1st Czechoslovakian Armoured Brigade and the Polish II Corps, the last two of which were fighting with the Allies as free forces in exile. The 11th Armoured Division, with its distinctive emblem of a black bull on a yellow background, landed on the beaches at Normandy a week after the initial assault and was involved in the Goodwood and Epsom ‘breakout’ operations around the city of Caen as the British Army forced its way inland. The 11th Armoured Division used the Humber scout car and later saw action during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 when they fought German units on the Maas in weather conditions which, according to the historian Charles Whiting, ‘... would have undermined the morale of any but the staunchest soldiers ...’

Vehicle Name	Manufacturer	Production Date	Armament	Weight	Max. Speed
Humber scout car	Humber	1942	.303in-calibre Bren gun	3.4 tons	60mph
Humber LRC	Humber	1940	Boys .55in anti-tank rifle and .303in-calibre machine gun	3.5 tons	50mph

The Humber scout car was normally served by a crew of two, the driver and commander, but provision was made for a third person inside the small vehicle. This was usually someone serving in the role of forward observation officer (FOO) directing artillery fire. To keep in contact with other units and relay details back to the artillery positions, the vehicle was fitted with a No .19 radio set. The scout car was fitted with a Rootes six-cylinder petrol engine of 87hp at 3,300rpm, which was mounted in the rear and meant a power-to-weight ratio of 25.6hp per ton and gave a top speed of 60mph on roads, which was better than the Dingo. The Humber scout car was fitted with a four-speed gearbox, plus reverse, and the Mk II was fitted with synchromesh to the second, third and fourth gears. It was a four-wheeled vehicle with heavy-duty tyres for good cross-country capability and had a maximum operational range of 200 miles, which, combined with its speed, was impressive and comparable to the Dingo. The Mk I vehicles utilised components from existing Humber designs such as the four-wheel light reconnaissance car, which helped with early production somewhat. The vehicle had a ground clearance of 10in, could scale vertical obstacles of 12in in height and ford water obstacles up to 3ft deep.

The Humber LRC could be fitted with a turret to carry armament but those without turrets could be used for artillery observation. Like other LRC designs the Humbers could be used in the reconnaissance role to gather information. Reconnaissance vehicles carried all spares with them to remain operational.

The armament was often a single .303in-calibre Bren gun mounted on the roof of the vehicle and fitted with a special Parrish-Lakeman mounting, which permitted it to be fired from within the vehicle. The design of this mounting resembled the handlebars of a bicycle, with the trigger mechanism operated in a manner similar to applying the brake lever. The Bren gun in this case was modified to be fitted with a drum magazine holding 100 rounds, which was more than three times the capacity of the standard magazine and meant that the firer did not have to expose himself to reload so often. An alternative armament layout was a pair of Bren guns mounted side by side on the roof, and these were more often fitted with the standard thirty-round capacity magazine, which was slightly curved to allow for the shape of the base of the bullets, which had a rim; it was the same type fired by the Mk IV Lee-Enfield rifle, which was the service rifle of the British infantryman. The Bren gun had a cyclic rate of fire of 500 rounds per minute and could be used to engage targets out to a range of 600yd. Additional ammunition capacity, up to 1,000 rounds, was stored inside the vehicle and because it was a standard .303in-calibre rifle round it was easily re-supplied. This allowed the vehicle to engage infantry in the open but beyond that it had to rely on speed and manoeuvrability to extricate itself from any unexpected situation that might arise. The Humber scout car weighed 3.4 tons and was protected by armour up to 14mm thickness with an open top and unarmoured floor. It was 12ft 7in long, 6ft 2in wide and 6ft 11in high. The hull was well angled to deflect light projectiles and the crew accessed it through hatches in the roof or by a single door on the left-hand side.

The terms ‘scout car’ and ‘armoured car’ described exactly what roles these vehicles served in, but the British Army came up with another name, the ‘light reconnaissance car’ (LRC), which was just another form of repeating what was already in service. The Canadians developed the Otter for this role and the British Army would take two principal designs into service. One was the Humber LRC, a design that would be produced in 3,600 models in four different marks, and the other was a design built by Morris. The first version of the Humber LRC was naturally termed the Mk I and entered service in 1940. This was nicknamed the ‘Ironside 1’ and, with the engine housing extending forward to accommodate the Humber six-cylinder petrol engine, it resembled an armoured car from an earlier age, an impression that was added to by the small turret sitting atop the vehicle, housing a single machine gun, which would appear on later models. It was based on the Humber heavy utility chassis and given a 4x2 wheel drive. Three of these Mk I LRCs were modified and, with the engine rated at 87hp to give road speeds of up to 50mph and an operational range of 250 miles, they were ideally suited to be used to drive members of the British War Cabinet. These were open-topped versions, designated ‘Special Ironsides’. The Mk II soon followed and this also was a 4x2-wheel drive. It was fitted with a small turret with a full 360-degree traverse capability for all-round defensive fire. Armament was usually a single .303in-calibre Bren gun but some versions were armed with the much heavier .55in-calibre Boys anti-tank rifle. This was limited in use against vehicles other than light armoured cars or trucks. Over the next two years two further models of the Humber LRC would be produced. These were the Mk III and Mk IIIA, which were fitted with 4x4-wheel drive, and both entered service in 1942. The basic vehicle weighed 3.5 tons and measured 14ft 4in long, 6ft 2in wide and 7ft 1in to the top of the turret. Overall it was not greatly different from the Morris LRC in terms of armament and role on the battlefield.

Building an airfield during the Normandy Camapign to receive flights of supplies.

A crew of three operated the Humber LRC and it would have been very cramped with all the personal kit, food, personal weapons and the radio equipment to be stored. The main role was that the vehicle should use the on-board No .19 radio set to transmit observations back to the main force and try to avoid being engaged by the enemy. The vehicle had armour plating extending to a thickness of 10mm maximum which gave it some degree of protection against small arms fire and a smoke-grenade launcher could be used to screen the vehicle’s movements for short periods. Changes were made to the different marks and by the time the Mk IIIA entered service in 1942 the vehicle was fitted with extra observation slits. The armour on the superstructure was well sloped, which added to its survivability, but the LRC was never intended to engage in heavy fighting and the turret armament was really for self-defence. Some LRCs had their turrets removed and served in the FOO role for the Royal Artillery and others were used by the Royal Engineers. The Royal Air Force Regiment used the Humber LRC for airfield defence duties after D-Day in 1944 as they advanced across France and Belgium.

Morris LRC

The second type of LRC to be used was the Morris design, which entered service in 1942 and was deployed with units to Tunisia and Italy and would later be used during the Normandy campaign and after as the Allies advanced across Europe. The design was never intended to replace other vehicles serving in the reconnaissance role, such as the Humber or Daimler scout cars, but rather to supplement them in their duties, first within the Reconnaissance Corps and then, when this unit was absorbed, with the Royal Armoured Corps. The Royal Air Force Regiment used around 200 Morris LRCs for patrolling forward airfields after the Normandy Landings and for security at other bases. Some Polish units used the vehicle for reconnaissance duties also. The Morris LRC was built in two versions, the Mk I and the Mk II, and around 2,290 vehicles in both marks were built. The first version of this four-wheeled design had two-wheel drive on the rear axle and was built by the Nuffield Group, measuring 13ft 3in long and 6ft 8in wide. The height to the top of the open-topped turret set to the right of the vehicle was 6ft 2in. It was fitted with armour varying in thickness from 8mm to 14mm, which afforded some degree of protection against small arms fire but not against larger calibres. The vehicle weighed 3.7 tons and, with a rear-mounted Morris four-cylinder petrol engine developing 71hp at 3,100rpm, it could achieve speeds of up to 50mph on roads. This layout gave it an elongated rear deck area and a rather stubby bow-fronted appearance with a short glacis plate. A fuel tank holding 14 gallons of petrol gave it an operational range of 250 miles and was operated by a crew of three.

Looking down into the firer’s position for the Boys anti-tank rifle on the Morris LRC.

The Morris LRC seen here in the colours of the 43rd (Wessex) Division was armed with a Bren gun and a Boys .55in-calibre anti-tank rifle.

The Morris LRC carried everything the crew needed to operate on the battlefield including camouflage netting. Every bit of space was used on the Morris LRC with tools strapped to doors and magazines for weapons kept ready to hand. Interior of the Morris LRC showing the position of the Bren gun and the handle for the Boys anti-tank rifle just visible (right).

Vehicle Name	Manufacturer	Production Date	Armament	Weight	Max. Speed
Morris LRC Mk I (2x4)	Nuffield Group	1942	Boys .55in-calibre anti-tank rifle and .303in-calibre machine gun	3.7 tons	50mph
Morris LRC Mk II (4x4)	Nuffield Group	1943	Boys .55in-calibre anti-tank rifle and .303in-calibre machine gun	3.7 tons	50mph

The crew sat in line abreast with the driver’s position in the middle. This allowed the man to his left to operate the radio and fire the Boys .55in-calibre anti-tank rifle. The man to the driver’s right operated the .303in-calibre Bren gun mounted in the turret. By 1942 the Boys anti-tank rifle had little if any value against armoured vehicles, but it could still be used against light trucks. It weighed 36lb and measured 63.5in in length and was probably best used mounted in a vehicle because of these factors. It fired a steel-cored armour-piercing bullet with a muzzle velocity of 3,250fps and could penetrate 20mm of armour at ranges of over 500yd. The Bren gun fired 500 rounds per minute cyclic from box magazines and was useful against infantry out to ranges of 600yd and gave the Morris a good self-defence armament. The front of the turret had a long vertical opening and veterans who operated the vehicle felt vulnerable to this because they believed the opening allowed bullets to enter. The position for the Boys anti-tank rifle had a pair of hinged covers that could be folded down to give some overhead protection against shell splinters. The underside of the Morris LRC Mk I was flat and free from any protuberances and a good ground clearance made it suitable for cross-country operations. The front wheels were equipped with large coiled springs to provide independent suspension, and semi-elliptical springs absorbed the shock during cross-country operations. A variant of the Mk I was developed to serve in the observation role, and was given the designation Morris Mk I OP. It was fitted with a pair of range finders and was used for spotting the fall of shot for artillery batteries. The radio operator would relay changes to be made direct to the gun positions to engage enemy targets.

As useful as the Morris Mk I was it was felt that the two-wheel drive could be improved and calls were made to produce a four-wheel drive version for improved cross-country capabilities. This request was met in 1943 and resulted in the Morris LRC Mk II. There were no real external differences and only a slight increase in weight due to semi-elliptical leaf springs being fitted all round. Apart from that all operational abilities remained unaltered. The role remained the same and even saw the vehicle being used by other specialist units such as the Royal Engineers, who used it in reconnaissance roles and for liaison duties. It has been claimed in some areas that the Royal Armoured Corps did not rate the Morris LRC very highly, but then no vehicle ever comes up to all expectations and there will always be critics saying that a vehicle could be better. One cause for this criticism may have been the fact that the level of armour protection was never improved, not even on the Mk II, and that storage space for kit and extra ammunition was poorly thought out. Despite this the vehicle served well in its appointed role and supplemented other reconnaissance vehicles used by units such as the 43rd (Wessex) Division. The Morris LRC was never meant to be used in front-line action against armoured units, but rather to operate as covertly as possible, and this should be remembered when considering its overall wartime performance. Apart from the army units that used the Morris LRC, the Royal Air Force Regiment, which provided the security and defence for airfields, also used the vehicle. Among the first of its operational deployment roles was to provide security at an air base at Bradwell Bay in Essex. During the Tunisian campaign from March 1943 the RAF Regiment used their Morris LRCs alongside the British First Army at such locations as ‘Tally Ho Corner’ where they provided security. In January 1944 units of the RAF Regiment serving on the Azores deployed Morris LRCs to guard airfields. Although the Azores were and still are a Portuguese possession and the country was neutral during the war, the Allies were permitted to maintain bases on the islands. Despite this status the airfields still had to be guarded against possible saboteurs. After the Normandy Landings the RAF Regiment moved forward, with their Morris LRCs advancing around Bretteville in late June 1944, and were even involved with Operation Goodwood, the breakout action south-east of Caen on 18 July 1944.

The Remaining German Force

The Normandy campaign was still fresh in the minds of all who fought in the battles across France and the Allies had entered Belgium when Montgomery devised a new plan that he was sure would help win the war by the end of the year. His plan was a simple one in principle but in practice it was complicated, relying on too many ‘ifs and buts’ and making no allowance for unforeseen complications. The idea was to make a powerful thrust along a narrow front into the Ruhr, which contained the bulk of Germany’s industrial capacity. He believed that if these facilities were seized the country could not fight, and secondly, once into the area the Allies would be able to swing round the northern flank of the Siegfried Line protecting Germany’s border. The German Army may have been contracting back on all fronts but it was still capable of turning and making stands that turned into fierce pitched battles. Its armoured divisions were by now only a fraction of what they had been four years earlier but they still had powerful weapons in their armoury such as the Hetzer (‘Baiter’) also known as the Panzerjäger 38 (t) or Sdkfz 138. It appeared late in the war and was the result of combining the available industrial resources to produce a vehicle for use with the defensive anti-tank units serving with infantry divisions, which had requested that suitable weapons be made available to them in order to engage superior Russian armour.

The Marder III

The chassis of the Panzerjäger 38 (t) had Christie-type suspension, which gave good road speeds, but had very poor cross-country performance. However, this was more than made up for by the fact that it had excellent manoeuvrability and although it had performed well during the early campaigns of the war, by 1943 it was fast approaching the end of its useful service life, particularly when pitted against Russian T–34 tanks. Rather than phase the vehicle completely from service it was decided that the chassis would be used to form the basis of alternative fighting vehicles, one of which was the Marder III series armed with a 75mm gun to serve as an SPG. Between April 1942 and May 1944, 2,812 such vehicles were built using redundant chassis; they had a road speed of 25mph and an operational range of 118 miles. The Marder weighed 10.6 tons and was 20ft 3in long with armour protection between 5mm and 20mm, and it served on all operational fronts. The 38 (t) chassis was so versatile that it was used in a whole range of specialised roles including recovery vehicles and ammunition supply, SPGs and tank destroyers.

Vehicle Name	Manufacturer	Production Date	Armament	Weight	Max. Speed
Marder III	BMM	1942	75mm gun	10.6 tons	25mph

The Hetzer

In March 1943, General Heinz Guderian, in his capacity as inspector of armoured units, suggested the development of a light tank destroyer that could be used to break up enemy armoured formations. On his proposal all available 38 (t) chassis were given over to the production of tank destroyers. The result was the Hetzer, a light, but extremely well-armoured and effective tank destroyer specifically intended for use with the defensive anti-tank units of infantry divisions and would be the only vehicle based on the 38 (t) chassis to be adopted for use by the German Army after 1943. By the end of the war, and after only one year of being in production, more than 2,584 Hetzers had been built, which gives some idea of the degree of urgency placed in producing the vehicle. The company of BMM in Prague served as the controlling firm with Škoda producing all the automotive parts for the vehicle. The final design of the vehicle as it appeared was a low profile, only 6ft 5in tall, with well-sloped armour varying in thickness from 8mm to a maximum of 60mm over the frontal area. The Hetzer was 15ft 7in long, 7ft 2in wide and weighed 17.1 tons.

Vehicle Name	Manufacturer	Production Date	Armament	Weight	Max. Speed
The Hetzer	BMM and Škoda	1944	75mm PaK39 L/48 and either an MG34 or MG42 machine gun	17.1 tons	26mph

The Hetzer was fitted with a Praga AC/2 six-cylinder, water-cooled, inline engine, which developed 150hp at 2,600rpm to produce road speeds of more than 26mph and an operational range of 130 miles. The main armament of 75mm was the specialised PaK 39 L/48 mounted in the front of the well-slopped hull and set off slightly to the right. The mantlet had a distinctive shape, which was referred to as saukopfblende or ‘pig snout’ because it was thought to resemble the nose of a pig. The mounting method gave a limited traverse of only 5 degrees to the left and 11 degrees to the right, a total of 16 degrees. The gun could be depressed to –6 degrees and elevated to +12 degrees. The Hetzer carried forty-one rounds of ammunition ready to use and targets out to almost 2,000yd could be engaged, which made it deadly against a range of Allied tanks including the American-built Sherman and Russian T–34s.

Field trials were successfully concluded by December 1943 and the design was proven and production commenced in April 1944, continuing until May 1945. The first units to be equipped with the Hetzer were the 731 and 743 Panzerjäger Abteilungen and the 15th and 76th Infantry Divisions, which received their vehicles in July 1944. The Hetzer served successfully in all theatres of operation after its introduction, and in particular on the Russian front. For close support and self-protection against infantry attack, the vehicle was armed with either a single MG34 or MG42 machine gun, which was mounted on the roof of the vehicle. A small shield protected the firer and was a standard feature on several other armoured vehicles in the German Army.

The driver’s position was to the left of the vehicle with the gun’s breech mechanism to his right. Access to the cramped interior of the vehicle was through a roof hatch, with a further hatch for the machine-gunner. Had the war continued beyond 1945, and taking into account Germany’s ability to stretch out vital war resources, it is quite possible that the Hetzer could have formed a greater part of the tank destroyer programme. In fact, plans were in place to produce 1,000 Hetzers per month by mid–1945, in which case it could have gone on to be used in special tank-hunting units moving rapidly from one zone of engagement to another. In fact, there were a number of proposed variants in the Hetzer series including plans to upgrade the main armament to a 105mm-calibre StuH 42 assault howitzer. The war ended before any conversions could be completed however. At least twenty Hetzers were converted to the Flammpanzer, a flame-throwing version, and were made available in December 1944 in readiness to participate in the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes sector. For this role the 7.5cm PaK39 gun was replaced by a Flammenwerfer 41, which had the same traverse and elevation as the standard gun and could fire twenty-four bursts from a fuel reserve of 700 litres. This produced the equivalent of a continuous flame jet of 87.5 seconds which could reach out to ranges of 60m. The vehicle recovery version was known as the Bergepanzer, of which sixty-four vehicles were produced, and these began to enter service from October 1944 onwards and served with anti-tank units operating with Hetzers.

Operation Market Garden

Montgomery’s plans were finally approved and given the code name Operation Market Garden. They involved airborne landings deep behind German lines to seize vital bridges, and British armoured divisions racing down the corridor to secure the area. On 17 September men from the US 101st Airborne Division began to land in the area around Eindhoven to secure the bridges, while further on, men from the US 82nd Airborne Division eventually seized the bridge at Nijmegen and the British 1st Airborne Division landed around the town of Arnhem to seize and hold the bridge over the River Rhine until the British XXX Corps could fight its way up the road route. The airborne troops had taken off from airfields in England and the gliders carried anti-tank guns, motorcycles and Jeeps. The Germans had not expected such a daring, indeed reckless, assault, but by sheer coincidence they had moved the SS II Panzer Corps, 15,000 men and 250 tanks, into the area of Arnhem ten days before the start of Market Garden for rest and the refitting of their vehicles. The British XXX Corps, with 50,000 men and 23,000 tanks, AFVs and trucks, set off at 2.35 p.m. to cover the 60-mile route to reach Arnhem. The road was narrow and elevated, which silhouetted the vehicles and made them an easy target for anti-tank guns. Within twenty minutes of setting out, the column had lost nine tanks in two minutes through enemy fire. Self-contained with artillery, engineers and signals, XXX Corps with the Guards Armoured Division was experienced, having seen action in Tunisia, Sicily and all the way from the beaches at Normandy. Unfortunately the nature of the terrain they were passing over, known as polder, was too soft to bear the weight of tanks and, unable to spread out, the British armour was confined to the roadway. They would continue to be pounded as they advanced up the only route. The airborne drop experienced complications but finally, by 2 a.m. on 18 September, some 20,000 men had been landed along with 511 vehicles and 330 pieces of artillery, including anti-tank guns.

Bailey bridge built to replace destroyed original at Randazzo during the Sicily campaign 1943.

The Germans realised that the airborne troops at Arnhem were only lightly armed and were not equipped to deal with heavy armour. As the operation continued they brought the full weight of their Tiger tanks and other armoured vehicles to bear on the British forces and surrounded the parachute troops. The advance by XXX Corps was put further behind schedule and they did not reach Eindhoven until the following day, where they were informed that the bridge over the Son River was destroyed. Specialist equipment had to be driven forward and a Bailey bridge, designed by engineer Donald Bailey in 1940, was built over the river. Hundreds of Bailey bridges would be built across Europe to replace those destroyed by the Germans and some constructions could support weights of up to 70 tons. The troops referred to the route as ‘Hell’s Highway’ and with good cause. The men at Arnhem were using PIATs to engage tanks and fighting was fierce at all points. Supply drops were being made by aircraft and by the end of the operation 20,190 men had been parachuted in, 13,781 men had been landed by 491 gliders along with 5,230 tons of supplies, and 1,927 vehicles and 568 pieces of artillery had been landed in the three drop zones. Almost 10,000 British troops of 1st Airborne Division would find themselves in defensive positions at the bridgehead at Arnhem and surrounded by Germans. This was an operation that should have been concluded in three or four days until relieved by XXX Corps, but the men at Arnhem held on for ten days until the order was given for them to get out as best they could. The German defences were too strong and they badly battered XXX Corps, making it almost impossible to reach Arnhem. The bridges captured by the US airborne divisions were secure but at Arnhem the position was evacuated and 2,163 men escaped; 1,440 had been killed, with the remainder including the wounded being taken prisoner. The fighting had cost the Allies eighty-eight tanks plus trucks and other AFVs, and XXX Corps had suffered 1,500 killed and wounded. The Germans had lost between 6,315 and 13,300 killed, wounded and captured, although estimates vary enormously, and thirty tanks and SPGs had been destroyed by anti-tank guns and PIATs. Some of these were ageing French tanks such as the Char B1 bis, remarkably still in service after four years, but these were destroyed by British anti-tank gunners in the fighting. It had been a bold plan but in the end all it left the Allies with was a long narrow salient and the prospect of fighting through another winter. It also proved that there was still a long way to go to beat the Germans in the field.

Maintaining the Allied Advance

The Allies had advanced hundreds of miles across Europe from the beachheads in Normandy but lacked the proper port facilities to unload the supplies necessary to maintain the advance, as all the fuel, stores, food and ammunition had to be transported 300 miles by road from ports such as Cherbourg. Each Allied division required a minimum of 520 tons of supplies each day if they were to keep at levels of combat readiness. To move this mountain of supplies the Allies had around 450,000 trucks being driven day and night to carry essentials and specialist items such as bridging equipment to span rivers. For the most part these were American Jimmys and British Bedford and Morris trucks, which could handle ammunition, fuel, medical stores and troops, but there were also 15,000 trucks that had long-distance capabilities for exceptionally heavy loads and for moving replacement tanks to the front. Even so, the drivers were finding it difficult to keep up with the advancing armies and Montgomery’s 21st Army Group, which should have been receiving 12,000 tons of supplies per day, had only 6,000 tons delivered. In an effort to try to supplement this shortfall, 1,000 tons per day were airlifted, but often this method of transportation fell below this level. The problem was only partially alleviated when the deep-water port of Antwerp, lying 56 miles inland from the coast, was captured by the British 11th Armoured Division on 5 September. The facilities here had the capacity to allow the Allies to unload 40,000 tons of supplies each day, which would eliminate the need to transport everything long distance, but the problem lay in the fact that the Germans still held the area around the approaches to the port and these had to be cleared out. The supplies were there but they could not be delivered in quantity, which meant a slowing down of the Allied advance which, in turn, gave the Germans time to regroup and reorganise. But they were running out of men, and troops from naval units and Luftwaffe units were being redeployed to the front line to serve as infantry; as well, anti-aircraft gunners were now employed in the anti-tank role with their formidable 88mm guns.

The Western Allies continued to advance but were hampered by heavy rain, and roads, which had been badly damaged and weakened by the extra weight of so much military traffic, were washed away. German units were fighting rearguard actions, which delayed the Allies, but finally they pushed into the area of the Scheldt estuary, covering the entrance to the port of Antwerp and cleared it of the enemy. On 28 November the first convoy arrived to unload cargo. Supplies could now be brought close to the front line and replacement vehicles driven directly to where they were needed along with reinforcements. To the south in the mountainous region of the Vosges, the French First Army under the command of General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, equipped with American-built vehicles such as the M8 armoured car armed with a 37mm gun and capable of road speeds of up to 55mph, in company with the American Seventh Army under Major General Alexander Patch, were closing in to trap the Germans in what would become known as the ‘Colmar Pocket’, close to the Swiss border. When the fighting finally ended there in February 1945 the French had lost 13,390 killed and wounded, and the Americans had 8,000 casualties. According to some sources the Germans lost 38,500 killed, wounded and captured, and those who escaped abandoned fifty-five AFVs and sixty-six pieces of artillery. By now Germany was losing its allies as they came to realise that the war was being won by the Russians and Western Allies. Bulgaria and Romania both changed sides on 23 August 1944 and on 20 January 1945 Hungary signed an armistice. The armed forces of these states had been supplied primarily by Germany, with standard weapons, equipment and AFVs, including tanks, as used by the German Army. They had fought together against Russia on the Eastern Front and supplying them had placed added pressure on the German supply lines. While the Western Allies were moving in from Belgium and the Netherlands, the Russians were keeping up the pressure from the east and their list of Ten Victories for the year of 1944 included the invasion of Estonia and Latvia in September and then moving into Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia in October. The Russians poured 450,000 troops into Finland along with 800 tanks and massive air support. On 19 September Finland signed an armistice with Russia and on 1 October attacked Germany. Germany was now fighting on its own, apart from some volunteer units still serving in divisions of infantry or armoured units.

Operation Wacht am Rhein

In mid-December 1944 the Western Allies had crossed the German border in several places and were advancing across a frontage 1,000 miles wide. In the depths of winter everything had slowed down and there was very little movement and certainly nothing to give cause for concern. In fact, military intelligence concluded that the Germans were not in any position to mount an offensive of a serious nature. Around the densely wooded area of the Ardennes Forest, considered to be impassable by tanks, 83,000 men of the US First Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Courtney Hodges, were looking forward to Christmas. The troops were largely inexperienced and the area was quiet and patrols reported nothing unusual apart from some isolated exchanges of gunfire. Suddenly at 5.30 a.m. on 16 December, German artillery opened fire with such intensity that it threw the Americans into disarray. The planned parachute drop that would have added to the confusion was abandoned when the trucks taking the troops to their aircraft ran out of fuel. This was Operation Wacht am Rhein (Watch on the Rhine) which had been in planning since October, and which Hitler was hoping would push the Allies back. The attack was launched across a 60-mile-wide front extending from the border town of Monschau in the north to Echternach in the south. The attack was supported by 275,000 troops, many experienced, along with 1,900 pieces of artillery and 950 tanks and other AFVs. Opposing them, the Americans had just 394 pieces of artillery and 420 tanks and AFVs.

The weather had closed in and Allied aircraft were grounded so there was no air support to break up the attack. The Germans advanced quickly and were in danger of becoming a victim of their own success. At one point a traffic jam of 100 tanks, PzKw IV and Panthers, built up, and used up precious fuel, which was in short supply, as the crews waited for the road to be cleared. Another type of vehicle committed to the operation was the Jagdpanther, a very powerful tank destroyer armed with the formidable 88mm gun capable of destroying targets of up to 3,000m range in ideal conditions. The first production models of the vehicle had been built in February 1944 with the first units entering service with 559th and 654th Panzerjäger Abteilungen in June 1944. Many Jagdpanthers were deployed to the Russian front, where they were used against T–34 tanks and the heavier vehicles and SPGs, and were operated within a separate heavy anti-tank battalion in a panzer division. The Jagdpanther inflicted severe losses against Allied armoured units in the later stages of the Normandy campaign. During one engagement in July 1944 three Jagdpanthers destroyed eleven tanks in only minutes before a squadron of Churchill tanks arrived destroying two and causing the third to withdraw. It was 32ft 10in in length with an overall height of 8ft 11in and armour thickness between 25mm and 80mm, and yet weighed only 44.8 tons with an operational range of 130 miles.

Vehicle Name	Manufacturer	Production Date	Armament	Weight	Max. Speed
Jagdpanther SdKfz 173 tank destroyer	MIAG and MNH	1944	88mm gun	44.8 tons	29 mph

The Jagdpanther served on the Russian front and the last units were still in action as the fighting fell back to the outskirts of Berlin in the final stages of the war. In December 1944 the Germans had concentrated numbers of the Jagdpanther together in the Ardennes, but due to fuel shortages and a lack of air cover to protect them against air strikes by Allied attack aircraft, they were hampered, but not before giving good account of themselves in action. The Jagdpanther was developed using the Panther as a starting point, with the hull and chassis being kept and a new superstructure built on to the bodywork. The engine remained the same, which is to say it was a petrol-driven water-cooled Maybach HLP30 V–12, which developed 700bhp at 3,000rpm to produce road speeds of 29mph and cross-country speeds of 15mph. A wooden mock-up was prepared in October 1943 and the prototype was ready for inspection by Hitler in December the same year. Satisfied with the results, production of the new tank destroyer was approved and designated as the Jagdpanther SdKfz 173, with the contract being awarded to the company of MIAG in January 1944 with the order to produce 150 new vehicles per month. The company of MNH was also awarded a production contract in November 1944, but even so the monthly output of the new vehicle never reached anywhere near the stipulated production figures. In fact, by the time production ceased in March 1945 only 382 vehicles had been produced, with seventy-two vehicles being produced in January, just four months before the war ended.

Sherman tanks with the British Army over the Rhine and advancing into Germany.

The Americans fell back in disarray but it was not widespread panic, and pockets of resistance were established, such as at the town of Bastogne where men of the 101st Airborne Division held out against everything sent to attack them. Patton with the Third Army moved northwards to attack the left flank of the salient that was forming due to the nature of the German attack. The Germans had been hoping to use captured stocks of fuel to keep their vehicles moving but destroyed bridges slowed them and prevented them from reaching these vital stocks. Slowly the front began to stabilise and the Americans began to deal with the Germans, such as at Remonville, where Patton’s forces captured the town. By 26 December he had linked up with Bastogne, where the paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division used bazooka shoulder-fired rocket launchers to destroy seven tanks. By that time the German attack was almost a spent force, having used up its last reserves of fuel and ammunition. The weather began to clear and the Allied aircraft were able to fly air-support missions that destroyed German vehicles as they moved. The operation had cost the Americans and British 7,000 killed, 33,400 wounded and 21,000 taken prisoner or missing, along with 700 tanks and other AFVs destroyed. For the Germans it was disastrous, with 120,000 men killed, wounded or captured. They had lost 1,600 aircraft, 600 tanks and 6,000 other AFVs and trucks. Over the next three months the Allies kept up a relentless pressure, all the time pushing the Germans back, albeit very slowly, but on 7 March 1945 they had a route over the Rhine River when the badly battered bridge at Remagen was captured. Ten days later the weakened structure collapsed, but the British and Americans were over the Rhine. The city of Berlin, the German capital, was not scheduled for attack by the Western Allies – that was to be left to the Russians.

The SdKfz 173 Jagdpanther or was a late design in the war and a very powerful weapon in the German army’s arsenal. The Jagdpanther could reach speeds up to 28mph which was impressive for its size and was a tank destroyer which did not have a turret, reducing the number of moving parts.

The Russian Advance

The Russians had ended 1944 holding positions in eastern Poland, with a front line extending from the Baltic coast in Lithuania in the north and running down the Czechoslovakian border in the south. They held these positions, which extended for over 750 miles, for six months before making their next move. In the centre was the 1st Belorussian Front under the command of Marshal Georgi Zhukov, and to his left was the 1st Ukrainian Front with 2.2 million men commanded by Marshal Ivan Koniev. In the north on Zhukov’s right flank was the 2nd and 3rd Belorussian Fronts with 1.6 million men facing the German Army Group Centre with only 400,000 troops. Army Group A, commanded by General Josef Harpe, was severely outnumbered at every level including tanks at a ratio of seven to one. On the morning of 12 January 1945 the Russian artillery opened fire with such ferocity that the Germans immediately began to fall back. Harpe’s men could not stem the attack and within five days of continuous fighting, the 1st Ukrainian Front had advanced 100 miles across a front of 160 miles. By 31 January Zhukov had reached the Oder River near the town of Kustrin and had advanced his entire front 300 miles in less than three weeks.

In a desperate measure Hitler appointed Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS and with no formal military training at any level, to command Army Group Vistula in the north. The Russians were now only 40 miles from Berlin and Hitler responded by ordering operations to be conducted in the south, which only served to cost the army more troops lost and tanks destroyed. Further pressure by the Russians in the centre took the city of Berlin as their axis of advance as they pressed ahead 6 miles across the Oder River along a front 30 miles wide. The 1st and 2nd Belorussian Fronts and 1st Ukrainian Front now threatened Berlin directly. Fighting slowed the Russian advance down somewhat as the Germans put up a concerted defence, but it was only prolonging the inevitable. The Russians scheduled the final push for 16 April and the 2nd Belorussian Front was ordered north to deal with the German 3rd Panzer Army. Even so, this still left Zhukov with 2.5 million men, 41,000 pieces of artillery, 6,250 tanks and AFVs, with air support from 7,500 aircraft. The Germans had 700,000 men, 9,000 pieces of artillery and 1,500 tanks and AFVs. The Volkssturm, a home defence unit comprising old men, and the Hitler Youth, added another 70,000 to the strength. They managed to slow the Russians but again they could not mount any credible defence given the poor quality of the weapons and lack of real training. Zhukov began the final assault with a massive bombardment from artillery positioned at the rate of one gun every 13ft along a front stretching over 55 miles. By 25 April the city was encircled by the 1st Belorussian Front and the 1st Ukrainian Front. General Karl Weidling, commanding the remnants of the LVI Panzer Corps, was put in charge of defending the city. His own unit comprised 1,500 men and sixty tanks. Berlin was ringed by anti-tank ditches, but these and other obstacles did not stand in the way of the Russian advance. On 21 April the Russians had broken into the suburbs of the city and street fighting began. Tanks by their very nature are wholly unsuited to such tactics but the Russians pushed them in to deal with last remaining German vehicles. They joined the SPGs in firing at buildings at point-blank range to crush any resistance.

On 28 April Heinrich Himmler made an attempt at striking the most extraordinary deal of the war when he entered negotiations with the Swedish Count Bernadotte, when he tried to exchange Jews for trucks. He told Count Bernadotte that he was prepared to release 100,000 Jews from concentration camps in return for 10,000 trucks from the Americans. Exactly what he intended to use the vehicles for can only be guessed at and exactly what he intended to use as fuel given there was nothing in Germany for a fleet of vehicles this size was anyone’s guess. In the end nothing came of the talks but it still showed how important vehicles were in a modern war. Day by day the Russians continued to press in on all sides, reducing the German pockets of resistance. On 30 April Hitler committed suicide in his headquarters bunker in Berlin but diehard units still kept fighting. Two days later, on 2 May, the Russians had complete control of the city and that day German forces in Italy finally surrendered. Gradually the small pockets of resistance also surrendered, including in Denmark on 5 May. VE Day (Victory in Europe Day) was declared on 8 May and was the end of the war. The garrison on the island of Guernsey, part of 319th Infantry Division, surrendered, and the island was liberated. The neighbouring island of Jersey in the Channel Islands was liberated on 9 May without a shot being fired. Eventually, from this small island measuring only 45 square miles, some 22,000 tons of ammunition of all calibres would be removed along with tens of thousands of mines, trucks and tanks.

German Siebel Ferry seen in harbour at St Helier, Jersey, after the occupation. There were several versions of these and they could carry between 50 and 100 tons of supplies.

This truck has gone through a wall down by the harbour in St Helier during the clearing up after the occupation.

The End of the War in the Pacific

The war in the Pacific was still being fought but it would end very differently to the war in Europe. The Japanese had three tank divisions in 1942 but the tanks themselves were lightly armed and armoured and used in small ‘penny packet’ formations, usually acting in support of the infantry. In 1944 they produced only 400 tanks and in 1945 this figure was 141, such was the desperate need for raw materials, especially metal, to produce the vehicles. Allied armoured units in the early part of the war in the Far East were restricted by the terrain and the dense jungle, which vehicles could only traverse by defined routes that left them open to ambush tactics with anti-tank guns, a strategy the Japanese were extremely good at. Japanese tanks were largely obsolete designs but some development to improve them was undertaken such as the amphibious Type 2 Kamisha of 11 tons, while the Imperial Japanese Navy experimented with the 26-ton Kachisha amphibious tank. By and large though, the Japanese remained committed to what they had in service and preferred to fit heavier guns to them (such as the Type 97) and improve their armour. The Japanese tank force was never involved in campaigns or battles to the same degree as in Russia or Europe and the vehicles were used as mobile machine-gun posts. Despite this the British and Americans came to know the Japanese as tenacious defenders of even the most desolate places, who would fight almost to the last man. For example, when the 1st US Marine Division landed on the island of Peleliu, measuring just 6 square miles, they fought a hard battle against a garrison of 11,000 men. When the last Japanese soldier surrendered in February 1945 the fighting had cost them over 10,600 killed and barely 200 captured. The remainder were listed as ‘missing’ and had probably been cremated by the flame-throwers. To capture the island the Americans fired more than 15 million rounds of small arms ammunition, 150,000 mortar bombs, and had thrown over 118,000 hand grenades. It was later calculated that taking into account naval fire support it had taken an average of 1,500 rounds of artillery to kill each Japanese soldier just to capture one small island.

The fighting on the mainland in Burma also had its own unique set of problems concerning re-supply because of the distances involved. The troops on the ground could only carry so much with them on mules and they had to be re-supplied by air drops, something that the Germans had tried and experienced mixed results. During the Imphal and Kohima battles, the British Chindit forces were kept supplied by the 3rd Tactical Air Force of the RAF, which flew hundreds of missions covering many thousands of miles over a four-month period in early 1944. The Chindits lost 17,000 mules and pack ponies during their campaigns and these had to be replaced and were flown in by air. The RAF flew in 1 million gallons of fuel, 6,250 tons of supplies, including food, ammunition and medical equipment, along with 12,000 replacement troops, and evacuated 13,000 casualties. That was just part of the overall total to support operations in Burma. Between 1943 and 1945 the combined efforts of the Allied air forces flew some 650,000 tons of supplies into airstrips that had been carved out deep in the jungle. They also flew in 315,000 men and evacuated 110,000 casualties, all of which kept the campaign moving.

The Japanese deployed 620,000 troops to China and the 10th US Air Force flew missions to supply the Chinese troops engaged in the fighting. The American pilots were based in Assam and flew a route that took them over the Himalayan mountain range with peaks rising to over 20,000ft. The pilots called it ‘flying the hump’. In 1942 they were transporting 3,700 tons of supplies per month, but by late 1944 this figure had risen to exceed 35,000 tons per month. The Japanese could not compete with this level of re-supply and relied massively on their manpower levels, but even this resource was dwindling. While the Allies could fly in thousands of tons of supplies and troops, the Japanese were still being urged to attack with fanatical zeal that was as suicidal as their comrades fighting to almost the last man on the Pacific islands. After the fighting to capture Eniwetok, for example, the US marines took only sixty-four prisoners out of a garrison of 2,741. The same thing was repeated elsewhere, sometimes on a much higher scale, such as at Saipan, where only 2,000 men out of a garrison of 32,000 were taken prisoner. Movement of tanks under such conditions was ponderous and slow but the fire support they provided was invaluable in destroying bunkers and Japanese tanks when they appeared, but there were no pitched battles between the armoured units. Artillery played a large part in the campaigns along with mortars, all of which had to be moved by men or on mules. These animals were widely used in the Italian campaign but in Burma they proved vital to the British Chindits and Merrill’s ‘Marauders’, going where no vehicle could move. The fighting in the Pacific ended when the atomic bomb was dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There had never been the full-scale armoured battles as in Europe but the tanks still had to be dealt with by anti-tank weapons.

The Vehicles Today

Today, many years after the end of the war, a large number of these vehicles are still operational and the owners take them to public shows. Some are used in documentaries and film productions, because people do like watching war films. Modellers enjoy making plastic kits and manufacturers produce many different types to keep this interest fresh. The museums where the tanks and trucks are on display attract good visitor numbers and some of these, such as Imperial War Museum Duxford in Cambridgeshire and the Tank Museum at Bovington in Dorset, have a full schedule of events throughout the year for public visits. There are similar museums in other countries, such as Saumur in France, where they also organise special displays. Re-enactment events also attract large numbers of vehicles and the owners’ clubs and societies have a large number of members. It is to these dedicated people that we should be grateful that there are so many of these historical vehicles still in working order for us to appreciate.

WHERE TO SEE TRUCKS AND TANKS

Cobbaton Combat Collection, Chittlehampton, Umberleigh, North Devon EX37 9RZ.

Tel: 01769 540740. Website: www.cobbatoncombat.co.uk

History on Wheels Museum, Longclose House, Common Road, Eton Wick, near Windsor, Berkshire SL4 6QY.

Tel: 01753 862637. Website: www.historyonwheels.co.uk

Muckleburgh Military Collection, Weybourne, Norfolk NR25 7EG.

Tel: 01263 588210. Website: www.muckleburgh.co.uk

Imperial War Museum, Lambeth, London SE1 6HZ.

Tel: 020 7416 5374. Website: www.iwm.org.uk

Imperial War Museum, Duxford, Cambridge CB2 4QR.

Tel: 01223 835000. Website: www.iwm.org.uk

Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset BH20 6JG.

Tel: 01929 405096. Website: www.tankmuseum.org.uk

REME Museum of Technology, Isaac Newton Road, Arborfield, Berkshire RG2 9NJ.

Tel: 0118 9763 480. Website: www.reme-museum.org.uk

The annual War and Peach Show in Kent: www.thewarandpeaceshow.com

The Royal Logistic Corps Museum, The Princess Royal Barracks, Deepcut, Surrey GU16 6RW.

Tel: 01252 833371. Website: www.rlcmuseum.co.uk

Aldershot Military Museum, Queen’s Avenue, Aldershot, Hampshire GU11 2LG.

Tel: 01252 314598.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arnold-Forster, M., The World at War (London: William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd, 1973)

Bacon, Admiral Sir R. et al. (eds), Warfare Today (London: Odhams Press Ltd)

Barker, A.J., Japanese Army Handbook 1939–1945 (Surrey: Ian Allan, 1979)

Brereton, J.M., The Horse in War (Devon: David & Charles, 1976)

Campbell, C., The World War II Fact Book (London: Futura, 1986)

Chandler, D., The Art of Warfare on Land (London: Penguin Books, 2000)

Chamberlain, P. and Doyle, H., Encyclopedia of German Tanks of World War Two (London: Arms & Armour, 1999)

Davies, W.J.K., German Army Handbook 1939–1945 (Surrey: Ian Allan Ltd, 1973)

Deighton, L., Blitzkrieg (London: Jonathan Cape, 1969)

Dyer, G., War (London: Guild Publishing, 1986)

Ellison Hawks, R.A., Captain, Britain’s Wonderful Fighting Forces (London: Odhams Press Ltd)

Evans, M.M., Retreat, Hell! We Just Got Here! The American Expeditionary Force in France 1917–1918 (Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 1998)

Fletcher, D., et al., Tiger Tank (Somerset: Haynes Publishing, 2011)

Forty, G., US Tanks of World War II (Dorset: Blandford Press, 1983)

Foss, C.F. et al., Tanks and Fighting Vehicles (London: Salamander Books Ltd, 1977)

Georgano, G.N., World War Two Military Vehicles (Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 1994)

Jukes, G., Kursk: the Clash of Armour (London: MacDonald & Co. Ltd, 1968)

Macksey, K., Panzer Division: The Mailed Fist (London: MacDonald & Co. Ltd, 1968)

Macksey, K. and Batchelor, J.H., Tank: A History of the Armoured Fighting Vehicle (London: Military Book Society, 1970)

Macksey, K., The Guiness History of Land Warfare (Middlesex: Guinness Superlatives, 1973)

Macksey, K., et al., The Guinness Book of Tank Facts & Feats (London: Guinness Superlatives, 1976)

Morris, E., Tanks; Tank Weaponry and Warfare (London: Octopus Books Ltd, 1975)

Perrett, B., Knights of the Black Cross (London: Grafton Books, 1990)

Perrett, B., Tank Warfare, Arms & Armour (London: 1990)

Quarrie, B., Lightning Death: The Story of the Waffen-SS (Somerset: Patrick Stephens Ltd, 1991)

Rutherford. W., Kasserine Baptism of Fire (London: MacDonald & Co. Ltd, 1970)

Smithers, A.J., A New Excalibur (London: Grafton Books, 1988)

Smurthwaite, D., et al., Against All Odds (London: National Army Museum, 1989)

Sutherland, J., World War II Tanks and AFVs (Shrewsbury: Airlife Publishing Ltd, 2002)

Townshend, C. (ed.), The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern War (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997)

Ware, P., Military Jeep (Somerset: Haynes Publishing, 2010)

Ware, P., Sherman Tank (Somerset: Haynes Publishing, 2012)

White, B.T., Tanks and Other Armoured Fighting Vehicles of the World (Dorset: Blandford Press, 1975)

Winter. J.M., The Experience of World War I (Oxford: Equinox, 1988)