M3 Halftrack: Strength & Weaknesses (featuring Chieftain) 

For a look at the German equivalent the Sd. Kfz. 251 be sure to check out this video on my main channel: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-60oHeCZHtvI.html

"If you can't go into battle in style, what's the point?" - Cavalry Officer

If one part of my model is missing, it was shot off, end of discussion

The Chieftain: *slaps roof of M3 half track* "this baby can fit so many GIs"

Part commonality is one of the most underestimated strength of the U.S war machine.

"If u cant go to battle in style whats the point?" The French uniform in WW1 lives to this motto

I’m really enjoying these MHV/Chieftain crossover videos. You seem to work really well each other, without talking over each other or there being any egos in the way. Brilliant. My personal favourite moments: modelling rant and fooling the DMV 😂😂

Model making is supposed to be relaxing. Famous last words. My wife knows this all to well.

Wait, your telling me the Cheiftan doesnt drive to work everyday in a M4 Sherman? What kind of heracy is this?

My grandpa was a forward artillery observer in the Pacific, and one time there was a Japanese sniper in a dense thicket blocking their advance. They called for a tank to blow the guy out, but the tankers refused to come because they didn't want to expose themselves to Japanese fire. So they got ahold of a halftrack crew, and those guys immediately drove into an exposed position (in an open topped vehicle!) and blasted the thicket to pieces. He always had nothing but praise for the halftrack guys after that.

I blame Company of Heroes for etching the persistence that the M3 halftrack is always more brutal as a mobile AA gun with the quad M2s than some silly halftrack with an MG that gives the enemy its suppressing at a way harder time killing with the added bonus of the M2's ball ammo having this scary potential to give most forms of cover a gigantic middle finger

To answer the question; Yes, yes I would (If I could afford it)

My dad was lucky enough to buy tracks from Isreal for our M16 before they went out of stock. The trouble now is to figure out how to put them on with only 2 people.

To answer the question : No. i know that guy pops weelies in halftracks, and i dont know how healthy that is

My dad was in the 4th ID during WW2. The division started out with half tracks, but in France they traded in half tracks for trucks. A truck could carry more men than a half track. The division took up less road space in consequence. On the road the division was thus faster and more nimble. They calculated this to be more important than a half track's limited off-road capability.

One of the few RU-vidrs who is honest about disclosing sponsorship. +1 integrity for that.

I got my dolphins in 2012 and was able to serve on a "newer" Virginia class before leaving the service, but am now truly envious that I didn't earn my fish on an Abrams class!

9:15 I think this is the most relatable thing I've ever heard Nick say, model making has caused me quite a few Insignificant Emotional Events so the second-hand frustration was very real. Well, it was real after I stopped laughing.

I feel like after the first time I've lubricated every link on a 251 I would be incentivized to lose the thing to enemy fire.

My neighbor has 2 of these. They are in great shape. A testament to the builders and its maintenance.

Great and all, but how does one exactly sink an Abrams?

Halftracks were a great combat purpose vehicle to get troops and weapons to the battle. MY uncles loved them during WWll and Korea War. They were very reliable and easy to drive with good speed

You should have titled this 'MHV shoots the breeze with the Chieftain next to an M3 Halftrack'. I don't think it would actually hurt your view count!

Half tracks, and tanks can be Hyway legal here in NEW MEXICO U.S.A. As long as you rubber pads on the tracks or the rubber tracks(like the M3 style or M114....).

I was surprised to find out that the the M3's German counterpart, the SdKW 251 lacked the M3's front-wheel drive, which was quite a disadvantage.

As a former sailor, and, proud Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist, "bubblehead" IS an insult!

My god, when the Chieftain went on his rant about model building, I pissed myself laughing with how right he is about every aspect of it! Yes man, I totally know what you are talking about!

MHnV and the Chieftains most Excellent Adventures.

Yes put together the Airfix Churchill tank with all the small pesky wheels, it became instantly clear why the T34 was such a wonderful tank.

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Nice shoutout to 'Model Railroader Magazine' didnt expect that!

My great uncle drove one through Belgium during the war. He said the halftrack was absolutely useless on ice and he had trouble with sliding off of the road or into obstacles.

A buddy found an abandoned one near a forgotten WW2 bunker at the mouth of the Alsek River in Alaska. The seat fabric front and back was rotted out but the rest of the vehicle was remarkably intact and surprisingly very little rust. The rubber track was dry and cracked but it worked just fine after he got it running again.

There is a military reenactment group nearby so I occasionally see an M3 halftrack driving down the main street of my town early in the morning to refill on gas. It's absolutely insane and i always roll down my window and wave at it if I'm driving past or near it. Not ashamed to admit the first time I saw it I followed it all the way till it turned off onto a private driveway, my dashcam recording the entire time. Only to realize that I had never put the SD card back in it and all the recording was lost...

After serving in WW II, in the 97th Infantry Division, in Europe, and in Japan as a member of the occupying forces, my uncle returned home to Maine. In 1947, while he was using the GI Bill, he drove his surplus jeep around Phillips Exeter Academy, and Harvard, until he graduated. During the summers my uncle used two army surplus half-tracks, he bought, to pull stumps and do other work around his home in Goose Rocks Beach, Maine. He said there were no stumps his half-track could not pull out.

Its also important to remmeber that German doctrine expected panzer grenadiers to fight from their vehicles while US armored infantry was expected to dismount well before seeing action.

7:14 "[were there M3's equipped] with rocket artillery?" Indeed they were. There is a photo in the book 'M3 Infantry Half-Track 1940-73' published by by New Vanguard (page 35) of an M2A1 half-track equipped with 6 aircraft rocket tubes, and they have been fixed together and fixed on a pedestal mounting (rather than on the side like the Germans did with the sdkfz 251). The photo says this took place in Bengal Air Depot in 1944.

I feel you concerning modeling. But what ever the reason for a moment of rage is, we carry on and enjoy the build. Thank you guy for your awesome content.

There is a guy in my hometown who owns one of these vehicles in running condition . He's a Vietnam Vet Marine Combat Engineer who retired from the USMC Reserves . He got activated post Desert Shield / Desert Storm to clear unexploded ordnance . In the 1980s he had a business dealing in Milsurp vehicles , used to sell alot of Jeeps , many still in the crate . He has a fully restored Cold War era Jeep in the barn alongside the halftrack. The front room in his house is a mini museum of militaria. At times he would drive his halftrack in local parades and let a friend drive the Jeep . Sometimes he would take his halftrack out on the road during winter storms , pulling cars out of ditches and generally showing off .

Never build models in a room with shag carpeting.

Hehe, in Sweden they strapped a recoilless cannon to a freaking Jeep for tank hunting purposes. XD The reasoning being: you don't need armor to fight tanks. You just need mobility and being able to spot the tank before it spots you. Plus it's cost effective and easier to field in great numbers.

My dad owns 2 half tracks. One had most of the armor plating stripped and was being used as a dump truck or something similar at a rock quarry before he got it. The second still has all the original plating and he was told it served in Italy in WW2. There are 17 small indentations on the driver door and armor window flap from alleged enemy fire. He also owns an M37 power wagon, and multiple Willy's Jeeps.

My dad drove a commanders halftrack of a light armored outfit in the Korean war. He said the Navy saved them by firing huge shells over them, keeping the Chinese from overrunning them.

A model railroader here, I know all about "a prototype for everything". Also, when building a model for an NMRA contest it's encouraged to have a picture of the prototype. I've heard of cases where the judges would have deducted points for some oddity on the model if it wasn't also on the prototype in the picture.

Would the M2 browning come with it if I bought it from this man?

My mother’s father was a WW2 light tank crewman transferred to the infantry after North Africa, and he loved those half tracks.

Model makers strive to make their subjects rusty and dirty and with a gritty texture while the real AFVs we see in museums and demonstrations are as free of rust and dirt as can be practical. But I digress. Thanks Wargaming for bringing these two together. They always have such good topics of conversation. We've got to start a campaign to get Chieftain a halftrack!

I really enjoyed this video. You guys were honest, playful and went in depth. Very well done!

*15y old me and the boys riding in a half track* US army: "Now this is an avengers level threat"

9:45 My uncle registered a trailer house as a motor vehicle. He's a farmer and built a crop sprayer out of a trailer house frame. He used the trailer house VIN to register it with the state DMV.

so basically what your saying is the German halftrack was over engineered and needed a mechanic to fix if it broke down and the American halftrack was designed to be used and maintained by farm boy, sounds about right.

The Cheiftain's statement on obscure modifications reminds me of an image I saw of Canadian soldiers who created a rack of about a dozen PIATs mounted onto the back of a bren carrier to be used in indirect fire.

Slaps top of half track, this can fit so many yanks in it!

I enjoy your two working together on these videos. Two of my favorite RU-vidrs. And yes i would buy a used half-track if i lived in a remote rural area and could afford one. They are the coolest looking vehicles ever made.

Love to see both of you together, such great discussions

It was cool to see the Chieftain at the D-Day Re-enactment at Conneaut, Ohio this past summer where this footage was taken. Great videos.

I was once up close & personal with the quad-50 variant (my favorite!). This was at a military vehicle show in 2000. I almost fainted. Like a 12 year old girl running into Paul McCartmey in 1965.

*slaps the roof of the half-track* This bad boy can fit so many GIs in it!

"If you can't go into battle in style; what's the point?" Which is exactly why I want to have a look at a german halftrack ;)

I remember seeing a pair of Isreali half tracks still in use on the Goland Heights in 1990. At the time they were still being used for patrol and reconnaisance near the Syrian border.

This keeps appearing in my feed, and all can think is, it’s not like there are new halftracks out there to buy.

As to you comment on M3 Half Track mounting rockets, I believe that the Israel's mounted the French SS-11 Anti tank missile on a traversable rack above troop compartment. That being said the US and Canadians also mounted the SS-11 anti tank missiles on UH-1 helicopters.

It is more relaxing to look at completed models than to build them.

I’m still making models like I did in the 1970’s so you’re ahead of me! Great video and great rambling

My dad and I restored 2 scout cars. Basically a wheeled half track. 1 is now in a museum in CA.

If you compare the M3 with the 251 you see that the the 251 bears most of its weight with its tracks while the M3 carries a lot of its weight withe the wheels. The 251 is more a tracked vehicle with wheels while the M3 is more like a wheeled vehicle with a "tracked wheel". So a powered wheel does not make any sense on the 251, it would make it only expensive to build and hard to maintain. Even on the M3 I do not see why you power the wheels when most of the traction power comes from the tracks anyway. On roads the M should be better to handle, offroad the 251 should be better to handle. Just guessing, I am not an expert.

Great fun! Thank you both.

We need more Model Kit ramblings from both of you.

I can never decide if I like the look of the American or German halftracks more, the german ones do look a bit more menacing with the extra angles, though that may be colored by their association with the aggressive wars of the Nazis. American ones do have those cool louvers on the grill and just look square jawed and manly. Plus they mount .50s, which is always a plus..

Just had to comment saying the thumbnail text for this video made me crack up. Good sense of humor!

My grandpa rode one of these through France, Belgium, and Germany. His halftrack had an 81mm mortar in the back.

5:50 "This is the Americans doing what the Americans do best. Take something that already exists , they adapt it, they modify it improve upon it and off you go." Yes.

I have a collection of images for all my conversions, so when someone goes "that doesn't look right" or something similar, I can pull out the image and go "here's what I was doing."

2 of my favorite historians on one show! Thanks!

Halftrack crews were trained to change tracks in 5 minutes. They had trouble with throwing them in the field early in the war.

I know I'm a little late, but that modeling statement about missing parts. Somehow, someway, I managed to loose a tire for one of the wheels on my Semi trailer. Have no clue where it went. That model went from being a "new for sale truck and trailer" to "tire blow out on the side of the highway" 😂

Good stuff!

This is fantastic thank you

Howdy Bernard. Du lebst meinen Traum! Wie immer sehr informativ. Gruss

I own a halftrack. Easy to drive, but noisy inside and scary above 35 mph. The most complicated thing on them is by far, the light switch

My grandfather worked on these as commander motor pool Ft Knox in the late 30s. He told us that in North Africa German rounds would come in one side, bounce off the other side and rattle around a bit causing a lot of hurt. Grandpa also helped mount the 75s in the first place.

A halftrack: my Mid-life Crisis Vehicle!

My father's Engineer Construction Battalion in the Pacific had one of these with quad fifties mounted.

As a former bubblehead who left the Navy and then joined the Army as a tanker, I can attest that Submarine dolphins are authorized for wear with the Army uniform. Or, at least they were authorized up to my retirement date.

A timeless piece of history, and a damn stylish one too.

Great video.

Kudos to PLASMOs RU-vid Channel 🤗

Chief, Arnold was a tank driver in the Austrian Army and has purchased the tank he drove. It's reportedly derivable. Arnold!!!!

Wrap around rubber tracks like on the M3 can be temporarily patched in places when they break by using pieces of spare broken sections of rubber track held on by bolts with nuts/washers, or very large staples. I've seen it done with construction/landscaping equipment that use rubber tracks and on rubber tracked self propelled field guns(like that 90mm one i saw a video of a year or 2 back)...so i'm pretty sure someone would have thought to during WW II. I'd love to own an M3 half track if i ever win the lottery...or get a real job, hahah! Great to see these 2 guys collaborating in a video, hope to see them together again!

I met a seriously worn M3 Halftrack up in Kenosha Wisconsin no one around lots of bits missing everything else rusted. Passed through the same location six months later it was gone. There was a museum on a side road off the interstate where it may have landed. I was told never to go near the gate as the owner was under investigation by the ATF and FBI per an FBI agent we knew.

the 251 and M3 are different because of the different situations of cost,materials and supply affecting the constraints placed on their operation. In photos of german half tracks on the eastern front there were many,many custom modified 'SPW' vehicles featuring half tracks mounting all kinds of unusual heavy weapons as needed...........

In Florida, if it has rubber tracks you can get plates for it and it will be street legal. Metal tracks aren't legal for street use.

yes but how do you tension the tracks?

The M3 Halftrack can be more compared to the Maultier Sd.Kfz. 4

How do you set the track tension of the front axle?

From what I understand, the M3 car and halftrack don't have the ability to lock their differentials. So although you do get reduced ground pressure with tracks, your ability to traverse loose surfaces is still severely hindered compared to a "tank" or other vehicle set up correctly for tracks. The chieftain clearly does not understand how the transmission on the sdkfz halftracks works. If it had tracks driven at different speeds, there wouldn't need to be wheels at all, which is why he was confused by their existence. The sdkfz has an open differential, the M3 and sdkfz are actually quite similar in this regard. The key difference is that the turning of the wheel applies brake pressure to the track you are truring towards, thus forcing the other track to spin faster. This is an incredibly simple system (arguably more simple than a clutch and additional differential for the two front wheels) and, at least partially, solves the issue of breaking traction on one side. The *reason* halftracks existed is because building a fully tracked vehicle with "skidsteer" (clutched braking like on a T-34) is not viable when the weight of the vehicle or the weight being towed goes up. Normally you need to design and build a transmission capable of turning each track at many combinations of many different speed increments. The complexity of such a device goes up dramatically the more weight you add to it, because you need even more increments. Industry was still perfecting how to do this in WWII. The solution the Americans come up with was to slap tracks onto the back of this poor car and any traction gained was considered a win. The Germans weren't bastardizing a scout car, they were designing a whole line of prime movers from staff car all the way up to 60-ton-tank recovery vehicle. Their ideal solution would have been to build a bunch of tanks with tow hitches, but, as I said, this geats really complex and expensive when designing a transmission that won't completely destroy all of your roads and track links or make towing and driving on roads a nightmare like skidsteer will. Instead, they retained the braking idea from skidsteer for gross steering, but opened the differential and added a cheap pair of wheels to the front to take care of the small steering adjustments that skidsteer fails at. This extra design work gets you....say.... 2/3 the effectiveness of a fully tracked system and associated transmission, but with a fraction of the manufacturing costs. Meanwhile, the M3 tracks are only realizing 1/3 the potential of having tracks, while still accruing the maintenance and manufacturing costs that come with tracks. The only reason I think it was cost effective was because of the existing production of scout cars, if they had designed something from the ground up with tracks in mind, they probably wouldn't have gone this route. (The use of thirds was in support of the conclusion and was arbitrary. You can use whatever fraction you fancy, the point is that ["real tank" > sdkfz > M3] in utilizing the ground pressure advantage granted by tracks)

From a military vehicle collector friend I hear that getting the big rubber band tracks is now one of the biggest issues for keeping these things running. Apparently in the 80s in the UK these were still legal on the motorway as they didn't count as tanks until one shed a track at speed.

I would buy one i love em..keep up the good vids..

Yaaay Nicholas!

Agree with you about long wanting an M3 Scout Car to drive on the street, ever since I built my first 1/72 Esci kit more than 40 years ago.