The M24 Chaffee was an American heavy light of the Second World War. The first prototypes were built in 1943, and serial production was carried out in the period 1944-1945. In total, about 4,700 copies of this tank of all versions were built. The M24 Chaffee was powered by a double engine Cadillac Twin 44T24 with a total power of 220 HP . It was armed with a single 75mm M6 cannon, two 7.62mm Browning 1919A4 machine guns and a single 12.7mm Browning M2HB machine gun.
The M24 Chaffee was created as the successor to the M3 / M5 Stuart light tank series. In designing it, the emphasis was on stronger main armament (a 75mm gun instead of a 37mm gun), better shaped armor, greater off-road capability, and easier handling - especially in the engine compartment. During World War II, several specialized vehicles were built on the chassis of the M24 tank, including the M19 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun and the M41 Gorilla self-propelled howitzer. The first M24 Chaffee began to hit the line in mid-1944. They took part in the battles in Normandy, France and West Germany (1944-1945), but also in Italy in the period 1944-1945. After 1945, the M24 Chaffee was also exported to many countries, including Austria, Belgium, Chile, France, Greece and Pakistan. M24 took part in several conflicts after the end of World War II, including the Korean War (1950-1953), the war in Algeria (1954-1962) and Indochina (1945-1954).
Jeep Willys (other names: Willys MB, Jeep) is an American off-road car from the Second World War and the post-war period. The first prototypes of the car were built in 1940, and serial production was carried out in 1940-1945. Nearly 650,000 copies of it were created in its course! The weight of the cart was about 1.1 tons, with a length of 3.36 meters and a width of 1.57 meters. The drive was provided by a single engine with a power of 60 HP. The maximum speed was up to 105 km / h.
The Jeep Willys was developed to order and demanded by the US Army, which in 1940, faced with the war, asked for a completely new 4x4 passenger car with a load capacity of up to 250 kilograms, which could be mass-produced. It is worth adding that initially the American Bantam Car with the Bantam BRC was the clear favorite in the tender. However, the US Department of Defense, striving to ensure the best possible car design and trying to ensure trouble-free series production, handed over the plans for the Bantam BRC to the Willys and Ford plants. Based on these plans, Willys developed a Jeep that had a much better power unit than the original Bantam BRC, as well as being mechanically more perfect. Ultimately, it was this car, the Willys Jeep, that won the tender for the US Army. The presented car was actually mass-produced and went to almost all Anglo-Saxon armies fighting in World War II, and thanks to the Lend-and-Lease program, also to the Soviet Union. He took part in hostilities in North Africa, Italy, Northwest Europe and the Pacific. It is often assumed that the Jeep Willys is one of the symbols of American triumph in World War II.
The M2-M3-M5 Half-Track is a family of American half-track armored personnel carriers from the Second World War. The first prototypes of this family's vehicles were made in 1938, and serial production continued in the years 1941-1944, ending with the production of tens of thousands of vehicles of this type! The M2-M3-M5 Half-Track family of vehicles was either powered by the engine White 160AX with 147 HP or IHC RED-450-B engine with 142 HP. The armament of the vehicles was very different and dependent on the version, but most often consisted of two machine guns: Browning M2HB cal. 12.7 mm and Browning M1919 cal. 7.62 mm.
The first attempts to introduce half-tracked vehicles to the US Army took place in the 1920s, but only at the end of the 1930s, after many experiments, they led to the intended effect. In 1938, a prototype was created Half-Track Personnel Carrier T7, and a little later this vehicle was changed to a body similar to the Scout-Car M3 - this is how the progenitor of the whole family was created M2-M3-M5 Half-Track, i.e. Half-Track Scout T14. It was this version that finally entered mass production in 1941. In its course, three main variants of this armored personnel carrier were created. The first was M2 Half-Track, which could carry up to 10 people and served as a transporter and artillery tractor for 155 mm howitzers. Later, the M3 Half-Track version appeared, which was a 13-person armored personnel carrier with an enlarged crew compartment and an extended hull. It also had a door at the rear of the fuselage. It was a highly versatile vehicle that served as a transporter, artillery tractor, ambulance, command vehicle or communication vehicle. In December 1942, the M5 Half-Track version came into production, which was very similar to the M3 version, but differed in the place of production (International Harvester plants), the drive unit and was produced primarily for foreign customers. Family vehicles M2-M3-M5 Half-Track They began their combat route with the fighting in the Philippines in 1941-1942, and were later used on a very large scale by American troops both in the Pacific region, in North Africa, and during the Italian campaign and Northwest Europe until 1945. Vehicles M2-M3-M5 Half-Track they were used by many countries, including Great Britain or the Soviet Union, which received a lot of them under the Lend-and-Lease program. They were also used by the Polish Armed Forces. After 1945, they took part in many armed conflicts, for example: the Korean War (1950-1953), the Six-Day War (1967) and the Yom-Kippur War (1973).