halftrack

[cletrac (RIP)]

This picture and caption is from RCHA-Right of the LIne. It seems like quite the vehicle for 1934. How many of these did they make?

[Gunner]

Howdy Cletrac:

I stand to be corrected but I beleive there were ultimately 18 of them, six for each of A, B and C Batteries.

There is one original in the CWM.

Interestingly, the backs were flatdecks with the seats and bins being made up by removing the boxes from four limbers and mounting them on the flatdeck.

So those "jeep" guys now have more proof that the name existed long before the ubiquitous little trucks they love.

UBIQUE! Mike

[Phil Waterman]

Here is a picture from Bill Greggs Blue Print for Victory

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

From my notes:

In Canada, the requirements of all-terrain vehicles had been answered by at least two companies. J.S. Innes Limited of Toronto created a rear tracked arrangement powered by the rear wheels, suitable for any 1½- or 2-ton chassis, long or short-wheelbase, with either freight or passenger body, though Ford chassis seem to have been the preferred choice. For winter use, the front wheels were exchanged for steering sleighs, though the front wheel system enabled the truck to proceed over any road or surface conditions other than presumably pure snow. The conversions seem to have been aimed mostly at Ford truck users though. ‘Innes-Cunningham’ half-track conversions were used by the DND: a limited number of Innes-Cunningham half-track conversion Ford trucks were used as gun tractors with ‘C’ Battery, RCHA, Winnipeg, and with the RCAF as crash tenders with Ward-LaFrance fire pumper bodies in 1939. The Artillery trucks may have been 1936 Models; a Lt. Colonel C.R. Grant, DOC, MD No. 10, wrote to the Secretary to the DND concerning Innes-Cunningham Half-track vehicles for ‘C’ Battery, RCHA Grant referred to a letter of 6 January 1937 and his radiogram of 12 January. He enclosed a full report embodying the information contained under various headings of NDFC 763, complied by the Officer Commanding, ‘C’ Battery, and also a separate detailed report giving cost of repairs and replacements. The DND had several 1936 Model 2-ton Stake trucks and there is no indication as to which trucks were conversions, if any. It is thought that the 1936 half-track conversion as revealed on P. 17 of Dr. Gregg’s book ‘Blueprint for Victory’, which was purchased by the DND for trials at Petawawa, and was allegedly a Marmon-Herrington conversion, was one of at least two Innes-Cunningham conversions acquired in 1936. There were eight 2-ton Ford Stake body trucks acquired in 1936: numbers 36-1-93, 101, 103, 115, 117, 161, 163, 170, and together with five 1935 2-ton Stake trucks, were to be retained for ‘general and instructional purposes’ to supplement the 51 1938 GS Trucks, and the two 1937 pilot trucks, and it is queried whether some or all of the 1936 trucks were half-track conversions.

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

I assume that they were called 'Jeeps' after the cartoon character in Popeye?

[Snowtractor]

Service publications has a couple of nice pics of these units and details to go with them. They also have picture of a crash tender mounted on one, very cool. The title is " The Halftrack in Canadian Service".
Sean