Barbarossa Books

Israeli Half-tracks Volume One Israeli Half-tracks Volume Two

by  Tom Gannon

Reviewed By  Mark Aldrich, IPMS# 39295

MSRP: $44.85 (vol. 1) ISBN: 978-1-84768-001-3 MSRP: $53.00 (vol. 2) ISBN: 978-1-84768-002-0 Website: www.barbarossabooks.eu Tom Gannon has done it again. Back in 2000 he released Israeli Shermans and made my whole year. Now, in 2009 he has done it again in double. These two hard bound books are another "must have" for anyone interested in the IDF, the Middle East Wars, or the M3 family of half-tracks. The books combined are 400 pages long and contain over 750 pictures covering the Israeli use of the halftrack and several other vehicles as well. Volume One starts you off with the early use of armored vehicle warfare by the Hagana and Palmach. In written format it delivers a brief history of the M2/M3 armored cars to the use of the M3 series halftracks. It then moves into the early "sandwich trucks". Mr. Gannon includes some really great pictures of a production line somewhere in Tel-Aviv where the Israelis were converting British 15 CMP vehicles into the "sandwich" vehicles. They are also numerous color photographs of surviving armored "sandwich" vehicles and buses. Yes, I did type buses. Several are clearly up armored buses and a couple make you wonder where the bus actually is under that armor plate. There are also several black and white "in action" shots of these vehicles in use. We then move into armored car use with another mix of black and white and color photographs of several different armored cars. Staghounds, Marmon-Herringtons, AML-90s and Ferrets are all covered. Two of the pictures show a really neat MarkIV F moving through the desert and is missing all of it’s fenders. This would make for a neat model. Chapter four covers the half-tracks in general use. These photographs are all "in action" and black and white. Almost all these pictures show the vehicles used with no modifications done to them. However, there are several photographs showing half-tracks with armored glass windows for the driver and co-driver as early as 1951. There is also a parade picture showing an M5 sporting a MG34 in an armored shield at the co-driver’s station. The final chapter in volume one ends with modified half-tracks. This includes modified 6 pounder equipped vehicles. There is some early turreted machine gun half-tracks covered also. There is one really neat very heavily modified half-track that has a Daimler armored car turret in the crew area and a locally manufactured machine gun turret in the co-drivers station. Mr. Gannon believes that only one such vehicle was ever produced. Volume Two continues with another written introduction into what is covered in this book. Chapter six starts us off with the M3 scout car and AML-90. The AML-90 was only used until the end of the six day war. After that the vehicles were withdrawn from service and the guns were used in half-tracks. The M2/M3 scout cars were most often turned into "sandwich" vehicles and un-modified ones were used by the border police. Chapter seven covers more "general use" half-tracks from the 1960’s to the present. It is interesting to note that the Israeli’s referred to all half-tracks as M3 (regardless of actual make). They were then differentiated by marks based on simple vehicle characteristics. By the large amount of photographs in this section one quickly deduces that the Israeli’s were not impressed with the armored pulpit and .50 caliber machine gun combination mounted on most vehicles. This chapter ends with a few shots of captured BTR-152’s used by the IDF. The last three pictures show a BTR-152 wrecker which would make an interesting and relatively easy conversion. The eighth and final chapter covers the modified halftracks from 1960 to present. The 81mm and 120mm mortars, TCM-20 anti-aircraft vehicles, SS-11 equipped vehicles, fitter equipped and radio and communication vehicles are all well represented in photographic form. The communications vehicle is actually an M-3 with a rat rig sitting inside and chained down in four points. Think I might have an idea for that Italeri shelter kit now. Again, these are definitely "must have" books if you are into IDF vehicles or just into modeling some really neat half-track conversions. The majority of the photographs are of excellent quality and will definitely aid the model builder. I want to thank my wife Jerry who has never failed at supporting my obsession, Tom Gannon for writing the books, Boomers Books for having both, and IPMS/USA for allowing others to see this review. Have fun….build a half-track.