The M3 Half-track was an American armored personnel carrier widely used by the Allies during World War II. Although at first unpopular due to its lack of significant armor and a roof to protect from shrapnel, the M3 was used by most of the Allies at some point in the war. Total production of the M3 and its variants ran to nearly 65,000 vehicles. To supply the Allied nations, International Harvester produced several thousand of a very similar vehicle, the M5 Half-track for Lend-Lease. The front "Unditching Roller" was an innovation to prevent the front nose of the vehicle from jamming into the far wall when crossing ditches in France and across Northern Europe.

M3 Half-track by Paul Sager, on Flickr




The jerrycan is a liquid container made from pressed steel. The container was designed in Germany in the 1930s for military use to hold 20 litres of fuel (5.3 US gallons). The German design was reverse engineered and subsequently copied by the Allies during the Second World War. The name 'jerrycan' refers to its German origins, Jerry being wartime slang for Germans. Uses for the cans have expanded beyond carrying fuel. Today, a can's use is denoted by its coloring. This prevents contamination of the can's contents by mixing different fuels or mixing fuel with water.


Petrol on film




The jeep became the primary light wheeled transport vehicle of the United States Military and its Allies in World War II, as well as the postwar period. The Jeep was the workhorse of the American military, as it literally replaced the use of horses and other draft animals (still abundant in World War I) in every role, from cavalry units to supply trains. Willys-Overland filed to trademark the "Jeep" name in 1943, and from 1945 onwards, Willys marketed its four-wheel drive vehicle to the public with its CJ (Civilian Jeep) versions, making these the world's first mass-produced 4WD civilian cars.

Willys MB




Historians don't know how exactly the U.S. Army's 1/4-ton reconnaissance car became generally known as the "Jeep". One frequent explanation is the designation GP (either from the initial Ford GP, or from the military G.P. for General Purpose car) was slurred into the word Jeep in the same way that the contemporary HMMWV (for High-Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle) has become known as the Humvee.

Willys MB Jeep




On June 6, 1944, That’s All Brother was one of the over 800 C-47s that dropped 13,000 paratroopers into France behind German lines during the Normandy Invasion. The 75th anniversary is next summer in June 2019.

C-47 Skytrain That's All Brother


The B&W images were captured using expired Kodak Portra 400BW and an orange filter. Processing and scanning was performed by North Coast Photography Services and the high res JPEGs were processed further in Lightroom. The color image is from a Canon EOS 5DIII.

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Nice pictures and all the versions are well done, Congratulations!

The original Jeeps used in WWII & Korea were pretty steady, but the revised version introduced during VM, had the independent four wheel suspension and were rollover prone; it's been a long time but think they called it a model 51. The suspension allowed the body to remain level even as the suspension absorbed all the tip so the driver was clueless about a pending rollover. The first modification was to add safety belts, which in rollovers probably killed more troops than the original (couldn't jump off), next we were sent placards that said Not to Exceed 40(?) MPH and of course most drivers followed that (when an Officer was present), but the rollover rated didn't reduce much. By the time the 'new models' reached the Transportation Companies the N.D.G. word was out and the drivers were more careful. I got off Active Duty in '64 so I don't know subsequent history except that most 1/4 ton jeeps were shortly replaced by the new 3/4 ton trucks as company vehicles. The only complaints I heard on them was that they were too big to camouflage easily and quickly in company sized field areas.

Jcam
TC Officer