M2 M3 American Half Tracks of the

Second World War 1st Edition Robert

Jackson
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebookmeta.com/product/m2-m3-american-half-tracks-of-the-second-world-war-
1st-edition-robert-jackson/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

The Jackson Project War in the American Workplace 1st

Edition Phil Cohen

https://ebookmeta.com/product/the-jackson-project-war-in-the-
american-workplace-1st-edition-phil-cohen/

The British Empire and the First World War 1st Edition
Ashley Jackson

https://ebookmeta.com/product/the-british-empire-and-the-first-
world-war-1st-edition-ashley-jackson/

Broadway Goes to War American Theater During World War

II 1st Edition Robert L Mclaughlin Sally E Parry

https://ebookmeta.com/product/broadway-goes-to-war-american-
theater-during-world-war-ii-1st-edition-robert-l-mclaughlin-
sally-e-parry/

Canada and the First World War Second Edition Essays in

Honour of Robert Craig Brown David Mackenzie (Editor)

https://ebookmeta.com/product/canada-and-the-first-world-war-
second-edition-essays-in-honour-of-robert-craig-brown-david-
mackenzie-editor/
Bren Gun Carrier Britain s Universal War Machine 1st
Edition Robert Jackson

https://ebookmeta.com/product/bren-gun-carrier-britain-s-
universal-war-machine-1st-edition-robert-jackson/

The Origins of the Second World War 5th Edition Richard

Overy

https://ebookmeta.com/product/the-origins-of-the-second-world-
war-5th-edition-richard-overy/

The Second World War Illustrated The Second Year

Archive and Colour Photographs of WW2 Holroyd

https://ebookmeta.com/product/the-second-world-war-illustrated-
the-second-year-archive-and-colour-photographs-of-ww2-holroyd/

The Peoples War The Second World War In Socio political

Perspective 1st Edition Alexander Wilson

https://ebookmeta.com/product/the-peoples-war-the-second-world-
war-in-socio-political-perspective-1st-edition-alexander-wilson/

The Second World War A Military History Gordon Corrigan

https://ebookmeta.com/product/the-second-world-war-a-military-
history-gordon-corrigan/
 Urban combat environments have
almost always been a dangerous place
for armoured units, especially those
with limited armour protection and no
overhead cover as can be attested to in
this photograph os a burned-out Half-track
Personnel Carrier M3A1.

LandCraft 2

Edited by Robert Jackson

First published in Great Britain in 2019 by PEN & SWORD MILITARY
an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire S70 2AS
Copyright © Pen & Sword Books, 2019
Profile illustrations © David Bocquelet Tank Encyclopedia

Contents ISBN 9781526746559

The right of Pen & Sword Books Ltd to be identified as the author of this
Introduction 1 work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
Design & Development 2
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library. All rights
M2/M3 in Detail 8 reserved.
M2/M3 Variants 13 No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by
Camouflage & Markings 17 any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the
Model Showcase 25 Publisher in writing.
Every reasonable effort has been made to trace copyright holders of
Modelling Products 41 material reproduced in this book, but if any have been inadvertently
overlooked the publishers will be pleased to hear from them.
In Service and in Action 58
Printed by Gutenburg Press Ltd., Malta

Front cover. Top: 1/35 scale Dragon M2A1 kit. (Brian Richardson).
Centre left: A Half-track Car M2 during a desert training exercise in
April 1942. (National Archives) Centre middle: The US Army modified
some Half-track Personnel Carrier M3s to serve as armored field
ambulances (Patton Museum). Centre right: the 75mm Gun Motor
Carriage (GMC) M3s were only a stopgap vehicle. (Patton Museum)
Profile illustration: M2 in Tunisia, Operation Torch, November 1942.
(David Bocquelet Tank Encyclopedia)
Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the imprints of Pen & Sword
Archaeology, Atlas, Aviation, Battleground, Discovery, Family History,
History, Maritime, Military, Naval, Politics, Railways, Select, Social History,
Transport, True Crime, Claymore Press, Frontline Books, Leo Cooper,
Praetorian Press, Remember When, Seaforth Publishing and Wharncliffe.
For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact
Pen & Sword Books Limited, 47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire,
S70 2AS, England
Email: enquiries@pen-and-sword.co.uk Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
 Introduction 1

Introduction

The U.S. Army had experimented late in

the First World War with replacing the rear
wheels of trucks with the track system of
a small commercial tractor. Envisioned as
artillery prime movers (towing vehicles), the
prototypes were slow, but had improved
mobility. Experimentation continued in the
immediate post-war period, but no vehicle
progressed past the prototype stage.
In 1925, the U.S. Army acquired an
unarmoured commercial half-track
designed and built by the French firm of
Citroën-Kégresse, followed by a larger model
in 1931. Both were tested to evaluate their
potential as light artillery prime movers. The
larger and heavier French half-track weighed Acquired by the U.S. Army in 1931 for test purposes was this unarmoured half-
1,955kg (4,300lb). Its 28hp petrol engine track designed and built by the French firm of Citroën-Kégresse. It received the
provided a top speed of 30kph (18mph) on U.S. Army designation P17 and had front-wheel steering and 22.5-centimetre-wide
level paved roads. In the end, both were (9-inch-wide) metal tracks, with attached rubber pads. Patton Museum
judged too small and underpowered for the
role.
In spite of the U.S. Army’s findings, the
French Army extensively employed both
armoured and unarmoured variants of
the Citroën-Kégresse half-tracks during
the 1920s and 1930s. The Polish Army,
also deploying armoured and unarmoured
variants, was the second-largest user in
Europe.
After rejecting the French half-tracks,
in 1932 the U.S. tested an unarmoured
half-track from the American firm of
James Cunningham, Son, & Co. It was
designated as the Half-Track Car T1. The
letter ‘T’ signified experimental. Larger and
heavier than the French vehicles, it weighed
2,865kg (6,300lb) and was powered by a A single unarmoured pilot of the T1 series, 1934, with a VVSS system. The vehicle
115hp petrol engine. As with the French later received the designation Half-track Car T1E3. It had fixed rear idlers, which
half-tracks, the U.S. Army wanted a vehicle could be adjusted to tighten or loosen the tracks. Patton Museum
suitable for towing light artillery pieces.
Testing the T1 led to some improvements
that resulted in a heavier version eventually
designated as the T1E1. Thirty were built by
the government-owned Rock Island Arsenal,
from parts supplied by James Cunningham,
Son, & Co. In March 1939, the T1E1 were
relabelled as the Half-track Car M1. In
December 1940, the secretary of war, a
civilian, declared the M1 obsolete, and all
disappeared from service.
The unarmoured T1 pilot underwent
numerous modifications to improve its
performance, which resulted in the new
designation as the T1E3. In 1934, it received
the vertical volute (coil spring) suspension
system (VVSS) developed by the U.S. Army
Ordnance Department which proved to be The U.S. Army pursued
the forerunner of those used on U.S.-built at least part of the original load, something the development of
half-tracks during the Second World War. that torsion bars cannot. a line of unarmoured
Volute springs are helically wound steel At the same time as the U.S. Army was half-track trucks during
strips, the inner turns of which are displaced testing the unarmoured T1/T1E1, it was the 1930s. Envisioned
along a central axis to give the finished also developing larger unarmoured half- primarily as artillery
spring a conical shape. Volute springs have tracks trucks, for various roles, from prime movers (towing
some advantages over other types of tracked artillery prime movers to performing the vehicles) this example
suspension systems such as torsion bars role of tank transporter. Their designations has a leaf-spring
because they are more compact and more ran from Half-track Truck T1 to Half-track suspension system and
was designated Half-
damage-tolerant. If a portion of volute spring Truck T9, eventually designated as the Half-
track Truck T5. Patton
is damaged, the broken pieces can still carry track Truck M2.
Museum
2 M2/M3

The Half-track Truck M2 appeared as a light
artillery prime mover, with a VVSS system.
Initially riding on combination steel and
rubber segmented block tracks, like the
earlier Half-track Car T1E3, eventually it
appeared with something referred to at the
time as “endless band tracks”. In today’s
lexicon, endless band track is now just
“band track” and often seen on smaller
construction and agricultural vehicles.
Band track offered some advantages over
all-steel tracks at the time. These included
a smoother ride with less vibration and
therefore less wear on the vehicle, reduced
damage to paved surfaces, and greatly
increased the service life of a vehicle’s
bogie wheels and other suspension system
components. Band-tracks also weighed
approximately 25 percent less than steel-
and-rubber segmented block tracks, which
improved fuel efficiency and therefore range.

Armoured Half-tracks
In 1938, at the behest of the cavalry branch,
the U.S. Army conducted an experiment by
converting an existing 4x4 armoured car
into an armoured half-track. The cavalry
branch wanted an armoured vehicle with
superior off-road capabilities to those of its
existing wheeled armoured cars. The vehicle
chosen for the experiment was a Scout Car
M2A1, later re-designated as the M3. The
rear wheels of the vehicle were removed, the
lower rear hull modified, and a VVSS system
from the Half-track Truck M2 fitted, along
with 30-centimetre-wide (12-inch-wide)
band track.
The much-modified Scout Car M3, with
In 1938, the U.S. Army decided as an experiment to modify the rear body of a new larger front tyres and weighing 5,530kg
Scout Car M3 as pictured and fit it with a version of the vertical volute spring (12,170lb), was labelled as the Half-track
suspension (VVSS) system from the Half-track Truck M2. Notice the gun rail Personnel Carrier T7. Power came from a
running around the interior of the vehicle with attached machine guns on skates. 95hp Hercules Motors Corporation petrol
Patton Museum engine, which was considered underpowered
for the vehicle’s weight. The T7 was also
eventually provided with an un-ditching
roller in place of the original front steel
bumper to aid in climbing in and out of
shallow ditches.
As with those of the unarmoured Half-
track Truck M2, the T7’s front wheels were
powered and synchronized. This design
feature greatly aided off-road performance
by giving the driver better steering and the
vehicle improved drive-traction. In contrast,
the German Army’s pre-war half-tracks,
both unarmoured and armoured, had
unpowered front wheels and depended on
their tank-type steering final drive units
to turn them past 15° right or left. The
unpowered front wheels only supported the
With a modified version of the VVSS system and the band tracks from the front of the vehicle.
Half-track Truck M2, the converted Scout Car M3 shown became the Half-track The U.S. Army concluded testing the T7
Personnel Carrier T7 in 1938. Patton Museum in the same year it began. The vehicle was
 Design & Development 3

returned to its original configuration and

transferred back to the cavalry branch.
In December 1939, at the request
of the artillery branch, which sought a
prime mover for its M2 105mm howitzer,
the U.S. Army released specifications for
an armoured 6,365kg (14,000lb) vehicle
designated as the Half-track Scout Car T14.
Its design included all experimental and
developmental work done on all earlier half-
track designs, including the T7. The White
Motor Company was assigned the task to
build the pilot for testing.
The open-topped T14 pilot vehicle
underwent testing in early 1940. The
T14 consisted of a specially designed,
commercial-type, front and rear drive truck
chassis with an armoured hull. Power
came from a White 6-cylinder 116hp petrol In December 1939, the U.S. Army authorized the construction of the Half-track
engine. The T14’s VVSS system had front- Scout Car T14 pilot pictured. In the name of expediency, the pilot vehicle had the
mounted drive sprockets and rear-mounted Half-track Personnel Carrier T7’s vertical volute spring suspension (VVSS) system ,
idlers. The idlers were fixed in position but as well as band tracks, and front-mounted roller. Patton Museum
were adjustable to increase or decrease
band track tension.
In its haste to expand and equip itself
in light of the German blitzkrieg in the
Ardennes in the summer of 1940, the U.S.
Army recommended in September 1940
that the T14 be standardized before the test
results were released. It was the invasion
of France that brought to the U.S. Army’s
attention the German Army’s employment
of an armoured half-track personnel carrier,
i.e. the SdKfz 251 Ausf. A. In turn, this
prompted U.S. Army interest in a similar
vehicle.
The U.S. Army wanted three different
modified versions of the T14 rushed into
production for its armoured divisions.
Manufacture of these vehicles received
official approval in October 1940. They
would include the Half-track Car M2, the
81mm Mortar Carrier M4 (based on the Half-
track Car M2) and the Half-track Personnel In October 1940, the U.S. Army ordered three modified (but generally similar
versions) of the Half-track Scout Car T14. One of the three, seen here, received
Carrier M3.
the designation Half-track Car M2. A spotting feature was the large ammunition
The M2/M3 series half-tracks may not
storage compartment doors behind the driver’s compartment on either side of the
have been the optimum choice for the U.S.
vehicle. Patton Museum
Army’s needs at that time. Their lack of
overhead protection as well as thin armour
would prove unpopular with those who
served in them. But, it was simple in design
as it employed many commercial truck
components that brought down cost and
tooling effort and lead time, thus allowing
it to be built by American industry in very
large numbers relatively quickly. In that
time frame, a half-track cost approximately
$14,000 to build compared to a tank, which
cost approximately $35,000.
All three modified versions of the T14
were powered by the same six-cylinder
White 147hp petrol engine, which provided
a power to weight ratio of approximately
15hp per ton. The current U.S. Army M1A2
Abrams main battle tank, which weighs
over 70 tons, has a power to weight ratio of
21.4hp per ton. The U.S. Army took notice of the German Army’s use of half-track armoured
The new half-tracks had a respectable personnel carriers during its conquest of France in the summer of 1940. The
top speed of 75kph (45mph) on level paved vehicle then in use is pictured and bore the designation SdKfz. 251 Ausf. A. Armed
roads. Off-road speed was dictated by with two machine guns, it transported a squad of ten men. Patton Museum
4 M2/M3

the type of terrain traversed. Chains were

provided for the band tracks and front tyres
to aid in travelling over mud and snow. For
the front wheels, there were semi-elliptic
longitudinal leaf springs. More durable
front springs began phasing-in to M2/
M3 production in May 1943. The front
wheels also had hydraulic brakes as did the
vehicle’s VVSS system’s two drive sprockets.
The band tracks fitted to the half-track
were made by vulcanizing rubber over steel
cables for added strength and durability.
The two separate strands in the band tracks
were joined together by steel cross pieces,
which included small rectangular steel-
framed openings. These openings were
engaged by the tracks’ drive-sprockets’ 18
interior teeth, which in turn, pulled the
band tracks from the rear of the vehicle and
laid them down in front of the advancing
suspension system assemblies. Also, the
steel cross pieces had attached steel guide
The Half-track Car M2 lacked a rear door as evident in this picture of several teeth that aided in keeping the tracks
being shipped on railcars. The metal enclosures on the bottom rear of the vehicle aligned on the VVSS system.
contained brake lights and taillights. National Archives The rubber-tyred bogie wheel assemblies
on either side of the vehicle’s rear hull,
were fitted with two vertical volute springs
each, which supported most of the vehicle’s
weight. The volute springs were not
visible because they were inside protective
steel coverings referred to as the volute
suspension brackets. New heavier and more
durable bogie springs began appearing on
the M2/M3 production lines in May 1942.
Due to a serious rubber shortage, beginning
in July 1943, new M2/M3 half-tracks began
rolling off the production lines with synthetic
rubber band tracks and bogie wheels.
Located on the top of each of the vehicle’s
volute suspension bracket on either side wof
the vehicle was a single attached rubber-
tyred return roller. The return rollers
supported and carried the upper portion
of the band tracks as the drive sprockets
pulled the tracks forward.
Coming off the production line in the same month as the Half-track Car M2, i.e., From a wartime U.S. Army publication
May 1941, is the Half-track Personnel Carrier M3 pictured. The M3 lacked the large titled the Basic Half-track Vehicles M2, M3
ammunition storage compartments seen on either side of the M2 and its troop Technical Manual appears this warning
compartment was 25 centimetres (10 inches) longer. Patton Museum about not overloading the vehicles: “The
vehicle must be carefully loaded. Excessive
breaking of springs has been a constant
source of trouble in the vehicles used in
the desert. The rough going is very hard
on springs, and they are quickly broken by
overloading, improper distribution of load,
or shifting of load while moving.”
Access to the engine was by way of two
folding hinged armoured top and side panels
on either side of the engine compartment,
which were attached to a fixed centre
armour panel. Small latches on either side
of the engine compartment held them in
place. When raised, the folding armoured
top and side panels lay on top of the fixed
centre armour panel. To remove the engine
required an overhead hoist to lift off the
Shown is the standard chassis of the M2/M3 half-tracks, with its vertical volute fixed centre armour panel.
spring suspension (VVSS) system and band tracks. Unlike the Half-track Scout Car As with commercial trucks of the day, the
T14, which had a rear-mounted drive sprocket and front-mounted idler, the M2/ M2/M3 half-tracks had a manually operated
M3 series, had the positions reversed. Patton Museum transmission. Those on the half-tracks came
 Design & Development 5

from the Spicer Manufacturing Company.

The transmission provided four forward
speeds and one reverse gear. The half-track’s
front axles were also a Spicer product. Power
for the M2/M3 half-track drive sprockets
came from a drive shaft from the engine,
which connected to a differential housing
located between the drive sprockets.
The maximum grade the M2/M3 half-
tracks could overcome was 60 percent.
They were supposed to be able to climb
over a 30-centimetre (12-inch) vertical wall
and have a fording depth of 80 centimetres
(32 inches). Like the T14, the M2/M3 half-
tracks used 30-centimetre-wide band track.
With fuel capacity for 270 litres (60 The rubber-tyred metal bogie wheels seen in this image from an M2/M3 series
gallons) in two self-sealing 135-litre manual first appeared on the Half-track Scout Car T14. Also visible are the bottom
(30-gallon) tanks, the M2/M3 half-tracks portions of the two volute springs mostly hidden from view by the bracket
had a cruising range of approximately 280 assemblies on each side of the suspension system. Patton Museum
kilometres (175 miles). The tanks on the M2
were in the rear of the troop compartment on
either side. Those on the M3 were on either
side of the front of the troop compartment,
behind the driver’s and vehicle commander’s
seats. For extinguishing onboard fires, a
single two-pound portable carbon dioxide
fire extinguisher was provided.
The M2/M3 half-tracks were protected by
face-hardened armour (FHA) plates screwed
together. FHA was normal steel armour plate
put through an extra heating process to
harden its outer surface while retaining the
toughness of the original armour plate. The
process allowed FHA to break up attacking
projectiles of a certain calibre that impacted
its extremely hard surface, thereby greatly
reducing penetration. The downsides of
FHA are that it is difficult to manufacture,
which makes it more expensive, and it has
limited shock resistance to overmatching
projectiles and fragments due to its inherent
brittleness.
The 12.7mm-thick armoured windshield Taking part in a training exercise held in the United States in November 1941 is
cover of the M2/M3 half-tracks was a Half-track Car M2. Notice the inner gun rail inherited from the Scout Car M3.
National Archives
attached to three hinges at the top of the
vehicle’s windshield frame. In its open
raised position, it projected horizontally over
the shatterproof glass windshield and was
supported by three small upright steel rods.
Before entering combat, the two-section
shatterproof glass windshield of the M2/
M3 came off. The three small upright steel
support rods went into indentations on the
vehicle’s armoured engine bonnet, and the
armoured windshield then lowered into
place. It had two small rectangular direct
vision slots that could be covered by armour
flaps raised and lowered by the driver and
assistant driver when required by small turn
screws.
The radiator at the front of the M2/M3
half-tracks was protected by four horizontal
armoured shutters 6.4mm thick, which
could be opened or closed by the driver from
within the vehicle. The armoured shutters
had three intermediate positions set by
the driver. The remainder of the half-track Visible in this image from a U.S. Army manual is the M2/M3 half-track suspension
also received protection from FHA with system with components listed. Among the listed objects is the idler spring, which
a thickness of 6.4mm. The half-track’s started appearing on all new production M2/M3 half-tracks in September 1942.
armour was intended to stop 7.62mm Patton Museum
6 M2/M3
The International Harvester Company (IHC) also received a contract to build a
copy of the Half-track Car M2. With the approval of the Ordnance Department,
they made it identical to their own Half-track Personnel Carrier M5A1, with only
the configuration of the troop compartment differing. The vehicle received the
designation Half-track Car M9A1. TACOM
Leaving the White
factory located in armour-piercing (AP) bullets at a horizontal
Cleveland, Ohio in June range of 185 metres (200 yards).
1941 are Half-track In comparison, the German SdKfz. 251
Car M2s. Notice the armoured personnel carrier series had 8mm
hinged upper portion of sloped armour providing a higher degree
of the driver’s door has of protection for its passengers; however,
been lowered, and in the SdKfz’s sloped armour provided less
its place is a small tarp internal storage compared to the American
with a clear plastic half-track’s. The German half-track’s front
insert. National Archives nose plate over the radiator had a thickness
of 14.5mm.
Testing and initial field use of the new M2/
M3 half-tracks uncovered that the vehicle’s
fixed rear idlers, adjustable for track tension,
worked well on roads. However, once off-
road, the fixed rear idlers proved unable to
compensate for the increased movement of
the VVSS components, resulting in thrown
band tracks or damage to suspension
system components.
The solution came from two bright young
men of the U.S. 2nd Armoured Division in
the spring of 1942. At their commander’s
expense, they fashioned a pair of jury-rigged
coil-spring-loaded idlers, which they fitted
to a half-track in place of its original fixed
idlers. Testing quickly demonstrated that
they had solved the problem, as the springs
provided ‘give’ on rough terrain, but quickly
took up slack.
Eventually, the 2nd Armoured Division
commander, Major General Ernest N.
Harmon approved of the quick-fix device,
and all the division’s half-tracks were so
equipped. The U.S. Army’s Chief of Ordnance
quickly approved it as a field modification
in July 1943 for all those half-tracks built
before that time. It later became a standard-
factory-applied part.
The Builders
Due to anticipated requirements for a
large number of half-tracks, the U.S. Army
concluded in September 1940 that no single
firm could build the number required.
Therefore, three firms were selected to
build the half-tracks: White, the Autocar
Company, and the Diamond T Motors
Company, all heavy-truck manufacturers.
By standardizing parts, across both types
and all three manufacturers, manufacturing
would be faster and at lower cost, and
maintenance and logistics greatly simplified.
For example, all were powered by the same
White Motors six-cylinder inline engine.
White was in existence from 1900 to 1980,
building a wide variety of wheeled vehicles,
from cars to trucks over the many decades
it was in business. The Autocar Company
was founded in 1897 and acquired by White
in 1953. The Diamond T Motor Company,
founded in 1905, came under the ownership
of White in 1958 and lasted as a separate
marque until 1966. White and Autocar built
the M2, whereas all three firms built the M3.
Following the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor in December 1941, which officially
brought the United States into the Second
World War, the conclusion came about in
February 1942 that even more half-tracks
would be required to satisfy the U.S. Army
needs, and United States Government Lend-
Lease commitments to wartime allies for
military equipment.
The original forecast of half-tracks needed
by the U.S. Army by 1944 totalled 188,404
units. Broken down, this called for 21,938
units to be delivered by the end of 1942,
another 123,714 by the end of 1943, and
the remaining 42,752 units by the end of
1944. In June 1942, the number of half-
tracks was revised, resulting in a minor drop
in numbers. The new requirement called for
21,653 units by the end of 1942, 63,471
units by the end of 1943, and 101,458 units
by the end of 1944, for a total of 186,582
units.
The July 1943 TO&E (table of organization
and equipment) for a U.S. Army infantry
division called for only three trailer-towing

Half-track Personnel Carriers M3/M3A1s
in the division’s Cavalry Reconnaissance
Troop. Wartime pictorial evidence shows
that an unknown number of the infantry
divisions that served in the European
Theatre of Operation (ETO) had replaced
their 1½-ton 6x6 trucks as prime movers
for their 57mm anti-tank guns with surplus
Half-track M2/M2A1s. If this proved to be
the case for all three infantry regiments of an
infantry division, then their modified TO&E
would indicate there were 54 additional
half-tracks in their vehicle inventory.
To meet the required numbers deemed
necessary in 1941, the U.S. Army brought
in a fourth manufacturer, the International
Harvester Company (IHC). The IHC-built
half-tracks incorporated the lessons learned
from the U.S. Army’s testing and field
use with the earlier M2/M3 half-tracks.
The result was the IHC half-track had
an IHC-built petrol engine producing up
to 143hp, new front tyre design, heavier
springs, and axles fitted plus a host of other
improvements.
The most dramatic change in design with
the IHC-built half-tracks was the switch from
the screwed-together FHA plates employed
in the construction of half-tracks by the
original three builders to rolled homogenous
armour (RHA) plates welded together.
Homogeneous armour is essentially
uniformly hard throughout its depth and has
a very high degree of ductility (the property
of a material that allows it to withstand large
amounts of deformation before fracturing).
It is therefore not only easier and more cost-
effective to make than FHA but also lends
itself more easily to machining and arc
welding.
The possibility of employing RHA plates
welded together for the construction of
future half-tracks first appeared in 1941.
To test the concept both an M2 and M3,
constructed of RHA rather than FHA, were
subjected to live-fire testing. The trials
revealed that the welded-together RHA side
plates eliminated the seams through which
bullet-splash occurred and lacked the cap
screws that were driven into FHA-equipped
half-tracks when struck.
A downside of the RHA plates was that
their ballistic resistance was a bit less when
compared to FHA of the same thickness.
To compensate the U.S. Army decided that
the thickness of RHA of IHC-built half-
tracks would be increased to the point
that it offered the same ballistic protection
afforded by the M2/M3 half-tracks’ FHA
protection. As a result, the maximum
armour thickness on the vehicles would
rise to 15.9mm on its armoured windshield
cover, with the rest of vehicle’s armour
being 7.9mm thick. Approval for RHA to
be incorporated in the construction of the
future IHC half-tracks appeared in 1942.
To oversee the companies the Ordnance
Department of the U.S. Army formed
the Half-Track Integrating Committee in
September 1942. Its role was to coordinate
Design & Development 7
the builders’ production and manage
phase-in of the many design changes
and requirements changes. Unlike
some problem-plagued procurement
programmes, such as heavy trucks, the
production of half-tracks posed no unusual
issues for the builders or the Ordnance
Department.
The U.S. Army did not want to mix the
IHC-built half-tracks with the existing
inventory of M2/M3 series half-tracks. The
majority of the IHC half-tracks therefore
were allocated for Lend-Lease, with the bulk
going to the British Army, with 5,238 units
delivered.
As the British Army already had a full-
tracked armoured personnel carrier, the
Universal Carrier, there was no pressing
requirement for the M5/M5A1. The British
Army, therefore, transferred a great many to
either Commonwealth armies, or other Allied
forces under British Army oversight. Those
IHC-built half-tracks retained by the British
Army were employed as personnel carriers,
artillery prime movers, or as general-purpose
utility vehicles by engineering units.
The second-largest Lend-Lease recipient
of the American half-tracks proved to be the
Free French who acquired approximately
2,000 units, consisting of both IHC-built
half-tracks and those built by the original
three American builders.
The Red Army received approximately
1,200 American-built half-tracks, also
consisting of IHC-built half-tracks and
those built by the original three American
manufactures. The great majority were
employed as prime movers with the Red
Army. Some of the Lend-Lease half-tracks
provided to the Red Army found themselves
passed on to the Polish People’s Army.
As events transpired, the number of half-
tracks required by the U.S. Army following
the attack on Pearl Harbor in December
1941 had been greatly overestimated. An
important factor was the reduction of the
number of armoured divisions to be formed
by the U.S. Army, which fell from a high of
61 to only 16 by the summer of 1943.
As the majority of M2/M3 half-tracks
procured were intended for the U.S. Army’s
armoured divisions, their drop in numbers
caused a corresponding decrease in the
number of half-tracks eventually needed.
In October 1943, the U.S. Army revised
downward the number of half-tracks it
envisioned requiring. From the original high
of 188,404 units anticipated in February
1941, the number required dropped to a
total of 87,303 units by the end of 1944.
In the end, by June 1945, when the last
half-tracks came off the assembly lines,
approximately 54,000 units had been
completed. The first production M2s rolled
off the White assembly lines in May 1941,
with Autocar’s arriving the following month.
When M2 production ended in September
1943, a total of 11,415 had come off the
assembly lines, with the majority built by
White.
8 M2/M3

The early-production M2/M3 half-tracks that included a small blackout marker light
had a fixed headlight on either front fender. for travelling in convoy at night. Because
These were protected by fixed brush guards the fixed fender-mounted headlights were
prone to shattering from muzzle blast
Pictured is the original on those M3s armed with field guns or
fixed fender-mounted howitzers, new dismountable headlights
headlight and brush- behind a new brush-guard design appeared.
guard design for the The new dismountable headlights began
M2/M3 half-tracks. Due appearing on all production M2/M3 half-
to the damage caused tracks beginning in November 1942. In
by the muzzle blast of June 1943, a Modification Work Order
artillery weapons fitted (MWO) went out to retrofit all earlier half-
to some M3 half-tracks,
tracks armed with field guns or howitzers
the U.S. Army replaced
with the dismountable headlights.
the fixed headlights
The one-piece dismountable headlights
with dismountable
included a blackout marker light and
headlight with brush
guard. Patton Museum brush guard. They attached to a fixed
mounting bracket on either side of the
engine compartment on the half-tracks
Visible is the
so fitted and were secured in place by a
replacement two-
locating plunger at the back of the bracket.
piece combination
The M2 had an approximate length of
headlight and brush
guard for M2/M3 6 metres (19 feet 6 inches) with a front-
half-tracks. It fitted into mounted roller. Fitted with a front-mounted
a mounting bracket winch, it came out to about 6.1 metres (20
attached to either side feet and 1 inch). The winch had a capacity
of the forward engine of 4,550kg (10,000lb). When fielded with
compartment and a front-mounted roller the M3 had an
began appearing on approximate length of 6.2 metres (20 feet
the production lines in 3 inches) and 6.3 metres (20 feet 9 inches)
November 1942. Patton with a front-mounted winch. Essentially,
Museum without the front-mounted rollers and
winches, both vehicles were about the
same length.
The major difference was that the M3
was intended to carry a 12-man infantry
squad, and therefore had a longer troop
compartment that seated ten men. The M2
could only carry eight men in its shorter
rear troop compartment. Unlike the M3,
the M2 had two horizontal assemblies
on the lower rear external face of their
troop compartments, which contained the
vehicle’s taillights.
Both half-tracks had a height of 2.26
metres (7 feet 5 inches) and width of 1.96
metres (6 feet 5¼ inches). With the later
addition of mine racks on either side of
their rear compartments, their width
increased to 2.3 metres (7 feet 5¼ inches).
The M2 weighed 9,000kg (19,800lb) and
the 9,090kg (M3 20,000lb).
The M2 fulfilled three different interim
roles: artillery prime mover, reconnaissance
vehicle, and light machine-gun-squad-
transport vehicle in armoured infantry
platoons of armoured divisions. It assumed
these various interim roles as there was
The Half-track Car M2 pictured has the side mine racks that began appearing nothing else then available. It would take
on the M2/M3 half-track production lines in August 1942. It also has the new time for American industry to design and
dismountable combination headlight and brush guard. Patton Museum
 The M2/M3 in Detail 9

The various visible radio antennas indicate that this particular

early-production Half-track Car M2 is a reconnaissance vehicle. Just
in front of the right-hand-side headlight assembly is a small licence
plate with the letters APG, which stand for Aberdeen Proving
Ground. Patton Museum.
The M2/M3 half-track series also appeared with the front-mounted
Tulsa Model 18G winch pictured, instead of the front-mounted roller.
Power for the winch came from the vehicle’s transmission. Patton
Museum

The Half-track Car M2 pictured is armed with two .50-calibre machine

guns. Notice the improvised wooden storage box on the rear of the
vehicle, which had the crew relocate the weapon’s ground tripods to
the right front fender. Patton Museum

The two ammunition storage compartments of the Half-track Car

M2 appear in this photograph as well as the two 30-gallon fuel
tanks. Also visible is the gun rail that ran around the inside of the
vehicle, on which movable skates slid. It was the skates to which
machine guns and their pintles attached. Patton Museum

The driver’s compartment of a Half-track Car M2A1. The appearance

and configuration was almost the same for the entire M2/M3
series and variants. Notice the 2lb portable fire extinguisher in the
foreground. Patton Museum
10 M2/M3

The Half-track Car M2

lacked a rear door
because of its primary
role as an artillery
prime mover. The
difficulty of entering
or leaving the vehicle
over the attached trails
of the artillery piece
is evident from the
photograph. Patton
Museum

build all the different types of specialized storage compartments on either side of the
vehicles required. vehicle located directly behind the driver’s
As an interim artillery prime mover, and commander’s positions. These opened
the M2 came with two large ammunition from the outside of the vehicle but projected
into the rear passenger area of the vehicle.
The compartments also opened inside the
vehicle via an overhead hatch that allowed
access to the top rack of ammunition.
Two of the vehicle’s ten-man crew sat
back to back in between the two ammunition
storage compartments. The other six sat in
two rows of three seats behind the ammo
storage compartments, down the length
of the vehicle, facing each other. The M2
driver sat in the left front of the vehicle and
the squad leader to his right.
The M2’s initial authorized armament
consisted of a single .50-calibre M2 heavy
barrel (HB) air-cooled machine gun, and
two water-cooled .30-calibre M1917A1
machine guns. These weapons were
mounted on a gun rail that circled the
crew compartment and gave a wide field of
The Half-track Car M2’s original armament called for a single air-cooled .50-calibre fire. For dismounted use, there were three
machine gun and two water-cooled .30-calibre machine guns. The fixed headlight tripods stowed on the rear plate of the troop
and the absent mine rack, mean this vehicle was built before August 1942. TACOM compartment.
By war’s end, American industry had
built approximately 350,000 units of the
.50-calibre M2 heavy barrel (HB) air-cooled
machine gun. About 70,000 units of the
water-cooled .30-calibre M1917A1 machine
guns were built during the First World
War and an additional 50,000 during the
Second World War.
Eventually, the two water-cooled
.30-calibre machine guns were replaced
by a single air-cooled .30-calibre
M1919A4 machine gun and one tripod
was eliminated. Authorized ammunition
storage on board the M2 was 700 rounds of
.50-calibre ammunition and 7,750 rounds
of .30-calibre ammunition. Because of the
gun rail, the M2 had no rear door, requiring
those in the troop compartment to climb
over the vehicle’s sides.
In this photograph, we see the horizontally stored tripod for the onboard In addition to the authorized machine-
.50-calibre machine gun on the rear of a Half-track Car M2. Also visible in the lower gun ammunition, the M2 normally carried
left-hand-side metal enclosure is the covered electrical outlet for powering the ten hand grenades and when fitted with
brake lights on towed artillery pieces or trailers. National Archives external mine racks (approved in August
 The M2/M3 in Detail 11

1942) on either side of the vehicle’s rear

troop compartment, up to 14 units of the
Mine, Anti-tank, High-Explosive, M1A1.
The latter could be set to detonate at
either 250lb or 500lb (115kg or 230kg) of
pressure on the striker head of the mine. In
February 1943 a modification work order
went out that authorized the installation of
mine racks on all half-tracks built before
August 1942.

Communications
The communication methods available to
an armoured infantry battalion appear in
a November 1944 manual titled Armoured
Infantry Battalion:
“Communication facilities of the
armoured infantry battalion are radio,
wire, messenger, visual and sound signals,
and pigeons. The battalion commander in In this picture of we see a private collector’s early-production Half-track Car
planning communication to be used under M2, identified as such by the fixed fender-mounted headlights. Inboard of the
various conditions, considers the capabilities headlight on the left-hand fender is a seldom-seen fixed blackout light attached to
and limitations of each available means of the engine compartment. Pierre Oliver Buan
communication, selecting the method best
suited to the situation. Alternate means are
always provided. The battalion commander
is responsible for having available at all
times two or more means of communication
with higher headquarters, subordinate and
adjacent units.”
Each of the rifle platoon leader’s half-
tracks had an SCR-510 FM (frequency
modulated) radio to tie in with the
company’s SCR-510 and SCR-528 FM radio
sets. Considered a medium-range radio set,
the SCR-510 had an approximately 75-mile
reach when employing Morse code, and a
25-mile reach for voice.
The SC-528 ranked as a short-range radio
set, with a maximum reach under optimum
conditions of ten miles for voice only. The
estimated range of the radio sets then in
use were often influenced by the time of day,
weather, and terrain features.
The U.S. Army was a pioneer in the implemented in the field in July 1944 and Visible on the rear
development of FM radio sets for short- remained in use until the end of the war. right-hand side of the
range tactical communications, unlike the The eventual solution for providing a Half-track Personnel
German Army that relied on AM radio sets means by which the dismounted armoured Carrier M3A1 is a radio
for its tanks and other armoured vehicles infantry could remain in radio contact with set. Not all M3/M3A1s
throughout the Second World War. their tank counterparts was to install a had onboard radios.
Usually in an armoured
For dismounted use, the platoon leader’s modified version of the AM SCR-536 handie-
infantry platoon of
vehicles had an SCR-300 FM backpack talkie, labelled as the AN/VRC-3, into the
five vehicles only the
radio, best known by its wartime nickname headquarters’ tanks of each tank company
platoon commander’s
as the ‘walkie-talkie’. The other four half- as well as one tank per five-tank platoon.
vehicle was equipped
tracks in an armoured infantry rifle platoon This process began in September 1944 and with a built-in radio
did not have vehicle-mounted FM radios. was completed by December 1944. set. Notice the hand
Rather, one half-track per platoon had Reflecting the differences in design and grips below the seat
an SCR-536 hand-held AM radio, best construction materials utilized by IHC in cushions, which began
known by its popular nickname as the building their half-track variants, they were appearing on the
‘handie-talkie’. assigned new designations. The M2/M3 production lines in July
Because the SCR-536 handie-talkie was versions built by IHC respectively became 1942. TACOM
an AM radio, it could not communicate with the M9A1 and M5. The M5A1 eventually
U.S. Army tanks that only had FM radios. followed the M5 and featured the same M49
A quick fix involved providing spare SCR- machine-gun ring mount over the right front
536 handie-talkies to the crews of medium of the vehicle as seen on the M2A1 and the
tanks. Another short-term solution involved M3A1. The usage of RHA on the IHC-built
affixing an EE-8 field telephone onto the half-tracks caused a slight weight increase
rear of a medium tank hull, connected to but only marginally compromised their
the tank’s intercom system. This was first performance compared to those built of
thinner FHA.
12 M2/M3

As with the M2/M3, at a certain point, the

thought of combining the M9A1 and the M5
into only a single model was discussed. The
only pilot was assigned the designation Half-
track Car T31, with production set to begin
in March 1944; however, at that time, the
U.S. Army had already ended all new half-
track production contracts. The rebuilding
of those that had been employed in training
duties in the United States and then shipped
overseas satisfied all existing requirements.
The employment of RHA with the IHC-
built half-tracks resulted in an easily
identified external design feature, as the rear
corners of the vehicles were rounded, rather
than the squared corners of those half-
tracks built of FHA. Another external design
Standing in the rear troop compartment of a Half-track Car M9A1 and looking feature specific to the IHC-built half-tracks
forward we see at least two radio sets and the antenna mast for one of them in was a simple curved flat steel stamping
the foreground. There is a metal storage compartment visible on the right that did employed for the front fenders, whereas
not open to the outside as it did on the Half-track Car M2/M2A1 and 81mm Mortar those seen on the half-tracks built from FHA
Carriers M4/M4A1. TACOM were more elaborate and traced their roots
back to commercial truck fenders.
When the Half-track
Unlike the M2/M2A1, the corresponding
Car M2 lost favour with
the artillery branch
IHC M9A1 was a bit different, in that it was
as a prime mover, its provided with a rear passenger compartment
primary role was as a door and was the same length as the M5/
reconnaissance vehicle. M5A1. Deleted from the M9A1 design
This change in roles is were the lower side doors on either side
evident in this M2A1 of the vehicle, directly behind the driver’s
which has had its left- compartment, as seen on the M2/M2A1.
hand-side ammunition This design change and the added length of
storage compartment the M9A1 makes it difficult to distinguish
replaced by a platform from the M5A1, without reference to their
shelf for an SCR-528 respective internal arrangements.
radio set. Chris Hughes In total IHC built 11,017 units of their
copies of the M2/M3 half-track series
between December 1942 and March 1944.
The breakdown is 3,433 units of the M9A1,
4,625 units of the M5, and 2,959 units of the
follow-on M5A1. Approximately 4,000 units
of the IHC-built half-tracks went through
a remanufacturing process between July
1944 and June 1945 after hard use.
As with the Half-track Car M2 and Half-track
Personnel Carrier M3, the Half-track Personnel Carrier
M5 eventually appeared with the M49 ring mount
and received the designation M5A1. Instead of the
rounded commercial type front fenders seen on the
M2/M3 series half-tracks, the M5 and M5A1 had flatter
In this photograph of a Half-track Car M2A1, we can see an
front fenders. TACOM
SCR-528 radio set has replaced the vehicle’s left-hand-side
ammunition storage compartment. A cable from the top of
the radio attaches to a nine-foot whip antenna. Notice that
the right-hand-side ammunition storage compartment has
been cut back in this photograph. TACOM
 The M2/M3 in Detail 13

The M2A1 replaced the M2, with 1,643 units

built between October 1943 and March
1944. An additional 1,266 units of the M2
were upgraded to the M2A1 configuration
between January 1944 and June 1945. The
external identifying feature of the M2A1
was the added armoured M49 ring mount
located over the right-hand front passenger
seat. The ring mount had been authorized
in May 1943 and was normally armed with a
.50-calibre machine gun, replacing the gun
rail. However, a rear door was not added.
With the deletion of the gun rail, three
fixed pintle sockets were fixed on the left,
right, and rear sides of the rear passenger
compartment. The combination of pintle and
ring mounts addressed a tactical weakness
in the gun rail mounts—bringing a weapon The replacement for the gun rail on the Half-track Car M2 is the armoured M49
to bear on a threat from a new direction. ring mount seen over the driver’s compartment. When fitted to the M2 the vehicle
With the added armoured ring mount the became the M2A1. TACOM
M2A1’s height increased to 2.7 metres (8
feet 10 inches).
In trying to improve the operational
parameters of the M2 the U.S. Army came up
with an experimental version in early 1942
designated as the Half-track Car T16. It had
a lengthened frame, and an enlarged VVSS
system fitted. The engine and powertrain
remained the same as the standard M2.
The new half-track suspension system
fitted to the T16 came with larger rubber-
tyred bogie wheels, and 35.6-centimetre-wide
(14-inch-wide) band tracks with increased
ground contact. These design features were
anticipated to reduce the vehicle’s ground
pressure, which would improve its off-road
mobility.
In the vernacular of the time, the ground Visible in this picture of a Half-track Car M2A1 is the canvas bag containing the
pressure went by the term floatation. The tripod for the onboard .30-calibre machine gun. Above the stored .50-calibre
term did not imply the ability to float in tripod are the metal hoops for supporting the inclement weather tarp. TACOM.
water, but the perceived ability of a military
vehicle to float over ‘soft’ terrain. However, towing a 105mm howitzer, pushed the U.S.
the T16’s design included a 6.4mm-thick Army in September 1941 to design of a
raised armoured roof for crew protection, larger, heavier, and more powerful model of
which with the longer and heavier frame, what was referred to on paper as the Half-
reduced vehicle performance to such an track Truck T14.
extent that the programme was cancelled. Plans called for the T14 to weigh
In December 1942 the U.S. Army approximately 9,090 kg (20,000lb) and to
considered rationalizing half-track possess both overhead and side armour
manufacture by replacing the M2 and M3 thick enough to withstand .30-calibre ball
with a new version based on the M3, whose ammunition. Called for was an internal
interior configuration would vary based on payload capacity of 2,550kg (5,600lb),
role. Only a single pilot vehicle was built plus the ability to tow a 105mm howitzer.
to test the concept, originally designated By October 1941, it was clear that the
the Half-track Car T29 and later as the performance parameters desired for the
Half-track Car M3A2. However, by early T14 could not work within the weight range
1944 requirements for half-track cars were specified, resulting in the programme’s
significantly reduced, and all manufacturing cancellation before construction of a pilot.
cancelled. More M3s where in inventory The demise of the T14 did not deter the
than needed, so the M3A2 project ended. U.S. Army and work continued on design
The artillery branch, unhappy with the and development of a suitable armoured
limited off-road mobility of the M2 when half-track truck able to comfortably tow a
14 M2/M3
105mm howitzer off-road. Therefore, five
more half-track trucks were proposed,
labelled as the T15, T16, T17, T18, and
T19.
The five proposed half-track trucks
evolved around the same general
specifications. These included an internal
payload capacity of 2,730kg (6,000lb),
to include a 14-man crew and all-
around protection from .30-calibre ball
ammunition. Armament was to be a
.50-calibre machine gun.
To improve the off-road performance and armour protection of the Half-track M2
there appeared the Half-track Car T16 as pictured. The lengthened vehicle had an
enlarged vertical volute spring suspension (VVSS) system and an armoured roof.
TACOM
In December 1942, it was proposed that a single vehicle, based on the Half-
track Personnel Carrier M3, replace both the Half-track Car M2 and the M3. That
replacement vehicle seen here received the designation Half-track Car T29. TACOM
The U.S. Army considered substituting armoured half-track trucks for Half-track Car
M2s as artillery prime movers. Five designs received consideration, but only three
were eventually tested, including the Half-track Truck T17 pictured. TACOM
The only differences among the five
proposed half-track trucks were to be their
powertrains and suspension systems. In
the end, pilots for only three of the five
proposed half-track trucks appeared. Test
results from Aberdeen Proving Ground in
1943 proved disappointing, and as the
artillery branch had already switched to
unarmoured full-tracked prime movers,
the Army decided to end the programme.
Originally, the U.S. Army’s half-tracks
left the factory floor with pneumatic tyres
with bullet-sealing inner tubes. Beginning
in September 1941, these were replaced by
‘combat tyres’. These tyres were specially
designed pneumatic tyres made of the
highest quality rubber and had many more
plies (or layers) than standard commercial
pneumatic tyres, which added to the tyre
casings’ stiffness.
The combat tyres included beadlocks,
devices that forced the tyre’s beads out
against the rims to prevent a deflating tyre
from coming off the rim. With beadlocks,
the combat tyres mounted onto divided
rims, with strengthened sidewalls and
shoulders. These tyres could run up to
75 miles deflated depending on the size of
the projectile or battlefield fragment that
penetrated them.
In June 1941, the U.S. Army authorized
the testing of a diesel engine for the M2,
and by default its potential use in all
other half-track models. The advantages
of diesel engines were well known at that
time, as they offered improved thermal
efficiency, which in turn generated greater
range per gallon than their petrol-powered
counterparts.
Diesel engines also delivered more
torque at low engine speeds than petrol
engines, which meant they required fewer
gear changes and thus less-complex
transmissions. A key human factor in
favour of diesel engines for combat vehicles
is that their fuel has a far higher flash
point—the temperature at which the fuel
will ignite—than petrol.
In early 1942, the U.S. Army began to
backtrack on its former interest in diesel-
engine-powered combat vehicles. An
example of this can be seen in a February
1942 memo by General Brehon B.
Somervell, Assistant Chief of Staff, calling
for a drastic curtailment in the use of
diesel-engine-powered vehicles by the U.S.
Army’s ‘Armoured Force’, formed in July
1940, the distant predecessor of today’s
U.S. Army Armor Branch.
Somervell’s desire that the armoured
force use only petrol-engine-powered
combat vehicles became official U.S. Army
policy in April 1942, with those diesel-
powered vehicles then in the inventory
being retained in the United States and
used only for training purposes.
Personnel Carrier
A total of 12,391 units of the M3 came
off the assembly lines of White, the
Autocar Company, and the Diamond T
 The M2/M3 Variants 15

Left: There were ten

Motor Company between May 1941 and
seats in the Half-track
September 1943. The M3 had no internal
Personnel Carrier M3
ammunition storage compartments as did
troop compartment,
the M2. It did, however, have a rear door, with three more, side
reflecting its primary purpose as a 12-man by side, in the driver’s
infantry squad transport vehicle, although compartment. While
it had seating accommodations for 13 men. the Half-track Car M2’s
Unlike the M2/M2A1 that had only two two 30-gallon fuel
side-by-side seats in the very front of the tanks were on either
vehicle, the M3/M3A1 had three side-by- side at the rear of the
side seats in the very front of the vehicle. troop compartment,
The M3 was followed off the production those on the M3
lines by 4,222 units of a slightly modified appear on either side.
version designated as the M3A1, between Patton Museum
October 1943 and June 1945. The key
external identifying feature of the M3A1 Below: The Half-track
configuration, like that of the M2A1, was Personnel Carrier M3,
the added armoured M49 ring mount over with the addition of
the right-hand-side passenger seat and the M49 ring mount
seen over the driver’s
deletion of the centrally located pedestal
compartment, received
mount. The added armoured ring mount
the designation M3A1.
increased the M3A1’s height to 2.7 metres
Notice the sizeable
(8 feet 10 inches).
inclement weather
Between May 1944 and June 1945, tarp strapped to the
a total of 2,209 M3s where converted to vehicle’s right front
the M3A1 standard. Another 373 units of fender. TACOM
various M3 variants no longer needed were
also reconfigured into the M3A1 standard
between January 1944 and June 1945.

Mortar Carrier
Built in far fewer numbers that than M2/
M3 was the 7,890kg (17,350lb) 81mm
Mortar Carrier M4. Only 572 units were
constructed from August 1941 to October
1942 by White. Based on the M2, the M4
retained the large ammunition storage
compartments on either side of the vehicle,
located directly behind the front seats. The
U.S. Army’s 81mm Mortar M1 originated
from a French design and went into large-
scale production beginning in late 1939. On the Half-track
From a July 1942 U.S. Army armoured Personnel Carrier M3A1
force manual titled 81mm Mortar Squad and pictured we see the
Platoon appears this extract: “The mortar, vertical canvas bag for
being mounted in a half-track vehicle, has storing the tripod for
the onboard .50-calibre
excellent cross-country mobility and under
machine gun. Notice
most conditions of terrain can follow tanks
that the stored metal
and other vehicles without loss of distance.
hoops for erecting the
It may be moved rapidly into position and
inclement weather tarp
fired either from the vehicle or the ground. would come off before
It will usually be fired from the carrier.” opening the rear troop
The manual goes on to describe some of compartment door.
the intended roles the 81mm Mortar Carrier TACOM
performed in an armoured division: “To
support the battalion [tank or armoured
infantry] or its components by fire on
hostile machine guns, anti-tank guns,
mortars, and personnel. To fire on targets
defiladed from other weapons. For fire on
areas where hostile installations have not rear compartment of the vehicle to provide
been definitely located … To neutralize the onboard mortar greater traverse. This
the action of hostile anti-tank guns and resulted in the introduction of the 8,180kg
automatic weapons.” (18,000lb) 81mm Mortar Carrier M4A1.
As the mortar on board the M4 was also The 600 units of the M4A1 were completed
intended to be fired from the ground, the between May 1943 and October 1943 by
vehicle was provided a rear door, while still White. It can be easily distinguished from
retaining the interior gun ring of the M2. the earlier M4 by addition of two large
Due to the restricted traverse of the mortar storage boxes fitted to the rear of the
on the M4, it was decided to reconfigure the passenger compartment. The M4A1 had
16 M2/M3

authorized storage for 96 rounds of 81mm
mortar ammunition as did the M4.
As time went on, the users in the field
indicated that what they wanted was an
81mm mortar that fired over the front of a
Among the three modified versions of the Half-track Scout Car T14 there appeared
the 81mm Mortar Carrier M4 seen here. Unlike the Half-track Car M2 on which it
was based, it came with a rear door to permit the crew to remove the mortar when
needed. Patton Museum
half-track. The result was the assembly by
White of 110 units between January 1944
and March 1944 of a vehicle designated
as 81mm Mortar Carrier M21. It weighed
9,090kg (20,000lb). Instead of being
based on the M2, it was decided to utilize
the chassis of the M3 for the M21. It had
authorized storage space for 97 rounds of
81mm mortar ammunition.
From the after-action report of the
15th Armoured Infantry Battalion August
1944–May 1945 appears this passage on
the employment of their 81mm mortar-
equipped half-tracks in April of 1945:
“For the most part of the month, our task
was the exploiting of the break-through of
the enemy lines. The formation used was
one married platoon, assault gun platoon
and mortar platoon in the advance guard.
The remainder of the Task Force comprised
the main body. It was found that by keeping
the mortars [81mm] well up in the column,
they were able to give quick support when
the point ran into resistance and enabled
the advance guard to quickly over-run
most of the resistance encountered without
undue loss of time.”
In December 1942, due to a request from
the U.S. Army Chemical Warfare Service,
developmental work began at Aberdeen
Proving Ground on fitting a 4.2mm mortar
to fire over the rear of an M4. In spite of
installing a two-inch-thick rubber mat
under the mortar’s base plate, the weapon’s
recoil caused serious damage to the pilot
vehicle’s frame.
The next step proved to be mounting
the 4.2-inch mortar in a forward-firing
position on to the reinforced chassis of an
M3A1, relabelled as the T21E1. Test results
were promising, but as the U.S. Army now
favoured a full-track mortar carrier, the
T21E1 programme ended in March 1945.

Tank Destroyers
The Mortar Carrier M4 retained the Half-track Car M2’s gun rail and two 30-gallon Reflecting the versatility of the Half-track
fuel tanks on either side of the rear of the troop compartment as seen in this Personnel Carrier M3 chassis, it was
picture. Notice the lack of any traverse for the 81mm mortar. Patton Museum modified to serve in a variety of interim roles,
as had been the Half-track Car M2. One of
the roles for the M3 proved to be as a tank
destroyer, or what the U.S. Army officially
labelled as a Gun Motor Carriage (GMC).
In June 1941, a team of U.S. Army
Ordnance Department personnel at
Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, took
a Half-track Personnel Carrier M3 chassis
and mounted on it the normally towed
75mm Gun M1897A4 and the upper portion
of its wheeled carriage as an experiment.
The pilot vehicle received the designation
75mm GMC T12.
The combination of the M1987A4’s upper
and lower wheeled carriage had its own
designation as the M2A3 and came with a
small attached gun-shield. The 75mm Gun
M1897A4 was an American-built version of
the famous ‘French 75’ that the U.S. Army
The 81mm Mortar Carrier M4A1 retained most design features of the M4, a had used during the First World War.
significant improvement with the M4A1 proved to be the onboard mortar’s Such was the desperation of the U.S.
increased traverse range. TACOM Army for whatever mobile firepower it could
(Continues to page 49)
 Camouflage and Markings 17

Combat loaded, the 10-man M2 Half-track Car weighed approximately

19,000lbs. Constructed of face-hardened armour it only provided
protection against light machine gun fire at certain ranges. The
vehicle’s armoured windshield had a thickness of 12.7mm and was
sloped at 25 degrees.
18 M2/M3

The 75mm Howitzer Motor Carriage T30 had a crew of five and
a combat-loaded weight of approximately 20,000lbs. There was
authorized storage onboard the vehicle for sixty rounds of 75mm main
gun ammunition. The 75mm howitzer had only 45 degrees of traverse,
22.5 to the left and 22.5 to the right.
 Camouflage and Markings 19

The 37mm Anti-tank Gun M3 mounted on an unknown number

of Half-track Car M2s by the 2nd Armored Division was strictly an
improvised arrangement. The gun and its armoured shield had
originally been fitted to a 4x4 light truck designated as the M6
intended only as a training vehicle, but still went to North Africa.
20 M2/M3

The 75mm Gun Motor Carriage M3, had a five-man crew and due to
the weight of the 75mm main gun and its armored shield weighted
about 20,000lbs. There was authorized storage on the vehicle for 57
main gun rounds. The listed firing rate for the 75mm main gun was 20
rounds per minute.
 Camouflage and Markings 21

With seating for 13 men the Half-track Personnel Carrier M5 had a

combat weight of 20,500lbs. An International Harvester Company
modified counterpart to the M3s built by the first three commercial
contractors it weighed in at 20,500 pounds. Rather than face-hardened
armor it had been built of welded homogeneous steel armor.
22 M2/M3

The Multiple Gun Motor Carriage had a crew of five-men and weighted
19,000 pounds. On the vehicle there was authorized storage for 5,000
rounds for the four .50 caliber machine guns. The armored gun mount
had 360 degrees of traverse and a traverse rate of 60 degrees per
second.
 Camouflage and Markings 23

The M21 81mm Motorized Mortar Carrier had a crew of five men.
Combat loaded it weighed in at 20,000 pounds. The forward-firing
mortar had a manual traverse rate of 11 degrees right and left.
Elevation ranged from 60 to 45 degrees. There was onboard storage
for 90 rounds of ammunition.
24 M2/M3

The six-man 105mm Howitzer Motor Carriage T19 weighed combat

loaded 20,000 pounds. Traverse of the 105mm howitzer was limited to
20 degrees left and right. Maximum elevation came out to 35 degrees
plus. Only 324 examples of the vehicle were built in 1942.
 Model Showcase 25

This is the Dragon M2/M2A1 2-in-1 half-track

built as a M2. The original intention was to build
it as a NJARNG 117th Cav ‘Essex Troop’ vehicle.
NJARNG 117th Cav ‘Essex Troop’ The unit had an impressive history during the
Second World War. However, sufficient reference
1/35 Scale material, with the unit markings for that vehicle,
could not be found, and they have thus been left
Brian Bocchino off the model but may indeed be added in future
should the references become available. The two
figures are from Dragon and the shrine is from
a Verlinden set. The cobble stone road is made
from cork and plaster.

View of the M2A1 US Halftrack

stopped at a roadside shrine.

Frontal view of the vehicle with the grills in the closed position. View of the front driver side with some tools visible.
26 M2/M3

Right side of the vehicle.

Rear view of the vehicle with two

soldiers gathered by the shrine.
 Model Showcase 27

A look in the crew area with miscellaneous gear spread out.

Left side of vehicle

including the ground work.
28 M2/M3
 Model Showcase 29

Dragon’s 1/35 3-in-1 kit #6332 is a well-moulded

kit with no sink marks or flash present and
provides optional parts for an M3, M3A1 or
23rd Tank Battalion, 12th M3A2. The kit builds up in a logical sequence
starting with a basic engine and moving through
Armoured Division the chassis and suspension which are common
to all three variants with just a couple of choices
1/35 Scale to be made between an M3 and M3A1. Dragon’s
instructions for some of their 3-in-1 kits have
Brian Richardson come in for criticism as being too confusing but if
the modeller takes time deciding on which variant
first up and studying the instructions here
shouldn’t have too much trouble with this one.
30 M2/M3

In step 18 the front and rear cab

sections are brought together and
joined to the chassis. I chose to
glue the halves of the cab together
first to avoid any potential
alignment problems later that
might have occurred if they were
joined to the chassis separately.
After this had set I found there is
a tight fit between the locating
lugs on the front half which were
difficult to insert into the slots
provided on the chassis rails and
after a little trimming everything
fitted well.

Both jerry can racks have been replaced and Italeri cans substituted
with Tamiya tape straps.
Dragon provide five decal options and have included a full sheet of
alphabet letters and numbers so the modeller can choose to do any
vehicle. They respond very well to decal softener. I was expecting
trouble with the bonnet star settling around the hinges and panel
lines, but had no silvering whatsoever. I also use a hair dryer to help
soften them and pull them down around any raised details.
 Model Showcase 31

At step 13 for an M3A1 the side walls F21 and F22 are mated to the
lower hull tub F6: these need to be a tight fit to avoid misalignment
with the front cab section when they're brought together. The side
plates of both front and rear sections should be flush at the join
behind the driver's doors.

Many half-tracks had field workshop fabricated storage bins and these were scratched from card, evergreen rod and copper wire. These have
been filled with a mix of resin boxes, Milliput tarps, blankets and bedrolls. I've replaced all the tie downs with thin copper wire and added the
exhaust support bracket that Dragon missed.
32 M2/M3

The solid moulded door handles were replaced with resin parts.

Painting the O/D was a mix of Tamiya XF-62 Olive Drab and XF-60 Dark Yellow. This seemed a little dark when the gloss sealing coat went
on and I've tried to bring it back with light earth coloured Humbrol enamel washes. I've used a mix of kit decals, leftovers and Verlinden dry
transfers to represent a service vehicle of the service company belonging to the 23rd Tank Battalion, 12th Armoured Division.
 Model Showcase 33

This is a Dragon models M4 81mm Mortar Carrier

kit #6361 representing the U.S. Army in Europe.

US Army Western Front, 1944

Ammo by Mig paints was used: the Olive Drab
modulation set and it was weathered with Ammo
1/35 Scale by Mig enamel washes, streaking grime and rain
streaks. Vallejo pigments were also used.
Gary Riley
34 M2/M3
Model Showcase 35
36 M2/M3
 Model Showcase 37

The 482nd AAA AW/SP Battalion was attached

to the 9th Armoured Division from October 1944
until May 1945 and were instrumental in the
482nd AAA AW/SP Battalion, defence of Bastogne and St Vith, Belgium during
the Battle of the Bulge and later defending the
Belgium 1944/45 Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen, March 1945.
Trumpeter’s kit is reasonably accurate although
1/16 Scale it’s missing quite a few details, however these can
be added with some scratch building.
Brian Richardson

Missing rivet and screw detail added to the

front bumper and kit-supplied string for the
winch was replaced with 2mm picture wire.
A rack was made from card strip for the kit's
jerry cans and fitted as per wartime photos.

Scratched D-shackles
and tow hooks from
copper wire.

Added shock absorber arms and steering linkage from rod,

aluminium strip and detailed with various nuts and bolt heads, brake
lines from 0.4mm copper wire and added the missing bump stops to
the top of the leaf springs.

Moving to the engine compartment I've added mesh to the radiator,

armoured louver screws, pulley drive belts, plug leads, wiring,
foundry numbers to the exhaust manifold. The differential and final
drive housings are also missing a few bolts.
38 M2/M3

Kit one-piece vinyl tracks are very stiff and difficult to fit without breaking the road
wheel axles so new ones were laminated from different thickness plastic card.

The driver's cab has bolt detail, map pocket, wiper motors, two fire extinguishers added. The driver's door hinged flap was cut and lowered
with latch details added. The moulded on door handles were also replaced with new ones carved from styrene.
 Model Showcase 39

The muffler assembly was detailed and fitted with

its missing support bracket. The rear idler wheel's
support arm was made from rod. Missing tie downs
made from copper wire have been added to both
front mud guards, driver's doors and around the
top rail rear compartment.
40 M2/M3

The Maxson turret has had missing welds and bolt detail
added plus the Briggs and Stratton engine and battery
detailed. There's four spare 0.50cal gun barrels added, one
each side of the turntable and two fitted to the drop side.

Dragon released its M2A1 Half-track 2-in-1 kit in 2006.
Prior to that the only kit available was produced by Blue
Tank Models. The first US Army Half-track Personnel
Carrier M3 was released in the 1940s by Mod-Ac and
included some wood parts. After that, Monogram, in its
various guises, offered the only other half-track kits,
until 1972, which were the MGC M3 and Personnel
Carrier M3A1 in 1/35 scale. These are now only available
second hand and Nitto’s 1/72 release is also no longer
available. Tamiya stepped onto the scene three years
later with an Armoured Personnel Carrier M3A2 Half-
track, which is still around. Academy released a M3A2
in the early 1980s and then reboxed it with MiniCraft
a few years later. In the late 2000s Academy released a
ground vehicle set that includes a Half-track Personnel
ACADEMY
There are quite a few errors in the M3 from Academy’s
ground set: the rear lights are a bit too far out and
a bit too big, the reinforcement bars in the interior
stowage bins are missing as are the rifle racks inside
them, the central guide rail on the inside of the
continuous rubber tracks is missing as is the groove
on the outside. Academy gives modellers the choice
ITALERI
The Italeri Fast Assembly US M3 Half-Track plastic
half-track model is in 1/72 scale. For beginners and
war gaming the build can certainly stand-alone but for
a display model it requires the use of some aftermarket
products; it is an early model M3 half-track without
Modelling Products 41
Carrier M3. Both these kits are available in 1/72 scale.
The majority of Academy’s range depicts the Bradley,
a designation only given to half-tracks in service after
the Second World War. Black Dog also has a multi-
kit available with a M3 and an amphibious vehicle, in
the same vein as the Academy kit minus the Harley
Davidson. Fortunately for modellers Dragon took
advantage of the scarcity of half-track kits in 2008 and
has steadily built its range since then, releasing five
kits of half-tracks used in the Second World War. Of
the variants, many kits are around and there should be
sufficient to satisfy most modellers’ needs. Bolt Action
has a 1/56 scale M3A1 and a M21 Mortar Carrier in its
range and Blitzkrieg Miniatures also have an M3A1 and
a M5/M9 available.
between open and closed engine louvres at the front of
the engine compartment and a choice between a winch
and a roller. Ejector marks are strategically located
and except on the front hull the fit is good. With some
scratch building the model can be downgraded to a M3
and with a little time a decent display piece can be built
from this kit.
the ring mounted HMG, instead it is on a pintle mount
in the passenger compartment with no mine racks on
the sides either. Italeri also offers a M3 75mm GMC
Half-track.
42 M2/M3
DRAGON
Dragon’s M2/M2A1 2-in-1 kit is in 1/35 scale and
comes with five decal options: M2 1st Armoured
Division, Italy 1944 or Tunisia 1942; M2 US Army
1941/42; M2A1 XX Corps, Belgium 1945; M2A1 US
Army 1941/42 (although this must be a typo as the
M2A1 was not produced until 1943). The standard of
the moulding is good, with clean crisp parts, with only
the usual array of plastic knock out nodes that need
removing. The detail on this kit is good, especially on
the suspension compartments. However, the screw
heads on the side armour plates appear as rivets
due to a moulding error. It come with four radiator
panels, two rear compartment walls, two styles of head
lights, a full skate ring or pedestal mount and other
alternative parts. With all this why not then include
some ‘normal’ tyres for those who don’t want to modify
their kit. The M3 75mm GMC has seven decal options
available, including 601 Tank Destroyer Battalion,
Tunisia 1943; Sicily 1943; 2nd Marines Saipan 1944;
1st King’s Dragoon Guards, 1944 and 1945 as well as
A Squadron 27th Lancers, Italy 1945. “The tires, as
presented in the 1/35 scale Dragon kits are a major
point of contention between scale modellers. Dragon
provides them moulded as ‘flat’, which is incorrect
considering the manufacture of U.S. tires during that
time period. Although the hood is not cut away to open
and if you want to see the beautiful engine detail you
need to do this yourself, Dragon’s half-track kits are
popular, welcome additions. Other Second World War
half-track kits include: M3A1, T19 105mm Howitzer
Motor Carriage and a M21 Mortar Motor Carriage.
Dragon has included a M4 81mm Mortar Carrier in its
range for which the Eduard M4 half-track is designed
to be assembled with.
This is the Dragon kit (6467)
of the M3 75mm Gun Motor
Carriage. The unit markings
represent the Royal Canadian
Dragoons, 1st Canadian
Infantry Division, Italy,
September 1944. The M3 is
painted in the American Olive
Drab No. 9 colour using Polly
Scale paint #505098, which
is their equivalent of US olive
drab, and is acrylic. The figures
are from Ultracast. The kit
was weathered using acrylic
and oil washes followed by
dusting with pastel chalks.
The front tires have been
replaced with Hussar as the
Dragon tires have an under-
inflated look.
The engine compartment was opened
for display and some scratch-built
parts such as spark plugs, wiring,
distributor have been added as the kit
engine lacked detail. Also added are
Minor photo etch jerrycan mounts.
The decals used are from
Quartermaster and the kit set.
Images and model courtesy of Dave
Watson.

HASEGAWA
Hasegawa’s M3A1 in 1/72 scale has rubber band
tracks that lack detail and look a bit basic. The kit
comes with five crew members, on which the detail is
soft, but a nice anti-slip mesh ‘mat’ covers the crew
compartment floor. An optional plastic canvas roof is
MILICAST MODELS
This 1/76 resin cast model manufacturer offers a
range of American half-tracks: their M2 and M2A1
kits are available again, as is the M3 and M3A1. Then
they offer a M3 75mm half-track GMC, a M4A1 81mm
Mortar half-track, a M15 GMC 40mm Bofors SP and
Half-track M2. Half-track M2A1.
Modelling Products 43
included which, when assembled, looks good. This is
considered a reasonable kit with enough detail to pass
for a decent build. Hasegawa also has a M4A1 with a
detailed mortar compartment and five figures.
These spruces are from the M3A1 kit. Assemly begins with the
chassis which has detail like the driveshaft and exhaust moulded in
place. The decal sheet has markings for three unique serial numbers.
a M16 anti-aircraft HT GMC and a T30 75mm HMC.
Milicast offer three M14 kits: an ambulance half-track
and command half-track both with optional tilt cover
and a M14 modified for a personnel role.
Half-track M3 75mm GMC.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
secretary pro tem. A committee of ten upon permanent organization
were appointed, and consisted of the following gentlemen: C. W.
Moulton, William Perry Fogg, Cyrus Butler, J. Q. Howard, Mahlon
Chance, M. I. Southard, David F. Harbaugh, Warren Higley, Calvin S.
Brice, and Joseph Pool. When an adjourned meeting was held, on
the 20th of the same month, additions were made to this foundation
committee, in the persons of Messrs. Carson Lake, John W.
Harman, and Homer Lee.
The committee were already prepared with a report. They had
drafted a provisional constitution, and prepared by-laws, and
proposed that these should be printed and sent to the Ohio men in
New York, to discover how many would favor the movement, and
agree to support it. Such action was ordered, the new fundamental
law of a society not yet organized was sent broadcast, and
responses invited. One hundred subscribing names were made the
requisite; they were furnished, and twenty-five in addition. Thus
encouraged, there was a call from the President, and on the evening
of January 13, 1886, over one hundred of the sons of Ohio were
found together in the parlors of the Fifth Avenue Hotel.
The meeting was prolific of results. The Ohio Society of New York,
was called into being. Officers were elected; arrangements made for
the preparation of a constitution that would be in exact accord with
the purposes there declared. The first officers there chosen
constituted a corps which was of itself a guarantee of successful
results. General Thomas Ewing was elected president; Whitelaw
Reid, General Wager Swayne, Col. William L. Strong, Hon. Hugh J.
Jewett, and Algernon S. Sullivan were chosen vice-presidents.
Homer Lee was made recording secretary and Carson Lake,
corresponding secretary; while Col. William Perry Fogg was
assigned to the responsible position of treasurer. A governing
committee consisting of Henry L. Burnett, chairman, Calvin S. Brice,
Andrew J. C. Foye, A. D. Juilliard, George Follett, Stephen B. Elkins,
Jerome D. Gillett, C. W. Moulton, Joseph Pool, were selected. The
president and vice-president were directed to prepare the
constitution; the invitations of certain hotels managed by Ohio men
to use their parlors for gatherings until permanent quarters could be
secured, were accepted; and the president-elect delivered a striking
address upon assuming office, that throws so strong a light upon the
purpose and spirit of the gathering, that the writer is tempted to
quote somewhat freely therefrom.
“We have met to-night” said General Ewing, “as sons and foster
sons of Ohio resident in New York City to complete the foundation of
a new society in our National Metropolis. Full as this city is of
organizations of men, she has, I think, none such as this. The ties of
religion, charity, politics, science, art, literature and common
occupation draw and hold people together in numberless
associations which have filled Manhattan Island with splendid
edifices. So, too, the sympathies of a common race and history have
founded Societies of St. Patrick, St. Andrew, St. George and many
others, at whose annual reunion, the wit, song and sentiment of the
fatherlands warm the hearts of their sons in this land beyond the
sea. And here, also, is an American society which has at several
crises in the last fifty years exerted a considerable influence on
public opinion, and the annual reunions of which are watched with
eagerness everywhere throughout our land where the sons of New
England, from their distant homes, look proudly and fondly back on
their grand old mother.
“But the New England Society is composed of the sons of six
States. This is a society of the natives or former residents of a single
State—Ohio, the State first born of the American Republic. I do not
say she was the first received into the Union, for Vermont, Kentucky
and Tennessee all preceded her. Vermont was admitted in 1791,
Kentucky in ’92, Tennessee in ’96 and Ohio not until the 29th day of
November, 1802. But these three older States begun life as Colonies
of Colonies, each exclusively owned by and settled from its parent
colony—Vermont from New York, Kentucky from Virginia, and
Tennessee from North Carolina. ‘The territory northwest of the Ohio
river’ was the first land ever owned by the United States. It was a
vast and pathless wilderness—an Empire in embryo—when, in 1784,
Virginia, with magnificent generosity, presented it to the Union. It was
not until ten years later, when the savages, who had been allies of
Great Britain throughout the War of the Revolution, were routed and
subdued by Mad Anthony Wayne, that agricultural settlements,
except under the shadow of block-houses, first became possible.
Then the veteran soldiers of the Revolution, broken in fortune, but
aflame with the love of liberty and triumphant from the long struggle
for independence, flocked there from every one of the glorious
thirteen; hewed out homes in the primeval forest, paid for lands in
the long-dishonored certificates of indebtedness given for their
service in the Revolutionary War, and thus founded the first State
which sprung from the womb of the Republic.
“We are proud of Ohio,” continued the General, “for her heroic
birth, her honorable achievements, and her glorious destiny. She
‘sits in the centre,’ belongs to no section, and is a bond of all. Her
sons who meet here to-night are at home in New York. We do not
come together as strangers in a strange land to seek relief from the
depression of inhospitable influence. No; New York is not
inhospitable. She is merely too big and too busy to note who comes
or goes. Her gates landward and seaward, are thrown open to the
world. She is a focus of all the great forces of American life. Much
that is best and worst in it is developed here; and the struggle of a
new comer for a footing is always severe, and generally
unsuccessful. But New York is more truly cosmopolitan than any
other city in the United States, or, perhaps, in the world; and there is
little of race or sectional prejudice to bar the path of merit from
whatever quarter it may come.
“We found this Society because we love Ohio, and would cherish
her history, her traditions, her recollections of home and camp and
forum. How often do we look back to the days and scenes of our life
there to revive the sweetest influence and the dearest memories of
existence.
“But we have aims for our Society beyond the culture of the
memories and affections of other days. We hope to make it felt in
this great field of thought and action as a generator of wholesome
intellectual and moral forces. When this meeting was called for
permanent organization there were one hundred and fifteen signers
of our Constitution. Under the direction of a judicious Governing
Committee, the number will doubtless be increased to several
hundred. Our membership of non-residents will perhaps be equally
large. We should make something more of such good and abundant
material than a mere social club. I am far from insensible to the
pleasures of convivial reunions, and hope our society may have
many of them, and that I may long be of the number present. But we
can have some good work out of it as well as plenty of recreation.
For instance, with the aid of our western and southwestern brethern,
who, like ourselves, have drifted into this fence corner of the
Republic, we might help it to throw off its colonial subserviency to
English politics and manners, and gradually Americanize it. We can
thus repay in kind the debt of gratitude we owe the East for its
missionary efforts a generation ago, when it was the seat of power in
the Union, and the now imperial West was but a half subdued
wilderness.
“Ere long we can command means, I hope, to fit up and maintain
an accessible, commodious and permanent club house, the halls of
which will be a pleasant rendezvous for members and their friends,
where the ideas and policies of East and West may meet in
intelligent and friendly encounter, and where sectional prejudice may
be worn off in the attrition of social intercourse; where we may see
files of the Ohio newspapers, and note the current of life at our old
homes; where our brethern who come East may meet, or learn
where to find their friends, and get information and help in their
business; where Ohio men and women who are eminent or rising in
any worthy field of effort may have cordial recognition and a helping
hand, if needed; and where those who have unfortunately fallen in
the struggle for a foothold here will not be forgotten. In conclusion,
gentlemen, I venture to express the hope that our Society may be
from the outset, and continue to the end, so aristocratic that wealth
can not buy a membership for vice, and so democratic that none will
be excluded by needless cost of membership from an association
which their virtues and talents would adorn.”
The foundation was thus laid; the story of the superstructure will
be deferred for the present.
 General Thomas Ewing—First President of
the Ohio Society.
The connection of General Thomas Ewing with the founding of the
Ohio Society of New York has been already shown. At this point
some mention may profitably be made of the chief points in his
public and professional career; as others of the same Buckeye group
will be considered from time to time.
General Ewing came into the busy life of the world at a time, and
under auspices, calculated not only to develop the best that was in
him, but to call into active play the strongest elements of his nature.
Ohio was in its youthful days; schools and culture had not yet
reached that point where a finished education was the rule and
expectation of the great mass of the youth as now. The freedom of
pioneer life was around him, and while he learned the lessons of
refinement and culture within his parental home, he was learning the
lessons of self-reliance, courage and personal responsibility, from
the outdoor environments of his day and neighborhood.
It was, also, a time when the great public questions of the day
were debated from the stump, in the home circle, and at the caucus,
and not left to the newspapers as at present. The young man was
not merely a reader—he was compelled to think, and often talk for
himself. He must know something of public life, and he usually had a
personal acquaintance with the public men of his day and
neighborhood. In the case of General Ewing, one of the chief men of
Ohio history was a member of his own household—his father,
Thomas Ewing, the Senator from Ohio, and Secretary of the
Treasury in the cabinets of the elder Harrison and Tyler, and
Secretary of the Interior under Taylor.
Thomas Ewing, the son, was born at Lancaster, Ohio, August 7,
1829. Not only was he the natural heir to the qualities that had made
his father one of the great statesmen and lawyers of his day, but he
could find back among the family names that of Findley Ewing, who
distinguished himself under William of Orange, in the famous war of
1688, and was presented with a flag by that monarch, for gallant
service at the siege of Londonderry; George Ewing, his grandfather,
an ensign and lieutenant of the Revolutionary War; Neil Gillespie—a
man of mark, in the early days of the Monongahela, and great-
grandfather to James G. Blaine and himself; and his mother’s father,
Hugh Boyle, who, in youth was driven from Ireland because of the
part he had taken in the Emmet rebellion, and afterward served the
State of Ohio for forty years, as clerk of the Supreme Court for
Fairfield county.
The public life of young Ewing commenced at an early age. When
but nineteen, he was appointed secretary of the commission to settle
the still vexed question as to whether the boundary between Virginia
and Ohio was the high water mark or the low water mark, on the
north side of the Ohio River. A year later, he became one of the
private secretaries of President Taylor, and after Taylor’s sudden
death, entered Brown University at Providence, Rhode Island, from
which he was graduated in 1854.
He had already chosen the profession of the law, as the work of
his life, and immediately entered the Cincinnati Law School, from
which he was graduated in 1855. The next year he married Ellen E.
Cox, a daughter of Rev. Wm. Cox, a Presbyterian minister of Piqua,
Ohio, celebrated for his eloquence and zeal, and in the fall of ’56
removed to Leavenworth, Kansas, which he had chosen as the
opening point of his professional career. His partners in the first firm
whose sign-board bore his name, were two gentlemen afterwards to
win great distinction in a war then farther off in the minds of men
than in the dread certainties of fact—General Dan McCook, who
afterwards fell at Kenesaw, and William T. Sherman, whose recent
death the world is yet lamenting. The name of the firm was Sherman,
Ewing & McCook.
The success of Mr. Ewing was brilliant from the start. He had not
only the magnetic presence by which friends are made, but the
“natural genius for law” that made him a safe counsellor, a brilliant
pleader, and a wary contestant in the varied fields of litigation. He
was soon one of the recognized leaders of the bar of Kansas, and it
was inevitable that he should soon be called to a commanding place
in the field of politics as well. It was a time and place where no man
could be silent, and when the most sluggish was compelled to
become partisan. The young advocate from Ohio left no one in doubt
as to which side he took in the struggle to make Kansas a free State.
He bore an active and conspicuous part in the struggle on the side of
freedom, and was one of the Republican leaders of the West. He
represented Kansas in the Peace Conference, which assembled in
Washington on the call of Virginia in 1860, and at the early age of
twenty-nine was elected the first chief justice of the Supreme Court
of his State—a position he ably held for two years, until the great
rebellion swept him from the bench into the ranks of the Union army.
Some more detailed mention of General Ewing’s part in that great
historic struggle to make Kansas a free State is needed, to fully
explain the public service he rendered in those days of danger. In the
fall of 1857, the Pro-Slavery constitutional convention of Kansas,
formed the Lecompton constitution, of which only the slavery cause
was submitted to popular vote. The question thus left to the people
was whether they would accept a fundamental law with slavery, or
without. Thus the voter was compelled to favor the Lecompton
constitution if he voted at all—a constitution hateful to the Free State
majority, as it had been framed by a fraudulently chosen convention,
composed largely of residents of Missouri.
It was also provided in this document, that if the majority voted for
it and rejected slavery, then the slaves already held in Kansas,
should remain such for life.
At the same election, a separate vote was ordered for legislative
and executive officers under the constitution. The hope of the pro
slavery party was that the Free State men, who were in a great
majority in the territory, would refuse to vote at all, because of their
indignation at the tricky manner of the submission, and that
therefore, the Democratic Congress would admit Kansas as a slave
State completely officered by pro slavery men.
“It was an artful trap,” says one historian of those stirring times,
“and the Free State Convention was caught in it by resolving that the
party would wholly refrain from voting at that election. Thereupon Mr.
Ewing bolted the convention, but only eight out of over a hundred
delegates followed him. The bolters nominated a full State ticket and
tickets in every county for all the offices, canvassed the Territory, and
in spite of the bitterest opposition of the radical leaders and press,
succeeded in bringing a large majority of the Free State party to the
polls. They thus completely officered the proposed pro-slavery
Government with tried and true Free State men—publicly pledged, if
the State should be admitted, to immediately call another
convention, form a Free State Constitution, and destroy the
Lecompton Constitution and Government, root and branch. The pro-
slavery leaders, finding themselves outnumbered at the polls,
resorted to the most enormous and astounding frauds in the returns,
and then officially proclaimed the election of the pro-slavery
candidates. Thereupon Ewing went to the Territorial Legislature then
in session at Lawrence, a majority of which were Free State men,
and got a commission appointed to investigate and expose the
election frauds. He was a member of the Board and conducted its
proceedings with startling boldness and energy, resulting within a
week in the discovery and seizure of the forged returns, which had
been buried in a candle box under a wood pile at Lecompton on the
premises of the United States Surveyor General, John Calhoun—the
exposure of the forgeries—the indictment of the chief conspirators,
Calhoun, McLean and others—their flight from Kansas never to
return—and the abandonment by Buchanan’s administration, and his
party in Congress of the Lecompton Constitution, which fell covered
with execrations and infamy. This closed the long struggle to force
slavery on Kansas, and the new State was thereupon admitted
under a Free Constitution made by her own people.”
To pass from this struggle for freedom to the greater struggle in
the wider field of the war that followed, was but a logical step to the
young advocate who had devoted so much of his time to the cause
that had won his heart. He first appears in that struggle as Colonel of
the Eleventh Regiment of Kansas Volunteer Infantry, recruited and
organized by him in the summer of 1862. He led his command in
several severe engagements in Arkansas—at Cane Hill, Van Buren
and Prairie Grove; and for gallant conduct in the last named battle,
which was one of the fiercest of the war, was promoted to be a
Brigadier-General on the 11th of March, 1863. He was soon after
assigned to the command of the “District of the Border,” comprising
the State of Kansas and the western portion of Missouri—a
command of extreme administrative difficulty and great personal
danger, which he held from June, 1863, to February, 1864, and in
which he won the emphatic approval of President Lincoln and
General Schofield, the Department Commander. His “Order No. 11,”
issued while he held this command, directing the inhabitants of large
portions of three border counties of southern Missouri to remove to
the military posts or out of the border, was and still is severely
criticised. It was the result of a peculiarly difficult situation, solvable
in no other way.
Those counties had become the impregnable base of operations
of about a thousand guerrillas, under Quantrell, the James brothers,
and Yeager, who were incessantly making incursions into southern
Kansas, to rob and kill the defenceless people, and who had just
burned Lawrence, and in cold blood murdered nearly three hundred
unarmed and unresisting citizens. After two years of strenuous effort
by other Union commanders, it had proved to be impossible to
protect Kansas people from these dreadful incursions, and equally
impossible to run the guerillas to earth in their fastness on the
Missouri side of the border. These counties had been desolated
early in the war by Jennison, Hoyt and their lawless bands of Kansas
“Red Legs”—burned to the subsoil, nineteen farms out of twenty
having been absolutely abandoned, and the houses and fences
destroyed or left rotting. The condition of this district can be imagined
from the fact that when this “Order No. 11” was issued, Nevada, the
county seat of Vernon County, having at least a hundred houses
standing and in good order, had not a single inhabitant, and the
Court House without door or window-pane, had become a shelter for
hogs and cattle running wild, with its records of titles and court
proceedings scattered over the floors, and covered with filth. There
were not at that time a hundred families left in the entire district
affected by the order, outside of the military posts. They were the
friends and kinsfolk of the guerillas, who were constantly hanging
about the garrisoned towns, buying arms, ammunition and provisions
for the guerillas, and carrying news to them of every movement of
our troops. It was impossible to kill the guerillas or drive them out of
the border while these country people stayed there as their spies
and purveyors. Therefore, after full conference with General
Schofield, then commanding the Department of the Missouri, and
now the honored head of the army, General Ewing ordered the few
remaining inhabitants in these desolated districts to remove to the
nearest military post, or back to the second tier of counties from the
State border, and the order was subsequently ratified by President
Lincoln.
In a letter published since the war, General Schofield said: “The
responsibility for that order rests with President Lincoln, myself, and
General Ewing, in the proportion of our respective rank and
authority.” About half of the people affected by the order removed to
the posts under the protection of our troops, and the remainder
further back in Missouri. They moved in summer—were subjected to
no physical force or hardship, and were generally glad to get out of
reach of the wild storm which was about to burst on them from
Kansas, in revenge for the Lawrence massacre, and which the
Government had not troops enough there to quell. Within two or
three months after the issuance of this order, Quantrell having lost
his spies and purveyors, and finding it impossible therefore to
continue the vendetta, led all his guerillas south, and the border war
was thus forever ended.
General Ewing’s most distinguished service during the war was in
fighting the battle of Pilot Knob on the 27th and 28th of September,
1864. The Confederate General, Sterling Price, having effected an
unlooked for and unresisted crossing of the Arkansas above Little
Rock, with his army of over twenty thousand men, marched on St.
Louis, where General Rosecrans was in command of the
Department of the Missouri, and General Ewing of the District of
Southeast Missouri. All the Federal troops of the department were
scattered in small detachments, with bases in earthworks or
stockades in or near the chief towns of Missouri, which were the
places of refuge of the Union men and neutrals from the savage
warfare of the guerillas. These scattered troops could not be
withdrawn from their posts without enormous sacrifice of the people
and property they were protecting, and it was, moreover, impossible
to assemble them at St. Louis in time and numbers sufficient to
defeat Price’s large army, which was increasing rapidly by
accessions of guerillas from all parts of Southern Missouri. There
was but one possible means of preventing the capture of St. Louis
and the vast loss of prestige and resources which would follow. That
was to delay Price a few days until re-enforcements could arrive
from Little Rock, by occupying and holding fast to Fort Davidson, a
small hexagonal work capable of being manned by about one
thousand men, situated ninety miles south of St. Louis, at the village
of Pilot Knob, which was then the southern terminus of the Iron
Mountain Railroad. In this little fort were stored immense amounts of
ordnance, commissary and quartermasters’ supplies, which Price
greatly needed, and which lay directly between him and the great
city, by capturing which he expected to bring Missouri over to the
Confederacy. General Rosecrans, at the urgent request of General
Ewing, reluctantly consented that he should lead this forlorn hope.
He reached Pilot Knob in the nick of time—but four hours ahead of
Price’s advance—and with but one thousand and eighty men he held
Fort Davidson against two of the three divisions of Price’s army—
those of Marmaduke and Cabell—numbering about fourteen
thousand men—Shelpy’s division of about seven thousand men
having been sent to Ewing’s rear at Mineral Point, twenty miles north
of Pilot Knob, to cut the railroad and insure the destruction or capture
of his entire command. After repulsing two assaults with great loss to
the enemy, General Ewing, under cover of the night, evacuated and
then blew up his untenable fort, and, favored by broken ground,
though pressed on flank and rear, held his force in hand, and by
dogged fighting for two days and nights, brought them to a fortified
camp at Rolla, a hundred miles west of Pilot Knob. Price was thus
delayed for a week, and drawn so far westward from his march on
St. Louis, that reinforcements reached St. Louis and the great
objective of his invasion was lost. He turned west and south and was
soon driven from Missouri without striking an effective blow. General
Rosecrans, in a special order issued October 6, 1864, said of this
brilliant episode: “With pride and pleasure the commanding General
notices the gallant conduct of Brigadier-General Thomas Ewing, Jr.,
and his command in the defence of Pilot Knob, and in the
subsequent retreat to Rolla. With scarcely one thousand effective
men, they repulsed the attacks of Price’s invading army, and
successfully retreated with their battery a distance of one hundred
miles, in the face of a pursuing and assailing cavalry force of five
times their number. General Ewing and his subordinates have
deserved well of their country. Under such commanders, the Federal
troops should always march to victory.”
At the conclusion of the war, General Ewing once more made his
home in his native State. He was soon prominent in political affairs,
giving his voice and vote to such measures as in his opinion were for
the best interests of his country. He was a member of the Ohio
constitutional convention of 1873-4, where his legal attainments and
admirable powers of debate gave him a foremost place. As a
member of the Democratic majority in the Forty-fifth and Forty-sixth
Congresses, he was one of the leaders of his party in resisting and
stopping the employment of Federal troops and supervisors at
elections conducted under State laws, and also in the successful
movement for the preservation of the Greenback currency, the
remonetization of silver, and the issue of silver certificates, but for
which measures of finance the currency would have been greatly
contracted, to the infinite and protracted distress of the industrial and
debtor classes. In 1879, he was the Democratic candidate for
governor of Ohio, and made an able canvass of the State, but the
Republican majority was too large to be overcome.
In 1882, that magnetic attraction that draws so many men to New
York city, made General Ewing a member of the bar of the
metropolis, where the enlarged opportunities of his profession have
been met by a mental equipment and training equal to their most
exacting requirements, and where his success has been of a marked
character. To this legal ability is added a ripe scholarship, unusual
grace as a speaker, and a personal magnetism that charms all with
whom he comes in contact. His published speeches in Congress and
on the stump have been numerous, and marked by their information,
ability, liberality of thought and patriotism. Although his purely literary
efforts have been less numerous, because of the active professional
life that has been thrust upon him, the work he has done in that
direction shows how much he might have accomplished, had his life
been given to letters; for example, an address delivered at the
Centennial celebration of the settlement of the Northwest territory at
Marietta, Ohio, July, 16, 1889, and his address before the Kansas
State Bar Association, on January 7, 1890, favoring the abolition of
the requirement of unanimity, of juries in civil cases, and urging the
codification of the “private law”—both of which speeches have
attracted wide attention, and most favorable comment.
While General Ewing has accomplished so much, he is still in his
prime, and is one of the moral forces in his profession in New York
city, a strong, well-balanced and successful man. As has been said,
he takes a deep interest in the affairs of the Society he did so much
to create, and with him, an “Ohio man,” whether known or unknown,
is always sure of a cordial welcome; while he enjoys life in his new
home, his love for the State that gave him birth, and which his
honored father so long served, is as deep as that of a son for a
mother whose face he does not see, but whose memory is forever
carried in his heart.

Col. William L. Strong—One of the First Vice-

Presidents of the Ohio Society.
In the sketches of the two distinguished Ohioans which
accompany this, the law has been so well represented that one
might imagine that the chief purpose of Ohio in the metropolis was to
interpret the law, and see that equal justice was done between man
and man; but from that which follows, it will be seen that the mission
of the Buckeye in New York, is as varied as his numbers are many,
and that in the walks of business and financial operation, he has won
honor for his mother-state, and the evidences of deserved success
for himself. And while engaged in the cares of business, he has not
forgotten to fulfill all the demands of good citizenship, nor to preserve
the memory of the State he has left, by doing all that lies in his power
to perpetuate her memory loyally and lovingly in the one of his
adoption.
 Those who have attended the meetings of the Ohio Society with
any degree of regularity, have not failed to notice that the genial
presiding officer, Gen. Swayne, whose genius for his position is
universally recognized is never so well satisfied as when he can so
twist or change the current of business as to bring upon the floor a
gentleman who always talks entertainingly, and whose appearance
and speech justify the efforts of the presiding officer to “draw him
out.” Col. William L. Strong has been so many years in New York,
that people generally suppose him to be of New York origin; he has
travelled the world so much, that at times it is hard to tell from what
section he does hail; but when he has been brought before the
Society upon one of the occasions above referred to, it takes no skill
and no endeavor to tell that he was an Ohio man in the beginning,
and that many of the tendrils of his affection still cling to the State in
which his youth was spent, and to which he turns with a loyal
devotion, whenever the occasion renews the scenes of memory, and
the other sons of Ohio about him are recalling with varied emotions
the things of the vanished past.
Mr. Strong came to New York when quite young in years, but
equipped with all the elements needed for business success. He was
born in Richland County, Ohio, on the 22d of March, 1827, and spent
his boyhood among the Loudinville hills. At the age of sixteen he
went to Wooster, Ohio, and spent two years with the firm of Lake &
Jones, a large retail dry goods house, and from thence to Mansfield,
Ohio, where he continued in the dry goods business until he came to
this city, arriving here on the 31st of December, 1853.
When the young Buckeye reached the great city, he came with a
purpose of making the best use of all the possibilities which might
present themselves. He commenced life here as a salesman in the
well-known dry goods house of L. O. Wilson & Co., at that time one
of the largest and most prominent of the wholesale houses of the
United States. In the panic of 1857 the firm suspended, but Mr.
Strong continued in its service until 1858, when he went into the dry
goods commission business, entering the firm of Farnham, Dale &
Co., which was one of the prominent firms of New York at that time.
In the subsequent changes of affairs, it was succeeded by Farnham,
Sutton & Co., and afterwards by Sutton, Smith & Co. This last
named firm was dissolved and retired from business in December,
1869, and on January 1, 1870, the firm of W. L. Strong & Co. was
organized, and succeeded to the business.
The advance of Mr. Strong in his chosen line, had been as rapid
as his wonderful success in these later years, has been deserved.
He had entered upon the work with a determination to succeed, and
nothing in the line of hard work or close application was allowed to
stand in the way. He had made the interests of his employers his
own; he had studied all the needs and possibilities of the situation,
and had laid a sure foundation for future success. He had learned
the country from one end to the other, and his business
acquaintances were to be found in every quarter. It hardly needs to
be added that when the new firm of which he was the head, opened
its doors for business, it had already a clientage of the most valuable
sort, and that its prominent place among the great dry goods houses
of America, was already assured.
Col. Strong has been a faithful servant of the house from the
beginning; he has done his work as if the whole load fell upon him,
and he has never asked anyone to carry any share that properly
belonged to himself. The house has ever been recognized as one of
the solid institutions of New York. It has made but one removal since
its organization, beginning business on the corner of Church and
Leonard streets, and moving several years later to the spacious
double store which it still occupies, in the center of the dry goods
district at Nos. 75 and 77 Worth street.
Some of the qualities that have made his firm what it is to-day, are
suggested in the above. Mr. Strong is a man of decided views, and
great force of character, and at the same time one of the most
approachable and genial men in the business. His good nature and
open-handed liberality are widely felt and known, and no man has a
wider circle of personal and business friends. His abilities as a
business man and financier are of the highest order, and although
strongly marked by conservatism and caution, are nevertheless,
sufficiently progressive for even this day of commercial activity.
 But while Col. Strong has given the greater share of his time and
care to the interests of the firm of which he is the head, he has found
time to make his energy and capital effective in various other
directions. He was for years a director of the Central National Bank,
and for three years past has been its president; is president of the
Homer Lee Bank Note Company; was president of the Brush Electric
Light Company of New York for several years; is president of the
Griswold Worsted Company, a large corporation engaged in the
manufacture of silk and worsted materials. He is also a director in
the Erie Railroad Company; a director in the New York Life Insurance
Company, Mercantile Trust Company, and Hanover Fire Insurance
Company. He is also vice-president of the New York Security and
Trust Company; is a director in the newly formed Plaza Bank, and
has been closely connected with other important commercial and
financial enterprises not necessary to mention in detail here.
In the lines of political duty, social demands, and especially in
connection with such enterprises as have had some object of public
benefit in view, Col. Strong has ever been an active factor. He is of
the Republican faith, and has long been recognized as one of the
Republican leaders of New York. He has been importuned many
times to be a candidate for public office, but has been too closely
interested in his business to take a hand in the practical manipulation
of politics upon his own account, content to do a citizen’s duty, and
to remain in private life. But he has done that duty whenever
occasion offered. He is a member of the Union League, and
president of the Business Men’s Republican Association, and has
done much to make that one of the most efficient and useful political
associations of the country. He has ever taken a deep interest in the
Ohio Society, and is at present its first vice-president, and has held
that office from the date of its organization.
No words can too strongly describe the high repute in which is
held the business house of which Col. Strong is the head. It is
among the most prominent, popular and successful in the trade. It
represents some of the largest mills in this country engaged in the
manufacture of dress goods, flannels, blankets and other woolens
and worsteds, also important accounts in cotton goods. It has branch
houses in Boston and Philadelphia for the supply of the trade in
those markets. The firm was organized January 1, 1870, as above
stated, and has continued in uninterrupted and successful operation
ever since. Through all the panics and business disturbances that
have visited this country at various periods since 1870, the house
passed in safety with increased business prestige and financial
strength. The able business management of this large commission
house is proverbial in mercantile circles.
All that has been said in the above, in commendation of the house
of which Col. Strong is the visible head, may be truthfully repeated of
himself in his personal relations. His connection with many
enterprises of importance in the business community and his
prominent position in the same, are evidences of the business ability
which he possesses and which his associates have so practically
recognized. Modest and unassuming, his clear and analytical mind
grasps the problems of business with such skill that fortune has
smiled upon every enterprise with which he is or has been
associated. His connection with so many financial institutions as
director or president, further attests the confidence of the public in
his integrity and marked ability.
While his business qualifications are of very high order, there are
other traits in the character of Col. Strong that are no less marked.
He is a man of the people, and his sympathies are wholly with the
people. No worthy object to relieve or to make the struggling masses
happy, ever fails to receive from him the substantial sympathy which
his broad mind and liberal heart so freely give. He is an American, in
every sense of the term. Plain and simple in his habits, he frowns
upon everything that seeks to make one man higher than another,
except as merit or exceptional service, have elevated him. He is, as
one has well said, “One of the few men equal to the occasion,
wherever placed, and deservedly possesses the entire confidence of
the people.”

Hon. George Hoadly, Ex-Governor of Ohio.

 George Hoadly, who has won at the bar of New York, a position of
eminence equal to that he for years maintained in Ohio, is, in all the
essentials of affection and personal loyalty, yet an “Ohio man,” for he
remembers the home of his youth, the scene of his early labors and
professional advancement, and the State that chose him to the
highest position within her gift. Like General Ewing and Col. Strong,
he is already a well-known figure in the metropolis, and is one of the
men by whose labors the Ohio Society has been made what it is.
If a man is aided by the “sort of grandfathers” he has inherited,
Judge Hoadly had as fair a start as is given anyone. The older
lawyers of Ohio speak with tender remembrance of “Squire Hoadly,”
who for years was one of the imposing figures of the bar of
Cleveland, and whose purity of character was matched only by his
legal knowledge, and the justice with which, in his magisterial
character, he arbitrated the affairs of his fellowmen. He made
Cleveland his home in 1830; served one term as Mayor, and for
fifteen years as justice of the peace, then an office of greater honor
and responsibility than in these days of multiplied minor and
municipal courts.
The son, George Hoadly, was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on
July 31, 1826, of a mother (Mary Anne Woolsey), who counted
Jonathan Edwards among her direct ancestors, President Dwight her
uncle, President Woolsey her younger brother, Theodore Winthrop,
Sarah Woolsey, (“Susan Coolidge,”) her nephew and niece. Carried
to Ohio when but four years of age, his primary education was
received in the private school, conducted by the late Franklin T.
Backus, afterwards the leader of the Cleveland bar, and Judge
William Strong of Oregon. When fourteen years of age he entered
Western Reserve College, at Hudson, Ohio, from which he was
graduated in 1844. It had already been impressed upon him by
natural bent of mind and inclination, and by the advice of those who
had studied his character and watched his growth, that the law was
his proper profession, and he accordingly spent a year in study at
the famous law school at Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was
under the instruction of Judge Story and Prof. Greenleaf. One more
year of close study was passed in the office of Judge Charles C.
Convers, at Zanesville, Ohio, and then young Hoadly went to
Cincinnati, and in the fall of 1846 entered the law office of Chase &
Ball, where he completed his studies, and was admitted to the bar in
August of the following year. An incident of more than passing
moment in his personal and professional life grew out of this
connection. “Young Hoadly,” says one of the governor’s biographers,
“at once attracted the attention and secured the warm and lasting
friendship of his preceptor, Salmon P. Chase, afterwards Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who was well
aware of the importance of attaching to himself young men of ability,
and, after a period of service as a clerk, Mr. Hoadly was admitted, in
1849, as a junior partner into the firm, which took the name of
Chase, Ball & Hoadly. Mr. Chase was soon thereafter elected United
States Senator, and withdrew from professional activity in Cincinnati,
and this led to Hoadly’s appearing in important cases very early in
his career.”
Strong and able in his profession, and popular with the people, the
young lawyer’s way to official distinction was soon opened. In 1851,
the State Legislature elected him Judge of the Superior Court of
Cincinnati, for the residue of the term to which that court had been
limited by the constitutional convention. He ably served in this
position until 1853, when the court ceased its functions, and he then
formed a co-partnership with Edward Mills. He was city solicitor of
Cincinnati in 1855, and 1856, and became a member of the present
Superior Court in 1859. Twice was he offered a seat upon the
Supreme Bench of Ohio, but each time he declined. In 1856, the
proffer came from Governor Chase, and in 1862 from Governor Tod.
In 1864 he was re-elected to the bench, but resigned in 1866, at
which time the firm of Hoadly, Jackson & Johnson was formed. The
late Judge Alphonse Taft was his successor upon the bench. The
new combination was soon ranked among the great law firms of the
country, and Judge Hoadly was classed as one of the ablest and
soundest of American jurists. Of this period of his life, an historian of
Ohio has said: “They (the above mentioned law firm), have
successfully tried some of the great railroad cases of the day, and
are as noted in these cases in Ohio as was Samuel J. Tilden in New
York ten years ago in litigation of the same kind. Judge Hoadly has
also appeared as counsel in the most important litigations of other
kinds tried in Ohio of late years, having among others conducted
victoriously the cases involving the use of the Bible in the common
schools of Cincinnati, the constitutionality of the Pond and Scott
laws, and in the United States Supreme Court overthrown the
Federal trade-mark system, and compelled the State of Tennessee
to redeem the issues of the Bank of Tennessee.”
A position where his peculiar legal powers were called into play,
and his knowledge of constitutional law and readiness in debate
made him a leader, was his membership in the Ohio constitutional
convention of 1873-4, to which he was elected without opposition
from Hamilton County. Yet while engaged in the manifold duties of
his profession, he found time to engage in other fields of usefulness,
serving as professor in the Cincinnati Law School, a chair of which
he held for over twenty years; a trustee of the University of
Cincinnati, and of the Cincinnati Museum; member of the Committee
of the School of Design; and was in other ways the patron of the arts
and sciences, and a promoter of their development in his home city.
Among other self-imposed tasks, he made himself acquainted with
the Spanish and German languages, and became as he calls himself
“a poor stenographer.”
While Judge Hoadly had thus far allowed his name to be used only
in connection with official positions directly in the line of his
profession, and while he had little taste and less time for the practical
part of politics, he still held pronounced views upon public questions,
and carefully watched the drift of events. He was from the first a
Democrat—as his father had been before him—a believer in
democratic principles as enunciated by the founders of the party who
were among the greatest of the founders of our government. And
being a Democrat to the logical conclusions of democracy, he took
issue with his party upon the question of human slavery. During the
war, he acted politically with the Union elements; when peace was
restored and the slave freed, he took part in the Liberal Republican
movement of 1872, and was a member of the Cincinnati convention,
and of its Committee on Resolutions, but disapproved of the
nomination of Mr. Greeley with whom he had no political principles in