eTaiwan

All Photos by eairforce
Tanks in World War II (1)
United States production equipped not only the American forces but the forces of France (after 1942), Britain and other Allied nations. Similarly to the Soviet Union, the United States selected a few good basic designs and standardized on those models. Given the lack of tank design and production experience, it is remarkable that the United States designs were as good as they were.
Prior to the entry of the United States in the war, the Army had only a few tanks. The Light Tank M2 series was the most important. These light tanks were mechanically very reliable, with good mobility. However, they had a high silhouette due to the use of radial aircraft engines. Only a few saw combat, on Guadalcanal. The Light Tank M3 series of 1941 was an improvement of the M2, with more armour and a 37 mm gun. The new medium tank just entering production in 1940 was the M2A1. This was a hopelessly poor design with thin armour, a high silhouette, a 37 mm main gun and seven machine guns.
From 1940 new tank designs were prepared. The Battle of France had shown the importance of medium tanks, and the United States Army had a requirement for a medium tank with a 75 mm gun, and developed the M4 Sherman tank, the most important tank of the war for the Western Allies.

M3與M5輕型坦克家族是20世紀30年代美軍坦克設計的巔峰之作。不過到第二次世界大戰爆發時，因為歐洲的主力坦克配置已經從輕型轉向了中型，所以M3和M5顯得有些過時。1941年斯圖亞特坦克首次在西部沙漠配備英軍參戰，很快，顯示出諸多方面的不足。但是，在太平洋戰場上斯圖亞特輕型坦克的表現居然非常突出。

Photo by etanks
從Jeep吉普車到悍馬車的發展過程
Jeep吉普車是由美軍在二次世界大戰時採用的Willys MB Jeep所代表的Light Utility Vehicle (輕型多用途車) 。
自從Jeep問世後，輕型多用途車在戰場上的重要性被世界各國的軍隊認同，不但大量外銷，也有很多國家直接研發製造類似的車輛。美國將軍/總統艾森豪威爾更說過在二次大戰中，對於美軍最重要的武器是”C-47運輸機，巴祖卡火箭筒, 原子彈， 以及Jeep吉普車“
在二次世界大戰後，蘇聯以及其他共產國家製造了基本上是拷貝的Jeep叫做GAZ-64,之後的輕型多用途車也是在GAZ-64的基礎上所開發的。