Very good read.
(snippet copy. See link for complete article)
The M29 Weasel on display at Brantford’s Military Heritage Museum.
Photographer: Bob Gordon By Bob Gordon and Thomas Gordon
Saturday January 07/2012 at 08:43:12 AM
Brant News is proud to present an ongoing series highlighting historic artifacts on display at Brantford’s Military Heritage Museum.
In 1942, the U.S. Army called for design proposals for a lightweight, tracked vehicle particularly adapted to snowy conditions.
The vehicle was also required to have amphibious capabilities and be light enough to be carried by a glider.
The vehicle was being designed for the 1st Special Service Brigade, a joint Canadian-American commando unit.
Consequently, the National Research Council of Canada played an integral role in the Weasel’s development. The contract to manufacture the Weasel was eventually awarded to the Studebaker Automobile Company.
The “Weasel’s” Studebaker Model 6-170 Champion, L-head, 70 hp engine gave it a top speed of 58 km/h and a range of 255 km. It weighed only 1,700 kilograms. Uncommonly, the road, or bogie, wheels are offset from the vertical.
The first 2,100 produced had 380 mm tracks, the remaining, including the vehicle pictured above, had 510 mm tracks. Increasing the track width lowered the Weasel’s weight in terms of pounds per square inch to 1.9 psi, less than a human footprint.
The Weasel could ride over snow and marshland that any other vehicle and even a foot soldier would become hopelessly mired in. The driver could carry ammunition, supplies and equipment, or three passengers.
The M29 was amphibious, but with a dangerously low freeboard. The M29C “Water Weasel” was the amphibious version, with buoyancy cells in the bow and stern, as well as twin rudders. Afloat, it continued to rely on the tracks for propulsion, reducing its speed to 6 km/h.
Despite American origins and production, the Weasel was used extensively by Canadian forces in the fall of 1944 during battles to clear the marshy Scheldt estuary, the flooded approaches to Antwerp, Europe’s largest port.
They were kept in service by the Canadian Army for use in the Arctic. Skis are visible in a rack on the left side of the vehicle pictured above
(snippet copy. See link for complete article)
The M29 Weasel on display at Brantford’s Military Heritage Museum.
Photographer: Bob Gordon By Bob Gordon and Thomas Gordon
Saturday January 07/2012 at 08:43:12 AM
Brant News is proud to present an ongoing series highlighting historic artifacts on display at Brantford’s Military Heritage Museum.
In 1942, the U.S. Army called for design proposals for a lightweight, tracked vehicle particularly adapted to snowy conditions.
The vehicle was also required to have amphibious capabilities and be light enough to be carried by a glider.
The vehicle was being designed for the 1st Special Service Brigade, a joint Canadian-American commando unit.
Consequently, the National Research Council of Canada played an integral role in the Weasel’s development. The contract to manufacture the Weasel was eventually awarded to the Studebaker Automobile Company.
The “Weasel’s” Studebaker Model 6-170 Champion, L-head, 70 hp engine gave it a top speed of 58 km/h and a range of 255 km. It weighed only 1,700 kilograms. Uncommonly, the road, or bogie, wheels are offset from the vertical.
The first 2,100 produced had 380 mm tracks, the remaining, including the vehicle pictured above, had 510 mm tracks. Increasing the track width lowered the Weasel’s weight in terms of pounds per square inch to 1.9 psi, less than a human footprint.
The Weasel could ride over snow and marshland that any other vehicle and even a foot soldier would become hopelessly mired in. The driver could carry ammunition, supplies and equipment, or three passengers.
The M29 was amphibious, but with a dangerously low freeboard. The M29C “Water Weasel” was the amphibious version, with buoyancy cells in the bow and stern, as well as twin rudders. Afloat, it continued to rely on the tracks for propulsion, reducing its speed to 6 km/h.
Despite American origins and production, the Weasel was used extensively by Canadian forces in the fall of 1944 during battles to clear the marshy Scheldt estuary, the flooded approaches to Antwerp, Europe’s largest port.
They were kept in service by the Canadian Army for use in the Arctic. Skis are visible in a rack on the left side of the vehicle pictured above
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