US Army half track fire trucks

[38ff 250]

I found these pictures at a Muster. No info was given.

Crazy stuff..

[WCDES-FTA 6]

Both units were stationed at the GSA Ammo Depot @ Baltimore, MD. Both are 1943 IHC half-tracks, both user built. They had 500 gpm front mounts, the engine had a 150 gallon tank, the tanker was 2000 gallons.

[MoFire390 118]

they look pretty BA!!!

[firefighter-70 27]

Believe it or not we drove tracked vehicles over range fires on rifle / machine gun ranges all the time. These look like they would do the job then some.

[efdcapt115 1,511]

The M2 was the produced version of the test vehicle "T14". Between 1941 and 1943, the White Motor Car Company produced 8,423 units, and the Autocar Company made 2,992.

Judging by the different front fenders on the two fire apparatus, I'd say one was an early M2 built by White Motor Company, and one was an M2 built by Autocar. Note they simply inverted the front bumpers on the firetruck half-tracks, an ingenious way to outfit them with pumps. The tanker half track was more than likely a platform originally built for an anti-aircraft gun, thus the heavier towing capacity. The smaller split windshields were primarily on the M2s, International Harvester company built some on the "lend-lease" program, but generally speaking IHCs were bigger all around, from the truck itself to a solid one piece windshield. It appears they were developed bigger and stronger as the war years progressed.

http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/UnitedStates/armored-halftracks/armored-halftracks.html