Editing Half-track (section)

===World War I===
[[Tractor]]s used to tow [[artillery]] and designs with front wheels and tracks at the rear began to appear prior to the outbreak of war, often based on agricultural machines such as the [[Holt tractor]]. The basic half-track concept was originally showcased by the British during the war.

With such tractors, the tactical use of heavier guns to supplement the light horse-drawn [[field gun]]s became feasible. For example, in the British Army it allowed the heavy guns of the [[Royal Garrison Artillery]] to be used flexibly on the battlefield. In England, starting in 1905, [[David Roberts (engineer)|David Roberts]] of [[Richard Hornsby & Sons]] had attempted to interest British military officials in a tracked vehicle, but failed.

Holt bought the patents related to the "chain track" [[track-type tractor]] from Richard Hornsby & Sons in 1914<ref>{{cite web | url = http://hornsbycrawler.org/ | title = Hornsby Steam Crawler | first = George | last = Hoffman | date = 2007-02-21 | location = [[British Columbia]] }}</ref> for £4,000. Unlike the Holt tractor, which had a steerable tiller wheel in front of the tracks, the Hornsby crawler was steered by controlling power to each track.<ref name="about">{{cite web|url=http://inventors.about.com/od/bstartinventions/a/bulldozer.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121208161805/http://inventors.about.com/od/bstartinventions/a/bulldozer.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 8, 2012 |title=History of Bulldozers| first= Mary |last=Bellis|publisher= About.com |access-date=2010-02-28 }}</ref>

When World War I broke out, with the problem of [[trench warfare]] and the difficulty of transporting supplies to the front, the pulling power of [[Continuous track|crawling-type]] tractors drew the attention of the military. With tanks coming onto the scene, however, the combination of tracks and wheels seemed impractical when fully tracked or six-wheel, four-wheel drive vehicles were available.

The half-track saw a comeback in the 1930s, with development occurring in several countries that would use them in World War II. The White Motor Company, which had designed armored cars for the [[United States Army]] and [[United States Marines]], continued after the First World War to develop armored cars and added tracks for the [[M2 half-track car]] and [[M3 half-track]].