Editing Half-track (section)

===World War II half-track use===
[[File:Crowds of French patriots line the Champs Elysees.jpg|thumb|Allied victory parade August 23, 1944, with IH Half-Tracks]]

In August 1944, Allied forces [[Liberation of Paris|liberated Paris]]. The first vehicle to enter the city was an M3 named "España Cañí" and driven by Spanish soldiers fighting under the French tricolor. There followed several days of parades in late August. One parade of 25 August 1944 was down the [[Champs-Élysées]], with [[Charles de Gaulle]] leading throngs of Parisians, and French soldiers driving IH half-tracks.

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-801-0664-37, Berlin, Unter den Linden, Schützenpanzer.jpg|left|thumb|A German ''Schützenpanzer'' [[Sd.Kfz. 251]] half-track. Photograph taken in 1942 in Berlin]]

====Infantry transporters====
Half-tracks were used extensively as inventory transporters in World War II, especially by the Germans with their armored [[Demag]]-designed [[Sd.Kfz. 250]]s and [[Hanomag]]-designed [[Sd.Kfz. 251]]s; and by the Americans with their [[M2 Half Track Car|M2]]s and [[M3 Half-track|M3]]s.

====Support weapon platforms====
Half-tracks were widely used as [[mortar carrier]]s, self-propelled [[anti-aircraft|anti-aircraft gun]]s, self-propelled [[anti-tank|anti-tank gun]]s, [[armored fighting vehicle]]s and in other tasks.

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-665-6823-11, Russland, Flak auf Halbkettenfahrzeug im Erdeinsatz.jpg|thumb|right|A German [[Sd.Kfz. 10#Sd.Kfz. 10.2F4 and 10.2F5|Sd.Kfz. 10/4 or 10/5]]
with ''Behelfspanzerung'']]

====Utility and tractor half-tracks====
[[File:NSU Kettenkrad 36PS 1944 1.JPG|thumb|right|A small [[Kettenkrad|Sd.Kfz. 2]], with the characteristic ''Schachtellaufwerk'' overlapped/interleaved roadwheels]]

The Germans used a small 2 seater 1/2-ton class half-track "motorcycle", the [[Sd.Kfz. 2]] (better known as the ''Kleines Kettenkraftrad'' HK 101 or ''Kettenkrad'' for short – ''Ketten'' meaning tracks, and ''krad'' being the military abbreviation of the German word ''Kraftrad'', the administrative German term for motorcycle), to pull small artillery guns, for ammunition haulage, general transport and as a ground towing vehicle for the [[Messerschmitt Me 262]] jet fighter. Built by [[NSU Motorenwerke AG]] [[Neckarsulm]] and [[:de:Stoewer|Stoewer Werke]] [[Stettin]], a total of 8,345 vehicles were produced between 1940 and 1944.

Other Wehrmacht models were:
* 1-ton class, [[Sd.Kfz. 10]] produced by Demag, Berlin; Adler, Frankfurt am Main; Büssing-NAG, Brunswick; Phänomen, Cottbus and Saurer, Vienna, a total of 25,000 vehicles - its drivetrain was used for the [[Sd.Kfz. 250]]
* 3-ton class, [[Sd.Kfz. 11]] produced by Hanomag, Adler, Auto-Union and Skoda from 1938 to 1944, a total of 25,000 vehicles - its drivetrain was used for the [[Sd.Kfz. 251]]
* 5-ton class. [[Sd.Kfz. 6]], manufactured by Büssing-NAG, Berlin-Oberschönweide; Daimler-Benz and Praga (Czechoslovakia), about 3,500 vehicles in total
* 8-ton class. [[Sd.Kfz. 7]], production was of about 12,000 vehicles
* 12-ton class. [[Sd.Kfz. 8]], some 4,000 vehicles were produced by five manufacturers
* 18-ton class. [[Sd.Kfz. 9]], a production of only 2,000 vehicles

Larger German half-track tractors were used to tow anti-tank and field artillery pieces. The largest of these were also used by mechanical engineers to retrieve bogged down vehicles or perform repairs such as engine maintenance. [[Maultier]] half-tracks used to transport supplies to forward units were essentially civilian trucks which had had their rear axles replaced by [[Panzer I]] or [[Panzer II]] running gear. A replacement half-track design introduced later in World War II, the 1943-introduced ''[[Schwerer Wehrmachtschlepper]]'', was meant to replace the 3-tonne and 5-tonne capacity models – only some 825 examples were built before the war's end.

A common feature of virtually all German World War II half-tracks was the so-called ''Schachtellaufwerk'' overlapped/interleaved roadwheel arrangement with a "slack track" system possessing no return rollers under the return run of track, used from the small ''Kettenkrad'' to the nine-tonne capacity [[Sd.Kfz. 9]] vehicle, and most famously used on Henschel's [[Tiger I]] and MAN's [[Panther tank|Panther]] main battle tanks.