The White Motor Company began serial production of the
four-wheel-drive M3A1 Scout Car in 1940. Covered in quarter-inch face-hardened
armour, the vehicle served the US military as
scout, command car, ambulance and in some cases as a gun tractor. Armed with one
.50 calibre and two .30 calibre machine guns on a skate rail that completely
surrounded the fighting compartment, the M3A1 saw action in the Philippine
tropics, the North African desert and during the 1943 invasion of Sicily.
However, US forces soon replaced the open-topped M3A1 with other armoured
vehicles that afforded better coverage. Because the vehicle was widely exported
it served on - heavily used by the Red Army on the Eastern Front and by Free
French, Belgian, Czechoslovak and Polish forces throughout WWII. Later,
France took the vehicle into
combat in colonial wars in Indochina and Algeria.
Illustrated with more than 200 photographs, plus colour profiles and detailed
line drawings.
