Lend Lease Records

[David Dunlop]

In the Armour Forum recently, under Andrew's very interesting thread about his M2A1 project, the subject of non International Harvester Half-Tracks in use with the Canadian Army during World War Two came up.

I had recalled coming across a Lend Lease document some time ago that summarized American goods shipped during the war under this plan. Did a little digging this morning and finally tracked it down. It was prepared in 1946 and the link to the record is as follows:

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/...hip/index.html

(Hope that works)

To get to the specific half-track information in question (the 40 M3 vehicles delivered directly to Canada, along with 20 M5 Series vehicles), click on SECTION III-A Ordnance - General Supplies. Look for 'OTHER COMBAT VEHICLES' and scroll down to Page --10-- where they are identified as "Personnel, Half-Track, M3 and M5 Series.

I am guessing that items in this record declared as having been delivered to Canada, are probably those items that were shipped directly here for use. I think (somewhat confidently) that a great deal of the equipment Canada used during the war from Lend Lease sources, was shipped to England and lumped in this record under the 'British Empire' Heading. Case in point, the 12th Manitoba Dragoons picked up their Staghounds from a depot in England upon their arrival there, so their Staghounds lack the "C" prefix to the vehicle numbers.

So the mystery at the moment is where did the 40 M3 Half-Tracks go upon arrival in Canada and have any survived?

David