Squadron Signal’s venerable In Action line has been publishing soft cover books on military vehicles, ships and aircrafts since 1971! Now they are going back and updating their past releases adding new content. Their most recent release is U.S. Halftracks in Action and what an improvement!

The original U.S. Halftracks In Action was printed in 1996 and was written by Jim Mesko. It was book number 34 in the “In Action” line. It ran a tight 50 pages and was mostly in black and white with some color inserts.

This new release written by David Doyle and represents a new effort on the part of Squadron Signal. As David puts it “Squadron is making an effort to standardize their books at 80 pages. The older volume was well short of that. The company is also taking advantage of newer printing methods which allow for more color and increased quality of photo reproduction. They are also striving for a more uniform look than was the case with the older titles. These factors, along with the considerable amount of additional information that has been discovered in the 20 years since Jim Mesko’s volume was published, led to the book you now have in your hands.”

This book covers all the halftrack vehicles used by the United States Army in World War II and Korea and by other armies even in the first half of the 21st Century! Various companies such as International Harvester, GMC, Autocar and Diamond T. White produced over 40,000 of the vehicles which included the ubiquitous M3, the M4, the T28 and others and they served as everything from troop transports to anti-tank and artillery carriages and even mobile anti-aircraft platforms.

U.S. Halftracks In Action covers the history of the vehicle type which traces its origins back to Russian and French vehicles developed in the 1920s.

Copious photographs and sketches look at all aspects of these fascinating vehicles. While color photos in the original book were limited to the front and rear cover and a center page spread, this new edition incorporates color photos alongside the black and white pictures. I do miss the center color spread found in the original printing, though.

U.S. Halftracks In Action is a treasure trove for readers interested in these vehicles and a must have for World War II gamers and model makers and with a retail price under $20, it is worth every penny!

For a look at some of the original Squadron Signal In Action books check out :

http://armchairgeneral.com/rkkaww2/sources/Squadron/squadron_Ar.htm

For information on this and other books by David Doyle check out:

http://daviddoylebooks.com/Detail-12058-US-Halftracks-1.htm

About the Author
A college film instructor and small business owner, Richard Martin has also worked in the legal and real estate professions, is involved in video production, film criticism, sports shooting and is an avid World War I and II gamer who can remember war games which came in plastic bags and cost $2.99 (he’s really that old)!