These were a continuous rubber belt rather than segmented links, but only 3 or so were ever bought and tested. These were American Burford trucks with French Kégresse-type tracks. The War Office also imported several American-made 3-ton Burford-Kegresse vehicles for testing with the Royal Artillery but never in sufficient numbers. It was never used by the British military although it was tested by the Mechanical Wheeled Experimental Establishment, or MWEE, under the name B4E1. This machine came in short and long-wheelbase versions but was made for export only, with both the Danish and Sudanese as customers. One of the first half tracks built by the British was by the FWD, or Four Wheel Drive Lorry Co., Ltd of Slough. Half-tracks improved this, but saw increased maintenance and cost issues. Wheeled vehicles, while highly mobile on roads, easily bogged down off road due to a lack of traction. The British did see their potential and saw the pros and cons. The British have, surprisingly, a fair amount of documented use on half-tracks, although they never quite took off with the military to the same extent that they did with the US, Germany and France. However, by this point half-tracks were a rather outdated concept, and the fact that the Land Rover front end was not in the slightest bit bulletproof, meant it never entered service.Ī handful of prototypes were built, which examples still surviving today. Fittingly named after the Centaur mythical creature, which has the body of a horse and the torso and head of a man, it had the front end of the legendary Land Rover and a tracked rear-half. The Laird Centaur is a weird British vehicle developed in the 1970s and ‘80s.
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