Amphibious tractors were used extensively in the Vietnam War, John Teasdale traces their history
Vietnam War
An innovation successfully deployed during World War Two was the Landing Vehicle Tracked, otherwise known as the amphibian tractor or amtrac. The full-tracked vehicle – or rather vehicles, as there were several different designs – were initially acquired by the US Marine Corps for amphibious landings. During the war, the marines used amtracs extensively as they assaulted Pacific islands held by the Japanese. Amtracs were also used by the US Army and America’s allies in Europe when major rivers had to be crossed.
War broke out in Korea in June 1950, and the US Marines used their amtracs when they undertook a major amphibious landing at Inchon in September. The war was a gruelling affair, and by the time a peace of sorts was declared in 1953 the marines’ amtracs were worn out.
Work on a replacement for World War Two amtracs had actually begun in 1947, when the Marine Corps invited manufacturers to offer designs for an amphibious fully-enclosed armoured personnel carrier.
Both Borg-Warner Corporation’s Ingersoll products division and the Food Machinery Corporation (FMC) responded, and both produced …
