Grey Havoc

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One of the ancestors of the Willys Jeep. Formally known as the Howie machine gun carrier, the belly flopper was also known as the Howie-Wiley.

View: https://www.reddit.com/r/TankPorn/comments/hrc9vz/whats_this_thing/



 
Interesting. New to me. Currently racking my brains for a rear-engine front wheel drive vehicle.

What's going on with the hand-cranked .30 cal gun?

Chris
 
I'd imagine a ford model T in reverse gear would be what they did.....
 
Exactly. One hadn't been developed for that particular weapon during that time period because of budget restrictions.
 
Thousands of rear-engine, front drive tanks served in WW2: Sherman and all of the Panzers.
 
Howie Belly-flopper vaguely reminds us of the British Praying Mantis prototype built on a Bren Gun Carrier chassis. Praying Mantis would have been great for fighting in Normandy bocage country with its ability to fire over walls and hedges.
A few other nations experimented with similar giraffe tanks, but never entered production.

OTOH By the start of WW2, several European armies fielded motor-cycle side-car combinations armed with machine-guns, or anti-tank rifles (typically 20 mm). A few even experimented with mortars mounted on sidecars, but discovered - the hard way - that they still had to lower base-plates onto the ground before firing.

Finally, a handful of recoiless-rifles have been mounted on various motorcycles post-colonialism, though the ubiquitous Toyota High Lux still remains the preferred chassis.
 
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