In my search to Yale spur geared blocks used on GMC CCKW 353 Lot 7 systems (who would've guessed! I've found some btw), I stumbled upon some pictures of how parts of our beloved Halftracks were used post-war.
In this case in my home country, the Netherlands. As I grew up in a family where several U.S. WWII vehicles were restored, it gives me a bittersweet feeling to see these pictures.. It is great to see that the technology was used to upgrade - a DAF (DAF is owned by the PACCAR Co. since late nineties btw.) V1600 DD358 truck with the tracks of an M3 Halftrack and a lot 7 hoist system. But on the other hand it makes you kind of sad as you realise that some of our Halftracks were cannabalized for this new truck. It was a different time..
This particular truck was especially made for the use on the Royal Netherlands air force bombing range "Vliehors" to retrieve dummy bombs that were thrown by F-104 Starfighter jets. As this bombing range is on one of the Wadden Islands in the North Sea, the original DAF truck was not holding up in the loose sand of this island. So in 1977 the Dutch government gave order to the Terberg company to design a truck that was able to operate in these specific curcimstances.
Interesting to see is that the tracks are mounted the other way around as designed on the original Allied Halftracks. I don't know what the idea is behind this but it is interesting to say the least. The entire drive train is DAF. It leaves us wondering where the rest of the harvested M3 went.
Nevertheless an interesting find in how the technology was used post-war.
(Source:
http://www.alexmiedema.nl/2017/10/07/daf-v1600-half-track-bommenberger/ )
