Osprey

book M8 Greyhound Light Armoured Car 1941-91
by Steven J Zaloga, Illustrated by Tony Bryan
New Vanguard No 53
Osprey Publishing, Elms Court, Chapel Way, Botley, Oxford OX2 9LP
ISBN 1-84176-468-X
38 pages, soft cover

Review by Peter Brown

Although they were a major producer, supplier and user of all types of wheeled and tracked softskin and armoured vehicles during the Second World War, the United States made very little use of armoured cars, certainly when compared to other countries. Several varieties were designed but only two of these made it into series production, and of these only one was used by the American Army. The M8 had a chequered history, it was originally intended to be a tank destroyer but its small 37mm gun made it obsolescent for that purpose even before it could be built. By a quirk of fate it was to be used by units of the Tank Destroyer Force but it was mainly to be the mount of Cavalry reconnaissance units. The story of its development and production, including various changes and improvements to the design, is described here along with the only variant to see production and service, the turretless Armoured Utility Car M20. Planned variants which did not to see service such as the mutiple-gun anti-aircraft are also described.

Accounts of both the M8 and M20 in service include various changes made by the troops themselves, notably adding a .50" Browning heavy machine gun for added firepower. How these units were organised and used is also recounted, and the accounts include lists of the units who used them plus photos of cars in service showing extensive external stowage and markings. Post-WW2 use in the Korean War and early Vietnam period is also followed in the text, along with photos showing some of the extensive world-wide use. There were even upgrade packages designed to extend their already long usage even more. Colour schemes are shown in the plates for several American vehicles in WW2, there are also two French, one Brazilian and one British scheme. One plate shows a fairly colourful US Constabulary vehicle in Germany in the late 1940s while two others show more recent schemes and variations of Columbian-operated rebuilds with quadruple .50" Brownings and TOW anti-tank missile launchers.

As wheeled AFVs are nothing like as well covered as their tracked counterparts, any book on them is welcome. Armoured cars are not usually common model subjects but in this case we also have readily available kits of both M8 and M20 in 1/35th scale from Tamiya and Italeri, as well as older resin versions and even the now-deleted 1/32nd Monogram kits for those who are slow builders, and there may well be kits in smaller scales. This book will be an ideal reference source for anyone modelling these cars or who wants to know more about their design and use.

Page Created 4 August 2002

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