Ampersand's Dragon Wagon Pt. II

One of the major 'problems' that face armies, and has since WWI, is how to move AFVs and other large equipment. Tanks in particular, are not designed to travel long distances so there has to be a way to transport them. In addition, when they break down, they cannot be easily moved for long distances to where they can be repaired. This is a situation that particularly plagued the German Army during WWII as they had few resources for transporting broken down vehicles and often had to abandon them on the battlefield.

The answer was, of course, a heavy truck and trailer that were capable of moving these behemoths. At first, standard trucks and trailers could be used, but as tanks and other AFVs got heavier and heavier, larger prime movers and more robust trailers had to be designed and built. In the US Army, these have all been given the name 'Dragon Wagon'.

This next edition of Ampersand's Visual History series is the second volume on these vehicles and covers the years 1955 to 1975. For sure, the vehicles here were in service for longer than that, but in terms of development, those are good dates. This covers two vehicles, the M123 and the M746. The M1213 was built in multiple variants, the M123, C, A1C, and E2. The main differences in these variations are the engines and the winches. There were a variety of trailers that could be used and those are also covered in this volume. The M746 was developed to carry the heavier tanks and featured not only eight wheels in the tractor, but the four front ones were steerable.

Thanks to the propensity for the US Army to photograph everything, we have some truly superb period photos of these vehicles, including period walk-around images and a number of great color photos from Vietnam, where they were used extensively. This series also makes use of extant vehicles either restored to operating conditions or in museums. This provides additional images to add to the mix. Some volumes have a lot of these, but this one has fewer than the norm with a lot more period photos

As usual, this is mostly a photo book so a lot of information is provided in the photo captions. It makes for a very interesting volume about vehicles that I have never really considered all that much. It is a book that I enjoyed reading (and I read every page), and I think that you will as well. Consider picking this one up next time you see it or order it direct. 

 August 2016

Review copy courtesy Ampersand Publishing. Get yours today at this link.

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