I'm one of those modelers who, when it comes time to do a military vehicle kit, will generally go with one that doesn't have tracks. In fact, armored cars are my favorite subject in this genre and one of the nicest is the Staghound. The Staghound was part of a US Army 1940 requirement that included light, medium and heavy armored cars. The war in the desert was getting the most attention so the emphasis was on speed and range. For the medium category, there were several designs submitted and several requests for prototypes. The weeding out brought things down to two; Ford's T17 Deerhound and Cheverolet's T17E Staghound. Thanks to the unreliability of the Ford, the Chevrolet version was chosen as the winner.

However, the Army was having a real re-think about things and decided that they didn't really want a medium or even heavy armored car, instead going for the M8 Greyhound, a light armored car. These were not lightweights with the medium class weighing in at about 14 tons. However, the British were very interested and put in an order for several thousand of them. In fact, aside from a few handfuls of Staghounds kept in the US for testing, the entire production run went overseas.

By the time these reached the front lines in 1943, the war in the desert was over and so was the real need for a fast moving, long range, somewhat heavy armored car. Those units in Italy who first got the Staghound spent little time using it as designed as most of the fighting was over rugged mountainous terrain, an area not suited for the Staghound. When the chance for open running was provided, as in later in the war in Italy and during the Normandy breakout in France, the Staghound did superbly. 

The British didn't particularly like it as it was so large, going with the Dingo in most cases. This meant that Commonwealth units were those that made the most use of it. In fact, the Canadians were particularly attracted to it as it required so little in the way of maintenance. According to records, the time to get one up and running in the morning was about 10-15 minutes, while daily maintenance on the Dingo was in the 1-3 hour range. Postwar the Staghound was used by many Allied nations and found use in many other places around the world including Israel, Cuba and Nicaragua.

Author Steven J. Zaloga is widely acknowledged as one of the foremost authorities on armor and has put his expertise to use in this book. Each type of vehicle as well as its development history is well covered and his writing style makes for interesting reading. When you add to it the quality period photographs and the superb artwork of illustrator Peter Bull, you have an excellent quick reference on a most intriguing subject. It is a book that I can most highly recommend to the enthusiast and modeler alike.

October 2009

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