To me, one of the neatest pieces of military equipment ever developed was the high speed, recoilless rifle toting Ontos. As a kid, this was one of the first military models I can recall building, along with the Monogram Weasel.

The M50 Ontos was developed to allow for a high speed, airborne, tank destroyer. When originally built, it was powered by a GMC six-cylinder engine. Though a thousand were to have been built, production ceased after fewer than 300 had come off the production line. Such was the advance in tank armor, that the 106mm recoilless rifles would no longer be enough to penetrate it.

However, that did not mean the end of the Ontos. It was up engined to a Chrysler 361 cubic inch V-8  and redesignated M50A1. The Army got rid of most of these to the Marines who used them with great effectiveness as troop support vehicles in Vietnam.

This book is the first of a new line of 'Detail in Action' books. It seems to me that this works out well for subjects that have too little information on them for either an In Action or a Walk-Around book. That is basically what the Detail in Action book is. Like others in the two series, this is basically a photo book and there are lots of photos included. Aside from the history of the vehicle, there are walk-around studies of a T165 preproduction vehicle and an M50A1, both of which are in museums. This means a lot of color in this volume which is always a good thing. The only thing missing are profiles as this edition does not have any.

All in all, it is a great way to highlight these sorts of subjects and I'm quite pleased that Squadron/Signal has chosen this route rather than to ignore the subject altogether. It makes for a superb book and is one that I know you will find interesting and useful.

April 2010

My thanks to Squadron Products for the review copy. Get yours today at your favorite shop or on-line retailer.

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