the marmon Herrington tankette

Bri's picture

in the 30s the Marine Corps wanted a tank of their own, one easily put on and off of ships; Marmon Herrington, an automaker, dusted off the old Ford 6 ton, and upgraded it into a turretless light tank. It's lack of turret made for easier shipping, but to keep it light enough for easy ship board handling the tracks and armor are pretty weak, and it doesn't compare that well to the other tankettes of the 30s.  the Navy rejected it for the Marine corps, and though several hundred were made the only claim to fame it gets is that shortages of material throughout the armed forces meant that they equipped army tank units dispatched to Alaska for the Aleutian campaign.  Here is a photo of them in use on Attu.

    I guess the other claim on immortality it possesses is that Auburn Rubber modeled one of it's toys on the M-H.  these are somewhere around 1/24 scale and relatively inexpensive on ebay.