Before the United States entered the war in World War II, it had been paying attention to the development of the battlefield situation, and was also learning lessons learned on the battlefield to improve its army building and weapons and equipment. In July 1941, the U.S. Ordnance Administration proposed to develop a medium-sized armored vehicle that could be used to perform battlefield reconnaissance, patrol and other tasks.
In response to the military's call, several major automobile companies came up with their own designs, but the military finally chose the Hungry M8 Greyhound wheeled armored vehicle, ford motor company T17 and Chevrolet company's T17E1 armored vehicle fell, only a small number of production remained in the country.
At that time, britain was in urgent need of armored weapons, in the test work of the T17 and T17E1 found that the six-wheel T17 lacked power, and the four-wheel T17E1 overall performance was better, so it proposed to purchase the contract, and also sent engineers to the factory to guide the production of some variants that met the needs of the United Kingdom, and the British named this armored vehicle Staghound, which means deerhound.
The T17E1 armored vehicle has a total combat weight of 14 tons, adopts a 4×4-wheel chassis, is 5.49 meters long, 2.69 meters wide, 2.36 meters high, has a maximum travel speed of 89 kilometers per hour, a maximum travel distance of 724 kilometers, adopts a 5-man vehicle, the weapon is configured with a rotating turret on the roof, equipped with a 37 mm gun and a 7.62 mm coaxial machine gun, and the armor thickness varies from 9 to 44 mm. Such a configuration standard, at the level of the time, was basically a light tank.
In fact, many of the structural designs of the T17E1 are indeed similar to those of tanks, for example, the turret adopts a hanging basket structure, which facilitates the operation and use of the members, although this will occupy the space in the car and reduce the amount of ammunition carried.
When the T17E1 series of armored vehicles arrived in British hands across the Atlantic, there was no war in North Africa, so they all served in the European Theater, and many subsequent models were produced during the period, and even once had the firepower of medium tanks.
The MK I was the basic model of the series of armored vehicles, and the MK II was a close-range fire support type that replaced the main gun with a 3-inch howitzer, still using the original turret, perhaps the gun took up space, and the original coaxial machine gun was eliminated.
This armored vehicle can play a role similar to assault artillery, using its howitzer to attack enemy fire points, improvised fortifications and other targets, helping infantry clear obstacles.
The MK III is a heavy fire version, it is equipped with the turret of the Crusader cruiser tank, it has to be said that the load carrying capacity of the armored vehicle is really excellent. Earlier versions still used the QF 6-pounder gun, which was already capable of killing armored vehicles or light and medium tanks in firepower, and was later replaced by a 75 mm gun, which further improved its strike capability and could perform anti-tank missions.
The T17E2 was an anti-aircraft vehicle in which the original turret of the armored vehicle was removed and replaced by a small single turret with two 12.7 mm machine guns with an open top of the turret. The self-propelled anti-aircraft machine gun car appeared too late, when the Allies on the Western Front had a low demand for such equipment and therefore played little role.
Bantu armored vehicle is a relatively special vehicle of the series, it is a mine sweeper made of rolling minesweepers installed front and rear on the basic model, and like similar structures of minesweeper tanks, it also rolls minesweeping back and forth in the minefield, but the off-road performance of the wheeled chassis in the experiment is not as good as the track type, so there is no actual mass production.
The T17E3 was also a support armored vehicle, and its turret was changed to the turret of the American M8 self-propelled gun, which was tested in December 1943 without actual mass production.
The Tulip, an armored vehicle fitted with a rocket launcher, like a similar modification of the M4 tank, was mainly mounted on both sides of the turret, adjusting the firing angle of the launcher through the pitch of the gun barrel, and entered service in 1944, although its accuracy was poor, and some fuzes often failed to trigger properly.
The command deer hound eliminated the turret and replaced it with some antennas and other equipment that surrounded it, and he also used a windshield made of plexiglass to provide a relatively comfortable environment for the commander.
Although the T17E1 armored car was not carried forward in the country of origin, the overall performance of this armored car was really excellent, the heavy chassis could withstand magic modifications, and it was still in service for a long time after the end of World War II, and some were even used until the 80s.