Military Vehicle Info Resources

The Internet is a wonderful source of information about military vehicles, with more being added all the time. You can use the pages of Olive-Drab.com outlined on the Directory, the websites suggested on those pages, or search engines such as Google (see below). The excellent sites listed on this page are a good place to start.

Colonel H.J. Lawes, Holabird post commander, with Ford GP prototype jeep, 1942
Colonel H.J. Lawes, Holabird post commander,
with Ford GP prototype jeep, 1942.
Click photo for more information and larger image.

Today in WW II: 16 Sep 1940 Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 signed by Pres. Roosevelt, beginning the military draft of US men aged 21-36.  More ↓
16 Sep 1941 German encirclement of Soviet forces in Kiev completed, to be followed by ruthless German attacks to annihilate the trapped Red Army troops.
16 Sep 1943 Malaya Zemlya enclave of Novorossiysk port on the Black Sea, after holding out against Wehrmacht for 225 days, liberated by the Red Army.
Visit the Olive-Drab.com World War II Timeline for day-by-day events 1939-1945! See also WW2 Books.

Military Vehicle Information Resources

Photo of an M-29 Weasel taken from a World War II poster. Original caption: This is the winter version of the Weasel, a new and amazingly versatile carrier that is equally at home in snow, mud and water. The Army needs these vehicles to carry troops, supplies, weapons and casualties over terrain impassable to wheeled conveyances. Your bond and stamp purchases will help buy them at $4,815 each delivered to the fighting fronts.
Photo of an M-29 Weasel taken from a World War II poster. Original caption: "This is the winter version of the Weasel, a new and amazingly versatile carrier that is equally at home in snow, mud and water. The Army needs these vehicles to carry troops, supplies, weapons and casualties over terrain impassable to wheeled conveyances. Your bond and stamp purchases will help buy them at $4,815 each delivered to the fighting fronts."

Army Recognition, a web site with photos and descriptions of world-wide military equipment including wheeled and tracked vehicles, helicopters, weapons and much more.

US Land Warfare Systems are covered in detail on this site created by the Federation of American Scientists. Detailed descriptions, with photos, are provided for hundreds of trucks, armor, and artilliery types in the US inventory.

Roberts Armory is a traveling museum that specializes in the acquisition and display of light armored vehicles and artillery used by the U.S. Army in World War II. Their web site is an excellent photo gallery of their vehicles.

Military Rails has an excellent index of photos, mostly of current inventory US military vehicles but with some vintage models thrown in.

The 1st Cavalry Division Museum at Ft. Hood, Texas has an index of military vehicles on their web site. Their photos are from the museum static outdoor displays and cover US and captured enemy vehicles, some of which are not on Olive-Drab.

For jeep identification, here is an extensive chart of all models, including low-production models or prototypes which are little known.

An excellent site in German is Infoseite für Militärfahrzeugsammler -- lots of photos and technical information of most US vehicles.

Doug Greville's Heavy Metal Armor website has a host of information about armored vehicles and restoring them.

The G503 WW II jeep web site has a wiki format section of their site with a huge collection of inforamation about jeeps and other military vehicles.

"Army Vehicle Identification Numbers" from Portrayal Press has a complete list of "G" numbers that uniquely identify each U.S. vehicle (like G-503 for the World War II jeep).

The Road Transport Fleet Data Society of the UK has started a project to collect data which can help future historians and preservationist, with military vehicles other forms of transport. Serial numbers, registrations, photographs, trade items and more are being organized on their website.

Find More Information on the Internet

There are many fine websites that have additional information on this topic, too many to list here and too many to keep up with as they come and go. Use this Google web search form to get an up to date report of what's out there.

For good results, try entering this: military vehicles. Then click the Search button.