M29 Weasel

The M29 Weasel was a tracked cargo carrier of the Second World War, designed for travel over snow and built by Studebaker. It grew out of the proposal of the British inventor Geoffrey Pyke for Project Plough, a plan to move commandos of the 1st Special Service Force across snow to attack German-occupied Norway. The first 2,103 vehicles were designated T15 and later standardized as the M28, with a rear engine, front wheel drive and 15 inch rubber-band tracks, while the M29 had a front engine, rear wheel drive and 20 inch tracks and room for more passengers or load. The M29 was semi-amphibious with very low freeboard, and the M29C Water Weasel added buoyancy cells and twin rudders for inland waters. The Norwegian mission was cancelled, but Weasels crossed soft ground in Italy and northwest Europe, at Iwo Jima and Okinawa and in Indochina, and its Studebaker Champion six-cylinder engine delivered 70 horsepower on 72 octane gasoline. The United States retired it in 1958 and surplus examples went to civilians and foreign armies.