Howie Belly-Flopper

[Grey Havoc]

One of the ancestors of the Willys Jeep. Formally known as the Howie machine gun carrier, the belly flopper was also known as the Howie-Wiley.

https://www.reddit.com/r/TankPorn/comments/hrc9vz

View: https://www.reddit.com/r/TankPorn/comments/hrc9vz/whats_this_thing/

Howie machine gun carrier - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1906-1939 Jeep

If the jeep represented a case of "love at first sight," it was also the culmination of a long search for a go-anywhere sort of utility vehicle. Learn more about four-wheel-drive vehicles and how they contributed to the development of the jeep.

auto.howstuffworks.com

 

[CJGibson]

Interesting. New to me. Currently racking my brains for a rear-engine front wheel drive vehicle.

What's going on with the hand-cranked .30 cal gun?

Chris

 

[Fluff]

I'd imagine a ford model T in reverse gear would be what they did.....

 

[Grey Havoc]

What's going on with the hand-cranked .30 cal gun?

From what I have heard, that was related to firing of blanks, they didn't have to do that with live ammunition.

 

[CJGibson]

AH!! No blank firing attachment!

 

[Grey Havoc]

Exactly. One hadn't been developed for that particular weapon during that time period because of budget restrictions.

 

[Hood]

Interesting. New to me. Currently racking my brains for a rear-engine front wheel drive vehicle.

What's going on with the hand-cranked .30 cal gun?

Chris

Wiki is your friend (sometimes): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rear-engine,_front-wheel-drive_layout

I was going to facetiously say a British car maker must have tried it and lo and behold some guy from Rover did...

 

[riggerrob]

Thousands of rear-engine, front drive tanks served in WW2: Sherman and all of the Panzers.

 

[riggerrob]

Howie Belly-flopper vaguely reminds us of the British Praying Mantis prototype built on a Bren Gun Carrier chassis. Praying Mantis would have been great for fighting in Normandy bocage country with its ability to fire over walls and hedges.
A few other nations experimented with similar giraffe tanks, but never entered production.

OTOH By the start of WW2, several European armies fielded motor-cycle side-car combinations armed with machine-guns, or anti-tank rifles (typically 20 mm). A few even experimented with mortars mounted on sidecars, but discovered - the hard way - that they still had to lower base-plates onto the ground before firing.

Finally, a handful of recoiless-rifles have been mounted on various motorcycles post-colonialism, though the ubiquitous Toyota High Lux still remains the preferred chassis.