The Regimental CP

A half-track is a lightly armoured vehicle with tracks in the rear for power and conventional wheels in the front for steering. It has the cross-country capabilities of a tank but handles like a wheeled vehicle. Citroen Company of France and Bombardier of Canada experimented with this design during the 1920s and 1930s. Citroen sponsored several

scientific expeditions in which participants crossed vast amounts of terrain in Asia, Africa and North America using autochenilles. The first half-tracks built by Joseph-Armand Bombardier were fitted with skis for travel across snow.

All armies during the Second World War used half-tracked vehicles as armoured personnel carriers, mortar carriers, self-propelled antiaircraft and anti-tank guns, artillery haulers and armoured fighting vehicles.

"Old Reliable" is a White Motor Company, American-made model M3 Armoured Command Vehicle which was “procured” by General Worthington from an American army base in England. The South Alberta Regiment retrofitted it for use as a command vehicle. They equipped the rear with several radios and set up the space behind the front seats as a map and workroom. Here, Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Wotherspoon processed intelligence, received orders, and planned battle strategies for the duration of the war.

At the war’s end, several SAR officers purchased the half-track from a surplus dealer and arranged to have it shipped back to Canada. The vehicle was used in exercises for several years and carried the South Alberta Light Horse Regiment’s guidon party during the parading of the unit’s colours in Medicine Hat in 1967.

In 2005, a full restoration was completed by a team of SALH soldiers. The restoration was funded through the SALH Regiment Foundation and the soldiers put in over 8,000 man-hours to return Swatty's Command Post (CP) to fully operable condition.