The latest new vehicle for our Bolt Action range is the LVT-4 Buffalo. We've wanted one of these for ages!
The Landing Vehicle Tracked (LVT), a small amphibious landing craft, introduced by the United States Navy, Marine Corps and Army during World War II. Although conceived to ferry supplies from ship to shore, the LVTs were quickly pressed into service as assault and fire support vehicles in their own right. As is often the way, troops quickly nicknamed the LVTs as amphtrack, amtrak, amtrac, etc., as a shortening of 'amphibious tractor'.
Disgorging its cargo of supplies, troops or light vehicles from its large ramp door to the rear of the vehicle, the LVT gave its passengers a far higher chance of surviving initial contact with the enemy than other landing craft with frontal door ramps.
The LVT-4 Buffalo was by far the most numerous version of the LVT, with over 8,000 vehicles produced. Many British Buffalos were armed with a Polsten 20mm cannon and and two .30 cal Browning machineguns on the sides.
Carrying troops, light vehicles and essential supplies ashore, either from ship or from the opposite bank of rivers, the LVT-4 Buffalo was a widely used landing vehicle tracked (LVT). Serving in many theatres and with British and Commonwealth armies as well as those of the U.S., the Buffalo will add an extra dimension to your games, be they set in the Pacific or post-1944 North West Europe. Who wouldn't want to have their U.S.M.C. hitting the beach in one of these during the many assaults on Japanese-held islands in the Far East, Commandos assaulting across the Scheldt Estuary, Holland in 1944, or British/American/Canadian troops crossing the Rhine during Operation Plunder in 1945?
The back-door ramp can be modeled as open or shut - plenty of conversion/diorama opportunities there! The superb new resin-and-metal model is available in our webstore.