Hi all, I have seen references to "ice bars" or "ice links" applied to tracks in the winter of 1944-45. Were these items which could be attached to tracks temporarily, or were they replacement track links which had to be substituted for regular ones? And what did they look like? e.g. this bit from 21AG AFV Technical Report No 22, dated April 1945, but would stem from experiences of Jan-Feb.
They are grousers . They attached to every few track links using the end connectors . US thing . You see them on the sides of Stuart turrets
In the archive files kind people have shared with me, I've found some discussion of correspondence from Russia from the winter of '41-'42. For the Valentine tank at that stage of the war this seems pretty clearly to have been special track links with "spurs" attached. There is a reference to a complaint about how long it takes to remove track pins and this is "specially important when fitting spurs". I also asked Don Juan and he said he has some technical reports related to similar separate links for Cromwell and Comet, but they seem to have been little-used.
