Don't really know on WW II, but since they only entered combat in ETO in April 45, they only had 5 months to put up with them...they are a royal "extreme discomfort in the posterior", and they just get in the way, road trash gets caught up in them and they get snagged on heavy bushes or shot up. Just have to look at the many photos and decide what unit you want to do. In Korea, some units took them off immediately, some removed the front and rear sections, and the Marines showed us the trick on folding up the center pieces to stow more MG ammo. None of our M-46s had them.

On that idea of fitting a dozer to an M-45...none of them had a dozer. Only 187 made and used only in korea as infantry support. Stilll, a neat tank and not a tough conversion.

Here's a view of the back deck of an M-46 and a view of the sprocket showing elevated position and addition of compensating idler wheel. Big diff between ther 26 and 46. 47 was identical to the 46.