The armed half-track

[Herr Straße Laufer]

Ed,
Regarding .50s on US HTs...in the Pacific, they were hardly ever used for that. They were used for direct fire as infantry support, whenever anyone had an M3...which was rarely.

Of course different theaters would have entirely different doctrine for the use of HT's.
In the European Theater most American HT's, that were 50 cal armed, had much less ammo on a standard basis and were used in the AA role.
Even some trucks had 50 cals mounted to provide AA defense in truck convoys.

Maybe there was less tactical strafing by the Japanese?

RR