Motorized infantry
Motorized infantry is infantry transported by trucks or other motor vehicles. It is distinguished from mechanized infantry, carried in armored personnel carriers or infantry fighting vehicles, and light infantry, which can typically operate autonomously from supporting elements and vehicles for relatively long periods and may be airborne. [Schubert, F.]
Motorization is using unarmored wheeled vehicles to transport combat units. Motorized infantry is the first stage of the mechanization of an army. Civilian trucks are often readily adaptable to military uses of transporting soldiers, towing guns, and carrying equipment and supplies. Motorization dramatically increases the strategic mobility of infantry units, which would otherwise rely on marches or railroads. In practice, armies have found it advantageous to develop trucks to military specifications, such as all-wheel drive, to have vehicles that function reliably in extremes of weather and terrain. [Hofmann, G.]
Schubert, F. (1994). Mobilization in World War II. Washington: U.S. Army Center of Military History.
Hofmann, G. (2006). Through mobility, we conquer the mechanization of U.S. cavalry. Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky.