It's strange how few people go to an event like Tankfest compared to an airshow. I've been to airshows and they've been noisy, either it is sunny and you can't see anything because the sun is in your eyes and it is too bright, or it is cloudy and you can't see anything because of the clouds, and even when the weather is perfect, by the time you've heard the aircraft approach, they've flown miles away. And they don't fly close to you. Tanks driving around an arena are much easier to spot, take photographs of and actually touch.

Anyway, the tank that caught my eye this time is the M3 Grant. This particular one is the oldest surviving American medium tank - a feat it managed through being constantly shot at - as well as being a tank that remained in active service until 1970. Not bad for a Frankenstein's monster of a tank that was intended as a mix-and-match hodgepodge stopgap of 1930s US tank technology rushed into service in 1940 until the real tank they were making, the Sherman, was ready.

Tank You - You Shouldn't Have

To begin with some background context - in the late 1930s US foreign policy had been to stick its head in the sand while hoping that if it ignored the rest of the world, the rest of the world would ignore it, while Britain's Chamberlain publicly waved white pieces of paper in surrender announcing, 'peace in our time'. The UK's defence priorities were always Royal Navy and Royal Air Force first, Army last, with the army equipped with a large number of light tanks - unfortunately the Spanish Civil War had proved that light tanks were obsolete - and a very small number of good, though slow, Infantry tanks in the form of Matilda II. Following the fall of France in 1940, Britain evacuated much of its fighting force from Dunkirk but had left most of its tanks behind, at a time when Germany planned an invasion.

With the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy still the manufacturing priority at home, Britain approached the United States asking American companies if they would manufacture British-designed tanks for them¹. The US army, however, refused to allow American companies to build British-designed tanks, officially because if Britain was invaded and defeated by Germany and the tanks no longer needed, then America would be lumbered with lots of tanks that were not built to American requirements.

It has been said that during the Second World War, Britain designed tanks from the gun down - creating tanks with powerful guns but underpowered engines - whereas the US created tanks from the chassis up - with powerful engines but underpowered guns². American military doctrine of the time had believed in developing light tanks bristling with machine guns that would charge through enemy lines like the cavalry, machine-gunning infantry in all directions, however Germany's Blitzkrieg tactics had perfected combined arms operations where infantry and Panzer units would work closely together, with German tank forces easily able to shred light tanks to pieces. At the time Britain approached the US with an order to purchase tanks, America had just designed and developed the M2 medium tank, effectively really only a slightly larger light tank, but with a 37mm gun instead of machine guns - in 1939 - only to realise with the Fall of France that it was completely obsolete.

M3

A new US Medium tank design was needed fast. It was realised that a powerful gun would be required and that the 37mm gun was not powerful enough to penetrate German armour. Instead a 75mm gun would be required - based on France's highly successful Canon de 75 modèle Soixante Quinze developed in 1897 and used extensively in the First World War. Unfortunately as American tank manufacturing before this time had been virtually non-existent, due to the lack of threat the US perceived from either Mexico and Canada during the 1930s, American companies were unable to manufacture a turret capable of holding such a powerful gun, and so General Chaffee proposed that the 75mm main gun be held in a sponson while the less powerful 37mm gun be kept in a turret, and on top of the turret was a smaller turret, called the commander's cupola. As the tank was powered by a radial engine³ beneath the turret, it made the tank incredibly tall.

When British and Canadian representatives were shown this vehicle built on the otherwise obsolete M2 chassis designed for a tank 20 tons lighter than the M3 with a 19th Century field piece as the main weapon in a sponson with very limited traverse plus a turret with cupola on top, Canada elected to develop their own tank instead (called the Ram) while Britain's Major General Pratt declared it 'high as the Tower of Babel' and insisted that as a minimum, a better turret be developed for the tank. The British turret was lower and wider, allowing the radio to be placed in the turret next to the tank commander and meaning the tank had a crew of six whereas the American version had a separate Radio Operator in the hull. While American military doctrine believed in naming everything the letter M and a number, leading to confusion between the M3 light tanks and the two different turreted types of M3 Medium tanks, Churchill declared that US tanks would be named after American generals, leading to the M3 light tank to be called the Stuart and the medium tanks to be called Grant and Lee after Generals Ulysses S Grant and Robert E Lee. The British-turreted version of the M3 is the Grant (as it has been granted the British turret) while American-turreted versions were known in Britain as the Lee, as they did Lee-ave the original turret on it.

Grant

Production of the M3 tank ran between April 1941 to December 1942, when it was replaced by the M4 Sherman, which mounted the 75mm gun in a proper turret capable of pointing in all directions. As a rush bodge-job stopgap tank it proved surprisingly successful, particularly during the North Africa campaign in 1942 where the 75mm gun had a greater range than early Panzer III, though its tall silhouette made it stand out and it was vulnerable to Germany's 88mm anti-tank gun. By late 1942, the M3 was obsolete in Europe, but continued in service in Burma and the Pacific against the Japanese until the end of the war.

This particular pothole is the first Grant tank acquired by the British army and is the world's oldest running American medium tank. It has survived simply because it was constantly shot-at, being used in gunnery, stowage and automotive trials. The tank was used as a target to evaluate captured and developed anti-tank weaponry up until the 1970s, when it was still being used in the development of Chobham composite armour, thus making this both the first and last Grant in British service. In its service as a target it has acquired 494 holes, enough to fill the Albert Hall. When restored it was decided to conserve the cosmetic damage the tank had suffered as part of its unique story.

Bluebottle

26.08.24 Front Page

Back Issue Page