Re: M3 a stop-gap till a turret for 75mm could be built?
- From: "mike" <marathag@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2006 11:14:44 -0400
panzerboy@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
I've read & hear said several times that the M3 Grant/Lee was accepted
as an interim design until a turret that could mount the 75mm gun could
be built.
Is it true that the U.S couldnt build a turret for the 75mm gun back in
'41?
I believe they could have, but these came up.
They wanted Cast, not welded or riveted. Cast meant the need
for a large lathe type setup for the turret race. Production machinery
bottleneck.
2nd, the turret ring diameter fitted to the M3 Medium was very close
to th UK Valentine, which was fitted in time with a 75mm (very
cramped, like the early T34 for two men) and the US was also
reluctant to have the guns trunnions past the turret rin, making the
turret an unbalanced design, difficult to turn if balancing isn't good
on uneven ground
Moving the mount forward into an armored box had been done by the
Soviets, and later by the Israelis to the M4 to make the ISherman
with high power French 75mm and 105mm guns postwar.
Other problems with the M3 was the turret was higher in the hull
than needed,due to the clearance needed for the drive shaft running
direct from the radial engine to the transmission input shaft. The hull
in the turret area could have been lowered by using a reduction box
on the engine to lower the shaft, as was done with the GMC diesel
versions, or by redesign of the engine Oil return to allow it to run
flat,
rather than upright, as was done on radial powered Helicopters postwar.
This would have lowered the hull dimensions needed across the board.
reducing those dimensions allows thicker hull armor for the same
weight.
So pretty much, the US should have been able to field the equal
of a Vicker Valentine Mk XI in 1941, though with riveted construction
in all likelyhood, though possible for a bolted together turret, like
how
cast parts were used in the French S-35 tank hull, could have been done
BTW in the 'Killer Tanks' series of videos theres several sequences of
one of the experts talking in front of a Sherman that has two fixed MGs
in the hull. What possible use are fixed MGs? Who controlled theses
guns, the driver? Did they have notions of tanks manuvering themselves
to 'strafe' infantry like fighter planes?
Lend Lease Stuarts with those guns were found to cause jams in the
drivers linkages, when the empty cartridges would overflow/spill the
collection bag. I'd imagine similar trouble in the M4 setup, for two
guns of limited effectiveness.
**
mike
**
.
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