Source: Yuri Pasholok’s blog
Hello everyone,
looks like the Hunnicutt archives Wargaming bought are starting to bear fruit. What follows is the photo of the M2A4 light tank prototype, taken in the Fall of 1939 on Aberdeen proving grounds.
Yuri Pasholok writes:
With the appearance of this vehicle, the American tank industry finally caught up to the rest of the world with one impressive step. This however didn’t happen all at once: contrary to the belief of many authors, the US Army had quite modern tanks as early as mid-30′s, created for one concrete theater of war. Very high mobility and machinegun armament – that was what the US army needed in case there was ever a war with Mexico. Since this is the same reason why the Light Tank Mk.VIc was completely sufficient for the British in order to scatter some Papuan natives, it’s no wonder that in the beginning of World War Two, these vehicles formed the backbone of British armored forces.
The installation of the two-man turret on the M2 Light Tank chassis was only a matter of time. The resulting vehicle proved to be one of the better ones, when it came to world tank construction: it combined (at that time) completely sufficient anti-bullet protection, high speed, good visibility and a badass gun, the most powerful of its type at that time. Therefore it’s not surprising that the M2A4 concept became the main tank concept for the US light tanks for a very long time. Light Tank M2A4 became the first mass-produced American tank, manufactured in really big numbers (375 tanks). Furthermore, M2A4 proved to be the first American tank sent to England.
The 37mm gun, wasn’t it based on the german 37mm Pak aswell?
More or less: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/37mm_Gun_M3
On that note, the 75mm was a direct descendant of Ye Olde Modèle 1897…
Confused, M4A2 or M2A4?
M2A4 – sorry for that.
I seriously hope that all the archives bought by WG won’t go to waste if the company closes shop, the loss would be too much to bear…
Wargaming is not a hedge fund or a photovoltaic company (those closed shop en masse when the solar boom in Europe was over around 2009). They invest in other things too, other games and studios and I am sure they will be around for years to come, maybe decades.
Well, they could just set wargaming press EU or US and rack money from specialized publications…
Yeah sure, WG Press.
They chance against Osprey publishing is around zero…
That’s why they only released they garbage in russian.
Osprey is not as good as you may think, many of their publications are pretty entry level and not that accurate, ask people into ancient history…
I can agree and back up Zarax on this. Osprey is ok but there are much much better sources out there.
In video game industry nobody knows what will happen next, even the big ones (Infogrames, Eidos, THQ…) can fall.
WG.net is a small fish in the sea, even now.
I take it that the only similarity to the M4 Sherman is in the naming?
Nvm, just saw the correction from Silentstalker.
Since this is the same reason why the Light Tank Mk.VIc was completely sufficient for the British in order to scatter some Papuan natives, it’s no wonder that in the beginning of World War Two, these vehicles formed the backbone of British armored forces.
Ugh what a load of crap, it’s really no surprise why British tanks are such a mess in WoT if they don’t even bother to get basic concepts rights about them (I mean come on why would the majority of the UK’s light tank forces be in Europe if they were for colonial duties!?). The Light tank Mk.VI was NOT the ‘backbone’ of the British armed forces, it was designed to be the ‘eyes’ of the British armed forces, British armoured doctrine had very clear roles for tanks and for light tanks, a separate classification from cruiser tanks and infantry tanks, and that was reconnaissance and speed. It was (rather naively) not expected to actually ever have to fight other tanks. If you look at the weapons used on the pre-war British light tank series (Vickers .303 MG, Vickers .50 MG and of course the 15 mm BESA) they were very contemporaneous to other nations reconnaissance tanks, the MG-13 armed Panzer, the 8 mm armed CV-35, the 7.62 mm armed T-38. This sort of HURRDURR BURITISHH TONKS R DUM attitude WG seems to have for the UK sometimes is really grating.
And yes I do know they WERE used for colonial duties as well, particularly in India and Egypt but were specialized tropical variants (‘India pattern’ vehicles)
Feel hurt?
Read Great Tank Scandal by David Fletcher.
Just as with air-force moto was “there will never be another BEF” and it showed.
Yah, it’s a good read, Fletcher is always great to read. I just they would reprint it though! I read it years ago and lost my copy and now its an arm and a leg for another one!
http://bookza.org/book/786515/8f9750
That you have bought a copy tells me that you have given the author their royalties. This is a .PDF version of the first volume; a digital backup. I will refrain from reading it.
You missed the line:
“[...]and a badass gun, the most powerful of its type at that time. ”
So what was a 2Pdr sunshine? A wet tea towel launcher?
BTW: The first year of Service for M5 37mm gun was 1940. Everyone can you list a more powerful AT gun at the time? I can think of candidates from all countries.
47mm SA 37 by the french… vastly better than the m5 37. Heck, even the 37mm SA38 was better…
47mm was much larger. 37mm SA38 was not better, look MV and mass of AP shot.
2pdr did not have HE, 37mm had both useful HE and canister, which proved useful in Pacific.
Sort of.
The 2Pdr did have HE. only in the early war it wasn’t a very good HE round so no-one bothered. However by about Mid war there was a good HE round and people where using it.
47mm SA 37 was among the best of the best anti-tank guns available anywhere at the time. =)
The Belgium C.47 F.R.C. Mod.31 AT gun (47 mm Model 1931 anti-tank gun) was a pretty good gun still in 1940
They formed the backbone because they were the most numerical ‘Tank’ in British service on May 10th 1940 in France (in reality they were Mk VIB though with Vickers guns not Besa’s), they were also the most numerical single type in service in the UK and North Africa (where the majority of the rest of the armoured vehicles were).
Of the 308 armoured vehicles (excluding various carriers) 208 were Mk VIB, 77 A11 Matilda’s, 23 A12 Matilda Senior.
By the 17th May 1940 a further 134 MkVIB had arrived with the 1st Armd Div along with 150 Cruisers .
As you can see the backbone of the British tank strength in May 1940 was the Light Mk VI – it was not intended to be used as a tank in combat but unfortunately it was due to nothing better being available.
Yes, a complete disaster France 1940 was, as bojan mentioned the Great Tank Scandal is a very good book to read up on this subject, I mean’t that they weren’t supposed to be the backbone of Britain’s tank force in combat but you really have to end up using them as such when you have nearly 900 of them on September, 1939, well a lot of them are going to end up in France. As for the 308 number, I’ve heard it before but there are also other recent print sources stating that there were 100 Matildas (75 Matilda 1s and 25 Matilda 2s) and 150 combined A9 and A10 tanks.
May 10th 208 light Mk VIB with 77 Matilda (I) and 23 Matilda Seniors (II) were all the BEF had available.
The 1st Armd arrived with its 150 Cruisers (many of the crews not having seen their new tanks or trained on them or even the 2pdr guns, some had no holes for the gunner optics to be fitted as they were built in such a rush) and a further 134 Light Mk VIB (some of which had no armament and a few with plywood turrets).
Same story in North Africa as most of the tanks were Light MKVIB and VIC’s
Many of the tanks in service in 1940 were built after Sept 1939 most of those built prior were Vickers Meds and a mixture of various light tanks and tankettes with a smattering of trials/test vehicles.
well I now learn something new today :)
SS didn’t lay all the good stuff out there on the M2A4. And there is more.
But the M2A4 was not bullet proof to the expected advances in the .50 cal HMG bullet tech (Read Penetration) that was expected to come into being some time in the near future. It only had enough armor to deal with the 1930s .50 caliber HMGs. It was expected that the bullet in the .50 cal would get heavier(Denser), harder and be propelled faster in the future.
NEMO.
Guessing they weren’t planning on having to face the 15mm BESA or somesuch, though given that the Germans had been cheerfully sticking 20mm autocannons into light tanks and armoured cars since ’35 a certain degree of excess optimism may have been involved.
Correct. There was no plans for the M2 Light Tanks to face much heavier weapons then the .50 cal. Most of the total M2 Light Tank production with the exception of part of the M2A4 Light tank production went directly into training schools at the outbreak of war.