The M3 was a scarily powerful gun that could penetrate 9 inches of armour at 1000 yards – when using APFSDS (armour piercing fin stabilised discarding sabot). The 90mm M3 gun used on the M36 was an American heavy anti-aircraft and anti-tank gun, it had a similar role to the German 8.8cm Flack 18. The American 90mm had a few different variants – the M1 which was purely an anti-aircraft gun, the M2 which was a modification of the M1 to give it anti-tank capabilities (the ability to depress the gun was added) and the variants used on tanks the M3 and M3A1 (which was just an M3 with an added muzzle break). This acted as extra ammo storage, 11 rounds, and also as a counterbalance weight for the M3 main armourment. The turret remained open topped to allow for reduced weight and better peripheral vision and a cast bustle was added to the rear. Instead of the sloped and rivetted armour plates of the M10’s turret, the M36 used one big casting with sloped sides and a thick rounded frontal gun mantlet.
Although the hull of the M10 was used, a new turret was designed to accommodate the new, larger gun and also to provide more armour protection.
To allow for the quick design and production, the platform to be used was the standard M10 Gun Motor Carriage. The need for this new weapon was great, thus the development needed to be quick. This led to the development of the 90mm M3 gun and the 90mm Gun Motor Carriage M36 (M36 Jackson/Slugger). The American Army needed to produce a more powerful gun that was capable of defeating enemy armour at a safer fighting distance. In September of 1942 it was recognised that the American 75mm M7 gun, as seen on the M10 tank destroyer, was insufficient against enemy armour. By 1942 the American Army had met the might of the German 88mm guns and the German heavy armour.
0 kommentar(er)
