Army to immediately order a new medium tank armed with a 75 mm gun in a turret. The Panzer III and Panzer IV's success in the French campaign led the U.S. entered the war, the M2 design was obsolete with a 37 mm gun, 32 mm frontal armor, excessive machine gun secondary armament and a very high silhouette. It was understood that the M3 design was flawed, but Britain urgently needed tanks.The M2 series medium tank was typical of armored fighting vehicles (AFVs) many nations produced in 1939. Using a hull mounted gun, the M3 design was produced quicker than if a turret mounted gun design had been manufactured. The M3 differed slightly from this pattern having a main gun which could fire an armor-piercing projectile at a velocity high enough for efficiently piercing armor, as well as deliver a high-explosive shell that was large enough to be effective. In each case, two weapons were mounted to give the tanks adequate capability in firing both anti-personnel high explosive ammunition and armor-piercing ammunition for anti-tank combat. The use of two main guns was seen on the French Char B, the Soviet T-35, and the Mark I version of the British Churchill tank. A small turret with a lighter, high-velocity 37 mm gun sat on the tall hull.Ī small cupola on top of the turret held a machine gun. The design was unusual because the main weapon - a larger caliber, low-velocity 75 mm gun - was in an offset sponson mounted in the hull with limited traverse.
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