M3 Stuart machine gun questions (1 Viewer)

[dragon53]

I have two questions about the machine guns on the M3 (not M3A1) Stuart.

1. The British version had the two sponson machine guns removed. Did the US version of the M3 also have the sponson guns removed?
2. Did ALL M3 tanks have the commander's 30 cal. machine on the turret or did some not have the commander's machine gun?

 

[Martin Tabony]

This site should answer your questions

Martin

http://www.missing-lynx.com/dg.htm

 

[binder001]

1) Yes, the sponson guns were removed from quite a few of the M3 series tanks. The idea was that they would be fired remotely by the driver as "strafing" guns. The idea was popoular on early US tanks, but didn't work well in practice so the guns were removed and the space was used for internal stowage. Easly versions of the M3 medium "Lee" and "Grant" were fitted for two .30 cal strafing guns, the earliest M5 light tanks had one in the glacis and the very first M4A1s had twin guns right above the transmission. The concept didn't die easily - one of the T37 light tank protypes (test version of the M41 Bulldog) had "fender kits" that were box-mounted .30 cal "strafing guns".

2) Yes, to my knowledge all the M3s had a fitting for the external.30 cal Mg, but it wasn't always fitted in the field.

Gary B

 

[dragon53]

BINDER001:

Thanks for the info. I bought a prebuilt US Army M3 Stuart model on ebay which didn't have the Commander's machine gun and there were sand bags, etc. over the sponson guns, so I was wondering if the model was technically correct.


MARTIN:

Thanks for the link. I've tried to register with Missing-Lynx repeatedly over the years, but something always goes wrong so I gave up.