so why do not paint something appropriate, like British forces for the Western Desert? Differently from the the 'unplanned madness' that their fellow countrymen I have already shown represents this is an entirely planned project. Of course it is also an entirely expanding one...
But let's see what is new on the Western Desert...
Grants! Or better said, M3 General Grant Medium Tanks. They are resins from Battlefront. The M3 Lee\Grant (the names were not official US Army's ones, but British nicknames; the Lee retainted the original US turret, the Grant had a British designed one, confusingly enough British documents often call them Grant...) was both an important allied tank in its own right but also a critical compromise made at a time when US industry was just tooling up for war.
Steve Zaloga calls it the 'Kindergarten Tank'. Its design started in July 1940, as a response to the collapse of France. At that moment the US Army realized that its armor deficiency had to be addressed immediately rather than in the short term. A new medium tank had to be put in serial production to create a real armored force. This ideal tank had to withstand AP shells from the German 37mm AT gun and be equipped with a 75mm gun capable to fire HE rounds. It was certainly a simple brief, one that should have resulted in a product comparable with the German PzKfw IV. Yet neither Ordnance nor the civilian industry had experience with cast turrets large enough to accommodate a 75mm main gun, short or long barrelled. It was not just the industrial tooling lacking. Army engineers did not even have any idea about how big and strong the turret ring should have been to withstand the recoil. Simply put the US Army asked for something no one in US had really in mind...
As Zaloga says engineers are face by a triangle of three elements: Good, Fast, Cheap. Usually they can pick two elements. In the summer of 1940 Fast and Cheap were picked. The result was a vehicle inspired by the French B1 tank. Main gun in the hull, secondary AT gun in the turret. Of course even this 'simple' pattern was not easy to achieve. Ordnance at the time was enamored with machine guns. The initial design had plenty of them... Armored Force, the new branch of the Army responsible for mechanized force, had them removed. some were left, including a twin installation in the forward hull, and a little MG armed cupola over the turret (okay this is an arrangement that Ordnance liked as earlier pictures of my M60 show!). The twin MG in the hull disappeared, the cupola not.
Even when the tanks was still a drawing the new Armored Force chief, General Jacob Devers, complained about it not being good, and insisting on it being a limited (750 samples) production run. But Roosevelt wanted tanks now, not only for the US army, but for the British Army too. The British had come to Washington with a shopping list... in the list there was a request for 3,650 medium tanks! Good or not the M3 Medium was the only adequate solution. It was given a go ahead. The US ones would see combat in 1942 and 1943 in Algeria and Tunisia, and in 1943 in the Gilbert Islands. The Soviet Army would receive them and use them at Kursk too. Specialized versions would be employed until the end of the war. Yet the M3 moment of glory came in 1942 with the British Army in North Africa, and its last roar will be in 1944 in Burma and India, again with the British Army.
The British army realized it was a temporary solution, and they were not impressed by the turret. They asked for changes, dropping the MG cupola, adding a radio bustle (US tanks did not have it!), enlarging it. The British also insisted to have the periscopic gun-sight replaced by a telescopic one. With the modifications it was shipped to Egypt at a time when British tanks were outgunned not only by the Germans, but also by the Italian tanks. British tank guns, be it 2pdr or the first 6pdr, could not fire HE rounds. The Grant 75mm was able to fire them, and the 75mm round was pretty powerful. On top of that the 75mm fired a decent AP round. And there was a 37mm gun in the turret. The Grant baptism of fire was during Operazione Venezia, the Italian-German assault on the Gazala line. The 75mm gun was appreciated, its armor was adequate, but it was still a prey for the larger Axis guns like the German 88mm or the Italian 90mm. Ariete division's AT batteries claimed scores of them in keeping Rommel's cauldron intact. Yet it gave the British tanker an ability to fire gun shells at infantry and AT position and AP shells with adequate range to fight on an even ground with the Panzer IIIs. Of course it also prompted the Germans to ship uparmoured and upgunned tanks in Africa. It served at El Alamein and in Tunisia. Then newer tanks replaced it. It was a stopgap, but an adequate one that left an impression on the desert war.
It also happens that the shape is kinda unique and I like it. I finally decided to paint the one I had in storage from more than 10 years ago... Just as a curiosity they were a direct order to Battlefront in New Zealand! They aged reasonably well. The new plastic ones are better, but these are... adequate. There some issues in connecting the track units to the hull, and one lost is AT gun (I created a replacement with brass wire and tape...). The resin body show both the unique shape and the extensive riveting quite well. Painting them was nice. I used one of the camouflaged scheme seen in 1942, sand base with dark green blotches.
I used FoW decals to complete them.
