M103 Heavy Tank
by Nick Kloepping
Title
M103 Heavy Tank
Artist
Nick Kloepping
Medium
Photograph - Digital Photo Art, Multimedia
Description
During WWII the US Army tried several times to create a heavy tank capable of standing up to the heavy German tanks, but each time without success; the closest they got to getting one into combat was the T26E4 Pershing derivative with a 90mm very high power gun. But as the war wound down, interest in heavy tanks waned.
At least it did until May 1945 - that was when the USSR paraded 52 of its brand-new IS-3 heavy tanks, which looked like nothing any of the allies had seen before. This quickly revived interest in the heavy tank, based on the design of the T48 Patton tank with its cast elliptical hull, the new tank used seven road wheels per side on a chassis only slightly longer than the six-wheel T48. But it mounted an enormous sweeping turret with a massive 120mm gun; like the British 120mm guns this required separate loading ammunition, but unlike the British the US simply used two loaders to maintain a high rate of fire.
The tank had a number of problems and it was not until 1953 that the tank was felt far enough along to authorize production, and between 1953-1954 Chrysler built 300 T43E1 tanks. But the tanks were judged inferior by the Army and all 300 were then placed into storage in 1955. Finally fixes were worked out and 74 T43E1 tanks were reworked to be issued as the M103 heavy tank, arriving in Europe in 1958 to form a single 72-tank battalion.
But at the same time a revised model with a new gunner�s sight and other improvements entered testing as the T43E2, with the easiest way to tell the difference being the added bulge and hood for the T44E1 gunner�s periscopic sight. 219 of the T43E1 tanks were modified to this standard, and were accepted for use by the USMC as the M103A1 with the conversion program taking place in 1957. Eventually the Marines converted 206 of those tanks to the AVDS-1790 diesel engines as the M103A2, but by then they were considered reserve tanks.
Uploaded
August 3rd, 2014
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