The M-36 Hellcat was much faster and more agile, and came the closest to being a true “tank destroyer” because of its superior automotive performance which allowed it to quickly outflank an opponent. These hit and run tactics were somewhat effective, however, it’s armor was very thin and she also had an open top turret, preventing it from sustained combat and from being a true tank that could stand and fight. I think the US Army would have been better off producing more M-4A1E8 “Easy-Eight” Shermans, but the M-36 tank destroyer was an effective weapon by all accounts.
The Hellcat was credited for defeating two German Panthers making their way into Bastogne on a probing attack. The ambush convinced the German commander that he was up against a superior force than the retreating, demoralized US soldiers streaming through the town to the rear. This delayed his assault, thus, time was bought and Bastogne was reinforced - and the rest is history…
I was confused between the M-18 Hellcat and the M-36 “Slugger”/Jackson. The M-36 mounted a 90mm gun and was basically a vastly improved M-10, which begs the question that I asked earlier in this thread: Why didn’t they just put a real turret on it and thicker armor and make it into a real tank?
The M-18 was light and very fast. Armed with the same 76mm gun mounted on the “Easy 8” Sherman, she was designed for “hit and run” or “shoot and scoot” tactics. I surmise that the M-36 was designed more static type ambush type work…
does anyone have any idea of what the ratio of m10’s were to say, m4’s? Also due to their lack of armor i’d imagine that these would not be very good in assaults since if a panzer or tiger shot first, thats it
I think they were probably much more likely to get hit by air-bursts than by German infantry bearing potato mashers as gifts…
US tank destroyer doctrine usually kept these things away from being used in direct infantry support roles. Although, I’m sure that they were in some instances…
They were used in direct infantry support My Grafathers unit had an attachemnt of them allmost throughout the war and the M-10 was creditied with knocking out Panthers during the bulge along with Tigers and King tigers just depends on where you hit a tank the rear the wheel sponsons ans side armor were venerable on the german tanks all of the german tanks. And when its a company of tanks firing on one target at a time in ope country no tank German or otherwise can stand up to such punishment.
It should be noted that the M36 Jackson or “Slugger” had an armored lid top mounted like hing door that could be opened or folded down almost making the thing a real tank…
Ah, but a paper copy on your shelf wont vanish with your hardrive;)
Also I have found that my visual problems prevent me from reading much on the computer screen, wheras paper print is still much more manageable:(
My US Army Green book shows a total of 106 TD battalions active on 30 June 1943, out of 106 specified by the Troop Basis. It does not break down the models they were equipped with. On that same date there were 41 independant tank battalion active, of 73 on the Troop Basis. (independant tank battalions were not in the armored divsions.)
On 15 Jan 1944 the number of TD battalions in the Troop Basis was reduced to 78 and by June 1944 the number active was reduced to 78. The number of independant tank battalions was based at 60 on 15 January and there were 64 active. There were a total of 89 divsions active including 16 armored divsions. So the ratio of TD battalions to infantry & airbourne divsions was roughly 1-1
My copy of Stantons summary of the US Armys units shows in May 1945 there were 45 TD battalions in th 12th Army Group, of which 27 had M36, 13 had M18s, and 6 still had the M10, and 4 were the M5 towed D battalions. There were roughly slightly fewer total divsions in 12 Army Group that date, so the ratio was considerablly greater than 1-1 for the infantry and airbourne divsions.
For comparison there were 313 artillery battalions active in excess of the division artillery battalions. Or, each divsion had four of its own battalions (three in armored divs.) and 3.5 addtional battalions average in support. Since the extra battalions were pooled in corps and army artillery groups and never in reserve the front line divsions typically had a average of 5-6 extra artillery battalions in support.
Note that in 1943 there were 12 TD battalions formed with towed M5 3" AT guns instead of the M10 SP gun. These were a further aberation of the TD doctrine. Usually the infantry divsion commanders parceled out the companys of these towed AT guns to the regiments where they reinforced the 57mm AT guns already possesed by the infantry. Sometimes they made these emplace alongside the divsions howitzers and reinforce their fires with HE ammunition.
***The ‘Troop Basis’ was a massive document used for organizing and supporting the US Army forces. In one sense it amounted to the mother of all tables of organization and equipment. It represented goals or theoretical targets to base planning on for constructing training and supplying virtually every squad in the army.
Wow, so really in the year of 1945, the end of the war, there was only 6 divisions that consists of the m10 tank and the rest used the more modernized tanks, and off topic it looks like your a fellow hoosier on this site so hey from another fellow hoosier
I think you’re missing some of the gist of it. The tank destroyers were never in separate divisions but were tasked or attached to divisions and were subject to requests by commanders seeking support, requests that fell off after North Africa…
And the M-10 wasn’t a “tank,” but a modified M-4 Sherman with a 76mm gun…
