Prior to building the Sherman tank the US Army built the T6 tank.
The plan was to make one tank that would have a removable turret front.
The front would allow the unit commander to exchange fronts to deploy different weapons suites.
The gun systems were a 75mm gun with counterweight, as seen on the Lee series, the 75mm gun without counterweight, as seen on late production Lee tanks, a twin 37mm anti-tank guns, the same gun as the towed 37mm anti-tank gun, a single 57mm anti-tank gun, like the towed gun, and a triple .50 caliber anti-aircraft gun version.
The removable front turret face was used in the Sherman, but these other weapons versions were not used. I think the triple .50 caliber machine guns would have made a good AA weapon and even better as a weapon against lightly armored vehicles and infantry.
4 comments:
Not disputing the accuracy of your documentation, but just saying; the photograph looks remarkably like the Canadian Ram tank - do you know of any definite link between the T6 and the Ram? Was the T6 perhaps the design base for the Ram?
Shotgun6, bot the Ram and the T6 trace their lineage back to the Lee/Grant series of tanks and before that the M2 US Medium tank. The M2 was the standard US Army tank, but had a small 37mm gun turret. After the German invasion of France with Panzer IV using the short barrel 75mm guns, the US Army wanted a long barrel 75mm gun to counter it. In those days it took a long time to draw blueprints, and so it was anticipate it could take as much as a year to get such a tank into production. They did have a self propelled gun with a 75mm howitzer in a sponson design based on the M2 medium tank that was modified into the M3 Lee/Grant series of tanks. The US Army continued to work on a new tank with a 75mm gun in the turret. The Lee/Grant was considered as a training tank only to give troops the chance to use the 75mm gun. The Canadians wanted a 75mm gun armed tank and began work on the Ram so they did not have to rely on the US for tanks if there was a shortage or a disruption of supply. So the T6 and the Ram were developed about the same time by different teams, in different countries, attempting to make a 75mm gun armed tank with a fully rotating turret, based on the M2 and M3 series of tanks. So the design base for both was the same, the Lee/Grant and M2 series tanks.
Thanks; I think it's the side hull door and the squared-off turret that make them look so much alike-
The side door was a left over from the Lee / Grant series.
It was deleted because it was faster to make them without the door and it was a weak spot in the armor.
Bunkermeister
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