Travel:

Aberdeen Proving Ground
Tank Park and Museum

WWII US M3 Lee Tank

article and photos by Russ Lockwood



The M2 was an uparmored light tank with a 37mm main gun that received an order for 1000 tanks in June 1940. However, the heavier German tanks showed the power of 75mm guns, so om August, the order was shifted to a larger gun--but no turret was available. Thus, the stop-gap fitting of a 75mm gun more or less in place of a sponson made this the M3 Lee tank. The 37mm in the turret was kept. 4294 M3 tanks were built from June 1941 to August 1942 (plus another 1100 in Canada).

The British, in need of tanks at the time, ordered the M3 with a slightly different specification--the MG cupola was removed (it sat atop the 37mm gun turret) and used a shorter gun barrel. This was the "Grant." The coming of the M4 Sherman spelled the end of the M3, although as with other tanks, it was still used in a variety of adaptations through the war.

Crew of six, speed 26mph, range 120 miles.

Aberdeen Museum and Tank Park

Back to List of Historic Sites
Back to Travel Master List
Back to MagWeb Master List of Magazines
© Copyright 2004 by Coalition Web, Inc.
This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other articles covering military history and related topics are available at http://www.magweb.com