M3 Lee/Grant Medium Tank 1941-45 (New Vanguard)

by Steven Zaloga

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M3 Lee/Grant Medium Tank 1941-45

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Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5 out of 5 stars

Most Interesting US Imitation, 2006-01-20
This small work details the history fo the famous Grant/Lee tank that served as a stop-gap measure for the US armored force early in the war. The drawings are excellent and the descriptions are quite good. Most interesting of all is that the Americans built this based on the French B-1 tank, although the American version gave the 75-mm a slightly greater field of fire in a sponsoon mount instead of a hull mounting. Highly recommened as a great little reference for this important development in U.S. armor.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4 out of 5 stars

It Helped to Hold the Line in '42-43, 2005-09-29
Stephen J. Zaloga's M3 Lee/Grant Medium Tank 1941-45 provides a good summary of the hasty introduction of the first US medium tank in the summer of 1941. Given that the M4 Sherman medium tank normally gains most of the attention on US armor in the Second World War, Zaloga's volume in Osprey's New Vanguard series sheds light on an all-but-forgotten weapon system that was there when it mattered.

Zaloga begins his narrative with a discussion of the genesis of the medium tank concept and the unsuccessful M2 tank built in 1939-41. Due to German successes in the opening year of the Second World War, the US Army suddenly recognized the need for medium tanks but early attempts to produce a viable design were handicapped by the backwardness of US defense industry. The M3 Lee tank, which began series production in June 1941, was seen by the US Armored Force as a stop-gap until the better-designed M4 Sherman became available in 1942. However, British pressure to produce a version of the M3 for their own use in North Africa led to the M3 Grant variant and an expansion of the program. By the time of Pearl Harbor, over 800 M3s had been built and over 6,000 were built by the time production ceased in December 1942. Zaloga's description of the M3's development is a bit brief even for this format; one item that remains unclear is what impact the concurrent M3 and M4 programs had on each other (i.e. competition for resources). Zaloga provides a table that lists all M3 production, broken down by month and by individual plants.

Almost half this volume comprises the M3's operational use by Commonwealth, US and Soviet forces in the Second World War. Zaloga notes that the British liked the Grant's firepower and automotive reliability and this tank formed the backbone of the 8th Army's tank force in the critical battles of Gazala, Alam Halfa and El Alamein. The US Army only used the M3 in Tunisia in 1942-43 and the tank was soon phased out in favor of the M4. Although considered obsolete by 1943, the M3 continued to see extensive service against the Japanese in Burma and India. Zaloga includes tables that list foreign deployment of the M3 and lend-lease shipments. Zaloga concludes the volume with a brief description of variants, including the M7 self-propelled 105mm howitzer and tank retrievers. Color plates include M3s in pre-war colors, in Soviet and Commonwealth markings and an interesting cutaway diagram. Although not a successful design, the M3 medium tank represented a stop gap that achieved its purpose of equipping the nascent US tank force until better equipment became available. Furthermore, the production of over 6,000 M3s in a short period was an amazing achievement for a US defense industry that up to that point had no record of producing large quantities of armored vehicles.

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