76 mm Gun Motor Carriage (GMC) M18 Hellcat

The 76 mm Gun Motor Carriage (GMC) M18 was an American tank destroyer of World War II. It was given the nickname "Hellcat" and is the fastest tracked armored fighting vehicle during the war with a top speed of over 50 mph. The M18 was built by Buick.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• M18
• Hellcat
• 76
• mm
• Gun
• Motor
• Carriage
• GMC
• tracked
• armored
• fighting
• vehicle
• tank
• destroyer
• World
• War
• II

[rdx506]

@AngelDyne The U.S. produced nearly 2,500 M-18's. They also produced 1,500 M-36's w/ the 90mm gun, more than capable of taking out a Tiger II. Germany only managed to produce 485 Tiger II (equal to One Tiger per day of production) The U.S. also had a very effective anti-tank weapon known as the P-47, which could carry two 500 lb bombs. Each of these bombs could easily flip over a Tiger.

[rdx506]

@AngelDyne The Tiger / Sherman ratio was 1 Tiger / 40 Shermans. Tigers were slow , unreliable, expensive to build, prone to break-down, difficult to manouver, difficult to get over bridges, scarce, fuel-hungry, and difficult to maintain, and did I mention SLOW? An m-18 could move faster than a Tiger could traverse it's turret., so the M-18 could get to the side or rear of the Tiger and get in a killing shot.

[PkayerZxz2]

@AngelDyne Yes the versatility of the Sherman was a big bonus. As for the Pershing, I strongly disagree. The Pershing was incompatible with allied strategy. It was slow, horribly unreliable, and took up too much transport space. More Pershings ans fewer Shermans means that the allied advance across Europe will be much much slower. And while the Pershing did have better armor, by 1943 and 44 the Germans were fielding weapons that could destroy ANYTHING. So the 100mm vs 63 didn't really matter.

[AngelDyne]

@PkayerZxz2 There was also the vast modular nature of the Sherman, including the Calliope rocket tank, the Sherman 105MM SPA {or "Priest"} the M4 Crocodile, the 155MM M40 Gun Motor Carriage, and the British "Firefly". And yes, as I said while the Perishing was a very welcome upgrade to the line, {As was the Super Perishing} both came out too late in the war to really be effective. Had they come out shortly after the Tiger 1, they'd have been much more effective.

[PkayerZxz2]

@AngelDyne The Sherman worked because it was a strategic tank. They were easy to maintain, fast, reliable, and available on large numbers. The allies' ability to maintain a rapid advance kept the Germans off balance, negating their tactical and operational edge. The Pershing definitely gave the allies more hitting power, but it was really just roughly equal to the Tiger I, and came out 2 years later.

[AngelDyne]

@PkayerZxz2 Yes, I do agree that we were far behind in the development on tank designs in the later eras of WW2, though our sheer numbers in comparison to the German line did give us an advantage. {Five Shermans to every Tiger I believe?} The Perishing was a welcome upgrade, but came too late in the war to really see a distinguishable service record.

[PkayerZxz2]

@AngelDyne Well the Hellcat was able to take out a Tiger II from the flank, although very few Tiger IIs saw service in the west. As for US tank development, a lack of necessity put them at an early disadvantage. The US was unaware of what would be needed until they started to see the results of the war in Europe. This led them to design the Sherman, which was completely adequate to take on 1941 and 42 era German tanks, but not their 1943 and 1944 era tanks.

[AngelDyne]

@PkayerZxz2 I agree with you on this aspect, one of the big things that screwed us in tank Development, was, in fact, our tank destroyer doctrine. And the lack of early on development into larger guns, meant to take on bigger armor, which in the long run may have given the M18 hellcat the ability to even cut down a Tiger 2, which was the one german tank that had nothing to fear from the hellcat.

[PkayerZxz2]

@AngelDyne The US had no need for larger guns anyway. Tiger fright quickly spread to those in command, who shit their pants and frantically started requesting heavy tanks with bigger guns to combat the Panther and Tiger tanks. The US really fucked up here, they forgot they already had TDs and a TD doctrine, that outlined that TDs were responsible for fighting enemy tanks and that tanks were responsible for exploitation. Hellcats and Sluggers were more than adequate to combat German heavies IMO.

[AngelDyne]

@PkayerZxz2 And there you would be correct. The US never fielded anything larger then 90MM outside of Self Propelled Guns {Artillery} and most of the ones we were designing got scrapped, as the war ended before they rolled out.