30 Tons with 2 Guns: The M3 | Did it matter?

The film Sahara 1943 with Humphrey Bogart is a one of the best tank movies and does M3 justice.

In the Pacific and India / Burma it was a great tank, the Japanese had very poor anti armor, so it was great in that area.

There is a recent series of videos from the Australian Armour guys in which they rebuild a Lee from parts. Surplus tanks were used by the farmers in Australia after the war.

One point about the height, I've read that the tankers who were using it in the far east and the Pacific liked the extra height because it allowed them to better see into the dense undergrowth that they were more likely to encounter in a tropical environment.

"It looked like a damned cathedral going down the road"-An Army at Dawn, Rick Atkinson. But it kept the Allies in the fight until newer models could come into service. Great video: My Dad joined the Army in 1937 and trained on these tanks, although he went overseas in an M4.

If you're going to mention the Panzer IV F2, I'd think you'd mention the Panzer III J, which was the main rival to the Grant in the 1941 war in North Africa. It changed out the earlier 37mm for a 50mm long-barrel (3m) cannon, and was the only German tank in the theater that was effective against the M3's armor.

Minor issue when it come to countering german guns. The M2 75mm on the M3 was able to lob HE out to 6 miles and could be expected to reliable place HE with 20 yards of a target at 3 miles. Against a tank thats useles, but against an open air gun thats going to scythe through the crew and possible even destroy the gun. At any rate anti tanks guns were deadly as an ambushing weapon but once they were spotted the M3 had little trouble dealing with them.

Field Marshall Montgomery's command tank was an M3 Grant, there is one at Duxford in the UK

Great video and well informed!! My vote for next tank to do a walk around would be the M26 Pershing.

Great video, lots of detail. The thought of the shattered rivets flying around the vehicle when it was hit made me shudder.

The 37mm was beginning to be obsolescent when the M3 rolled out, but it’s high rate of fire helped it’s usefulness.

Wonderfully done, Mr. Wilcox. Please keep these coming. I recognize that the folks filming and editing are skilled and effective.

Fantastic overview! Great tanks and great personality. I would really love to see this guy moving those heavy hatches open to get a sense of how tough the crews operating these machines really were.

The counter weight was used because the stabilization gear was designed for the m4 gun not the m3 shown here. The m4 gun was longer thereby heavier hence the added weight. As with the M4 Sherman the stabilization system was considered secret. No training or manuals were provided. Some crews figured it out most didn't.

Against the Japanese with British and Commonwealth forces it had more than "limited success against Japanese light tanks", it was generally a great asset helped not only by it's superiority to Japanese tanks but the Japanese had very little anti-tank. As an armoured gun suite in defence or in support of advancing infantry it was put to effective use.

The grant also had an inch more armor for the turret front. When first deployed the British called ELH Egypt's last hope. After Africa the grants were deployed to the Pacific. Here its deficiencies became strengths. The high siloute allowed it to see over the tall grass. It could fire in two directions at once. The 37mm gun was devastating at close range against infantry with the canister round. The Japanese had no antitank capability to speak of. This vehicle was a value to the allies. In 1942 when deployed the 37mm gun was still effective against German armor. The Russians hated the Lee calling coffin for 7 brothers.

Australian armoured artillery museum has 2 operating m3 grant tanks and im hoping to ride on m3 lee and the m3 grant tanks at this year's Australian armoured artillery museum tank fest this year

The return of Hank the Tank

It actually did well in the desert , early in the war . Even Rommel noted several times , that they gave them a problem . Have to remember , that most of the German tanks at this time , was the panzer III , with a 50mm gun . The grant was an issue . They were not happy to see the sherman either ....but they had more panzer 4s by that time .

Very good and balanced narration, way better than what one is used to on YouTube.