Figure 1.--Here American Sgt. Prouty is dressed up as Santa Clau destributing goodies (Decemner 1942). The boys undoubtedly were impressed with the tank, but a change for lolly (candy) starved British kids to get a rare treat may have been even more of a draw. American and British forces had just landed in North Africa a month earlier with Stuarts and Grants. There were many variants, some which the British goy were called Lee. Shermans had began to roll off the assembly lines, but they had been sent to the Britiush Eighth Army firvAlamein showdown wuth the Afrika Korps.

The M-3 Grant has to be the ugliest tank of World War II -- a kind of Rube Goldberg creation. The 30-ton Grant (originally called the Lee) was an incredible 10 feet tall (making it a vulnrable target). Not only was it a towering target, the layout can only be called bizarre. The Grant had a hull with a 75-mm main gun stuck into a sponson on the right front hull. This meant the Grant gunners could only engage targets to their front. Higher up was a second turret that could traverse to fire at targets to the flanks and rear. But the turret only was armed with a light 37-mm gun. Most World War II tanks had a crew of five, but the two-gun Grant required a 7-man crew. The Grant wasn't what the U.S. Army wanted, but it was what it could get fast. The U.S. Armny when war broke out in Europe had only 400 tanks, mostly M-2 light tanks and a few M-2 mediums. They would have torn to pieces ny heavier armored and gunned Geramn tanks and anti-tank guns. And then the German Panzers smashed the French Army, thought to be the most powerful army in the world, in only a few weeks (May-June 1940). The U.S. Army realized that there was desperate needed for a modern tank. The French Army had been the major bulwark against the Germans in World War I. Now the French were out of the order of battle and the British might be next. Actually, the United States had already designed a better tank -- the M-4 Sherman. But this was a much more advanced tank and more difficult to manufacture. Detroit needed time to retool to manufacture Shermans. The tranverse turrent for the main gun was the manufacturing problem. And after Pearl Harbor, America and Britain needed tanks right away. As a result, the Grant was cobbeled together and rushed into production while Detroit was working on turret manufacturing technology. As ungainly as it was, the Grant would play its part in the War. The British were locked in a fierce fight in the Western Desert with Rommel's Afrika Korps. The prize at stake was the vital Suez Canal and the oil fields of Iraq. The Germans had better tanks. British tanks had lighter gunned tanks with limited range. Fortunately, OKW was locked in a despeete, life-and-death struggle with the Red Army on the Eastern Front Ost Krieg. The Afrika Korps was thus a low priority. And was on the end of a very long and vulnerable supply line. The war was being settled in the East which had the priority in allocation of resources available to the German Army. And the British were able to inderdict substantial part of what was sent to the Afrika Korps. The Royal Navy attacked the Itlaian convoys. The RAF Desert Air Force attacked the trucks conveying supplies over land. The Grants delivered to the British even with their limitations played an important role in the Western Desert at a very critical time. They had a 75 mm gun and armor piercing shells that caught Rommel by surprise. The American forces landing as part of Operation Torch (November 1942) only had Stuarts and Grants. They were suposed to have Shermans, but the first avaiialble Shermans were diverted to the British 8th Army which was being pressed by the Afrika Korps. They would play a key role in the climatic Alemein battle (October 1942). One of countless examples of how the Anglo-American Alliance worked.

Created: 12:11 PM 10/28/2019
Last updated: 3:57 AM 4/3/2020