Starting with Anzio in Italy, M18s saw action in Italy and Northwest Europe. The tank destroyer played a key role in the battlefields of France, Belgium, and Germany in 1944. It would also be easier for an opposing armored force to achieve a local breakthrough against an American unit which would not have all of its anti-tank assets at the front during the beginning of any attack. Speed was essential in order to bring the Hellcats from the rear to destroy incoming tanks. [6], The M18 Hellcat was a key element during World War II in the Battle of the Bulge. Outgunned as they were, Hellcat crews managed to destroy a significant number of enemy tanks, and were effective in blunting German panzer attacks when given the opportunity. [2] An M18 from the 603d Tank Destroyer Battalion, Combat Command B, 6th Armored Division, guards an intersection in Luneville, France, 22 September 1944. These were rebuilt and refurbished by Brown & Root in northern Italy in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and bear data plates that indicate those rebuilds. The M18 continued in production until October 1944, when the war was nearing its end. When the fighting ended a few days later, the victorious American Hellcats accounted for thirty-nine panzers destroyed or disabled. For this, the U.S. envisioned using tanks in the attack solely in a support and exploitation role, usually in conjunction with infantry. The Christie suspension requirement was also dropped, and replaced with a torsion bar suspension. High quality Hellcat Tank Destroyer gifts and merchandise. He saw a German tank gun muzzle appearing out of the fog 30 feet away, and deployed his platoon. The Military of the Republic of China also operated several M18s until their chassis and hulls were worn out, at which point the turrets were salvaged and installed onto surplus hulls of M42 Duster anti-aircraft vehicles to produce Type 64 light tanks. M18 Hellcat tank destroyer - WWII American tanks - The M18 Hellcat was the last version of tank destroyer accepted in the U.S. Army. Other experiments included an attempt in the autumn of 1944 to adopt the design for use as a self-propelled howitzer, but this and other tests were abandoned with the ending of World War II. U.S. tanks were expected to fight any hostile tanks they encountered in their attack, but the mission of destroying massed enemy armored thrustswas assigned to a new branc… U.S. combined arms doctrine on the eve of World War II held that tanks should be designed to fulfill the role of forcing a breakthrough into enemy rear areas. As defined by revised Field Manual (FM) 18-5 issued in July 1944, the three gun companies each contained three platoons of four guns, giving the entire battalion a total of thirty-six tank destroyers. The origin of the M18 dates to these first few weeks before the United States’ entry into World War II, when, on 27 November, Lieutenant Colonel Andrew D. Bruce assumed command of the Tank Destroyer Tactical and Firing Center at Fort Meade, Maryland. By June 1943, Buick was already rushing T70 models into production, and by the time the M18 was standardized in March 1944, the nickname “Hellcat” was already being used for promotional purposes. F, M10 Tank Destroyer and SU-85 share an HP value of 1700. In the shooting that followed, the three platoons of Company C knocked out four German tanks before pulling pack, only to give chase once the German panzers and panzer grenadiers retreated. M-18 Hellcat tank destroyer The fastest tracked vehicle of the war, the M-18 was a fresh design, not a modification of any tank in service. The Hellcat had a gun that could penetrate roughly 88mm of armor at 2000 m. This was enough to penetrate a Panzer IV (a tank originally designed in the 1930s) frontally, but not enough to deal with the newer Panther or Tiger from the front. Two battalions of tank destroyers did see service in the invasion of the Philippines using Hellcats. The tank destroyers were attached in platoon size units to American Infantry Divisions. Members of the Medium Tank Destroyer Category have their HP values split into two groups; The Jagdpanzer 38(t) Hetzer, SU-76M and M18 Hellcat share an HP value of 1200.1 The StuG III Ausf. Armored Utility Vehicle M39 in Korea, 1952. The M18's new design incorporated several innovative maintenance features. The M18 was the fastest armoured vehicle in WW2, it could go 60 mph on good roads, and even for 2 decades after the war. The M18 Hellcat was an American tank destroyer of World War II, also used in the Korean War. As was the case of many U.S. armored fighting vehicles during the war in Europe, Hellcat crews proved adept at developing new tactics when taking on German tanks by learning the strengths and weaknesses of the M18 in combat situations. The problem of the main gun performance was remedied with High Velocity Armor Piercing (HVAP) ammunition late in the war, which allowed the 76 mm gun to achieve greater frontal armor penetration, but this was never available in quantity. As a result it was smaller, lighter, and significantly faster, but carried the same gun as the Sherman 76 mm models. Having witnessed the rapid advances of armored and mechanized forces in the German Blitzkrieg across Poland, the Low Countries, and France, War Department planners, including the future commander of Army Ground Forces (AGF), Lesley J. McNair, set out to amend a strategy based around static and localized anti-armor defense beginning in the latter stages of 1940. These units were instrumental in stopping numerous Japanese attacks during the later phases of the war. “The Hellcat was considered the hot rod of World War II,” said Bill Gross, a historian who restored an M18 now on display at the Sloan Museum in Flint, Mich. “To give perspective, most German tanks of the day were capable of just 20 mph and even today’s M1 Abrams tank is outpaced by the Hellcat.”. Fighting in the Ardennes convinced the Army of the need to reequip its towed tank destroyer battalions in favor of self-propelled systems like the M18. This doctrine was not entirely used as it would create a small window of time of weakness in the armored battalion until tank destroyers moved to the front. The 76 mm Gun Motor Carriage (G.M.C.) Although some Hellcats went to China to fight the Japanese army, they were primarily used in support of infantry, as Japanese armor was scarce and of poor quality. M18 Hellcat Tank Destroyer's national animal is the Hellcat. M18 Hellcat of the 824th Tank Destroyer Battalion in action at Wiesloch, Germany, April 1945. Hellcat tank destroyer turned out to be a very unusual piece of weaponry. Along with the light armor and lack of penetration power of the main gun, these flaws remained enduring weaknesses of the M18 and underscored the contradictory nature of tank destroyer doctrine. Needing a rugged but fast moving vehicle to close with enemy armored attacks from the likes of the Panzer III and Panzer IV, the AGF Board moved to standardize the M10 Wolverine tank destroyer, armed with a 3-inch gun, by the spring of 1943. [4] About 100 M39s were transferred to the West German Bundeswehr in 1956, where they were used to train the reestablished Panzergrenadier armored infantry units.[5]. With just four[2] M18 tank destroyers of the 705th Tank Destroyer Battalion to assist, the paratroopers attacked units of the 2nd Panzer Division, whose mission was to proceed by secondary roads via Monaville (just northwest of Bastogne) to seize a key highway and capture, among other objectives, fuel dumps—for the lack of which the overall German counter-offensive faltered and failed. AFV Club 1/35 scale M18 Hellcat tank destroyer 0 FROM THE March 1998 ISSUE AFV Club 1/35 scale M18 Hellcat tank destroyer By Ron Poniatowski | March 1, 1998 Kit: No. Worried about the threat to its left flank in Bastogne, it organized a major joint arms attack to seize Noville. Between October 1944 and March 1945, 640 M18s earmarked for production were modified for this purpose. Complaints about the open turret configuration and exposed .50 caliber machine gun were common, while the lack of a coaxial machine gun afforded little protection to the exposed heads of the tank driver and assistant driver. Utilizing the M18 chassis and doing away with the turret, the M39 was designed and built in limited quantities for use as a command and control vehicle, as well as a prime mover and armored personnel carrier. The M6 design, which featured a 37mm anti-tank gun attached to a modified light truck, was woefully ineffective during initial use in the North African campaign, as was the M3, a half-track armed with a low-velocity 75mm gun. Independent tank destroyer groups were to counter concentrate, to stop enemy tanks from penetrating deeply. U.S. Army M18 Hellcat Tank Destroyer (in operation 1943-1944). Like in Europe, however, tactical use of M18s in the Pacific deviated from the original tank destroyer concept, with the Hellcat used more in infantry support and bunker-busting operations. Three of these vehicles were deployed in the reconnaissance company of the 894th Tank Destroyer Battalion, participating in breakthrough operations at Anzio in late May. It was first accepted in 1943 and it appeared on the battlefield in 1944. In general, Hellcat crews were complimentary of their vehicle's performance and capabilities, but did complain that the open top created a cold interior in the Northern European winter of 1944-45. The solution was the Gun Motor Carriage (GMC), although the first few models developed by the Army were anything but effective. The M-18 Hellcat, formally known as the “76mm Gun Motor Carriage M18” was an American tank destroyer used in World War II, in Italian, European and Pacific theaters, and in the Korean War. American prewar armored doctrine was based on the assumption that enemy armored attacks would be delivered at a time and place of the enemy's choosing against an American defense. By numbers alone, the M18 might have claimed success as a tank destroyer. Military Channel, Program "Tank Overhaul" 22:51, Wednesday 13 August 2008 (UTC) "Current hour EDST," mixed documentary with interviews of WW-II veterans. Separate GHQ tank battalions supported infantry in destroying fixed enemy defenses, and armored divisions then exploited the breakthrough to rush into the enemy's vulnerable rear areas. On that day, M18s were credited with destroying twenty-seven German tanks, with only six M18s lost. When the 15th Panzer Division attacked positions held by the 101st Airborne Division on Christmas Day, the 705th and its M18s helped hold the Germans at bay. Despite the preference for the M36, a number of units converted from the M10 to the M18. Team Desobry's high speed highway journey to reach the blocking position is one of the few documented cases[2] wherein the legendary top speed of the M18 Hellcat (55 miles per hour (89 km/h), faster than today's M1A2 Abrams) was actually used to get ahead of an enemy force. The speed was attained by keeping armor to a minimum, no more than 1" thick. 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