so now we're going to have a look at an m3 strictly speaking it's it's an oddity
but we're calling an m3 hybrid because it's very similar to British and New
Zealand tanks of the similar layout and that's what I want to talk about it's
the interior that's really different and that's the thing we're gonna focus on
but just to start off to explain why it's in this odd color and with the
markings on the turret it was a gift of the Brazilian Army to The Tank Museum it
was flown over here in a Hercules and it's quite a remarkable survivor in many
ways it's in fact a pre-war American tank but it's survived quite in
quite good condition in Brazil it contrasts particularly with the m3 a1
because the m3 Hybrid was a complete mess the Americans were trying to come
up with the m3 a one turret which is why it's got that rounded turret on and put
it on an m3 how and the result was a bit of a mess really the turret is a
nuisance because it's controlled manually it only rotates by manually
turning a wheel and that wheel is on the opposite side to where the gamma would
operate so the gammas trying to steer through his telescope and expected to
traverse the turret but he can't reach it so the other man the loader has to do
that and in doing so invariably gets it wrong which is why the gun it has about
a 20 degree movement independent of the turret
so once the turrets more or less pointing at the enemy you can adjust it
a little bit at the top there and it means that the guns got a freedom of
movement to left and right of about 20 degrees now all of this was a nuisance
these were the first American tanks the British who had any experience of and
what they found was the most sensible thing to do is to actually drive
straight at the Germans firing as you go in other words keep the gun fixed in one
position and drive towards the enemy don't get into a sort of Meli where
you've got a fire in all directions because it's more trouble that's worth
traversing the turret it was easier to swing the whole tank around and that's
what they did they also used to reverse out of action and the reason they did
this was to keep firing at the Germans without traversing the turret again and
it looked rather odd where everybody else turned around and scuttled for
their lives the old Stuart's were all going backwards out of action so inside
you've got a crew of four men a driver who sits in here and gano who sits next
to him and then two men who are in the turret but since they've got nowhere to
sit those two men who are the commander and the Gama are expected to stand in
the back of the turret which is ok if you're really fit but I wouldn't
recommend it and it meant that when the tank went into action the commander had
to who was in those days in the old m3 in a cupola had to give up looking
around and work and Charlie is a gamma so he came down to serve the gun and his
mate the gamma became the load and that's literally how they worked in
those days it was very difficult to do but it was the Americans had no real
experience of tank fighting and they thought it was quite a reasonable idea
it was only when it was exposed to the rigors of fighting in the desert that
the difficulties were quite apparent and that's how it worked inside the tank was
difficult the turret was more troubled it's worth
to traverse and they tended to keep the gun pointing forward if they could
it's an m6 gun the higher velocity version of the began in the early Stuart
which was shorter and tended to be just that little bit inferior in performance
and that's how its arranged and it really is a difficult tank to fight
because the dirty commander when he does want to look out can only look out he
hasn't got a cupola which and the earlier tanks had he can only look out
through a periscope and that was a limited vision anyway so he couldn't see
what was going on right so well unless he stuck his head out and probably got
it shot off it's got a continent seventh cylinder air-cooled engine
mounted upright in the back and that drives down through the front to the
fighting compartment through a gearbox in the front here and what they've done
is boxed in the drive shaft so it makes a comfortable seat if you want to sit on
it but it's an obstacle for anybody trying to traverse the turret you've got
a Gallup round after it and move over this thing at the same time which is
quite difficult to do so they tended not to Traverse for that reason what they
also had was you'll see them it's got machine guns in the sides here well
those machine guns there was one each side to begin with
were fired by the driver they weren't like the lat gun which could move about
they were fixed and fired by the driver and they did away with the one on the
right-hand side because they wanted to use the shelf that it kind of stuck out
in on the inside for putting the radio in which is what they did they did try
at one point to have seats installed for the tank commander and the gamma and the
only seats they could come up with were made of canvas they were like a sling
seat like a swing and you just sat the man on it
the only trouble was his legs didn't touch the ground and he swung to and fro
with the movement of the tank which nobody wants to do if they can help him
so that was very awkward as well they've suffered there's all the early Stuart's
did from a relatively short range they had about 70 miles range but that was
only with a complete tank full of petrol so the tendency was to use them in
action without any fuel or as little fuel as possible until action was
imminent then you topped up the tank and went into action and that gave you the
enough range to keep going through a battle otherwise it was almost
impossible actually but that's how it was done it's an awkward bloody tank to
fight they've got an instruction from the armoured division in charge to
remove the turrets and turn the tanks into recce vehicles
a lot of regiments were very upset by this because they regarded even the 37
millimeter gun as an effective way of fighting people off and with it missing
with only a machine gun or two one on the top and one down here they felt it
wasn't enough and they in the end they got the hang of them and began to use
them but the casualties went out literally because the men was so exposed
in the back once with the turret on at least everyone's got some protection and
that it's quite well armoured for its day the armor on the sides is about 25
millimetres and on the front they about them 38 millimeters on the front so it
made them a bit stronger to resist enemy fire but not much again you've got the
problems of escape for the driver he can escape through the front hatch but the
loader normally goes out to the top of the turret his co-driver anyway it's
very undignified crawling out here but with the tanks on fire dignity doesn't
come into it yeah trick is to get out as quickly as possible and that's how it
was done but the great thing about the Stewart and all that family was its
reliability the engine always sounded awful sounded splattery and and knocking
because it was really a narrow engine don't put into a tank but it never or
rarely let them down and when it was going flat out it was quite remarkable
these tanks were really motor and that was what was really their secret was
just a mechanical reliability of them which is typical of American tanks
generally they were mechanically reliable and the crews liked them for
that reason there was a story that a British soldier drove one and got out
and said it was a honey and from that came the nickname the honey which was
applied to all the Stewart's at one time the trouble is that honey is not a word
the British would use in that context really how many of stuff you spread on
bread and that was about the only thing people knew about it honey is a
compliment is an American term and it seems odd that a British soldiers
have come up with it but that's what they say if you believe you're welcome
to but that's the the m3 hybrid for you it's just an odd tank now the one thing
nor the other the m3 a one with the turret Barsky is
much more effective but that just took a little while to develop for the moment
the m3 hybrid was all we had
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