3 inch Gun M5 was an anti-tank gun developed in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The gun combined a barrel of the
anti-aircraft gun T9For Naval 3-inch gun see 3"/50 caliber gunThe 3-inch M1918 gun was a United States 3-inch anti-aircraft gun that entered service in 1918 and served until it was finally superseded by the 90 mm M3 gun just prior to the opening of World War II...
and elements of the
105 mm howitzer M2The 105 mm Howitzer M2A1 was the standard light field howitzer for the United States in World War II, seeing action in both European and Pacific theatres. Entering production in 1941, it quickly entered the war against the Imperial Japanese Army in the Pacific, where it gained a reputation for its...
. The M5 was issued exclusively to the
US ArmyThe United States Army is the branch of the United States Military responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military and is one of seven uniformed services...
tank destroyer battalions starting in 1943. It saw combat in the
Italian CampaignThe Italian Campaign of World War II was the name of Allied operations in and around Italy, from 1943 to the end of the war. Joint Allied Forces Headquarters AFHQ was operationally responsible for all Allied land forces in the Mediterranean theatre, and it planned and commanded the invasion of...
and in the Northwest Europe.
While the M5 outperformed earlier anti-tank guns in the US service, its effective employment was hindered by its heavy weight and ammunition related issues. Losses suffered by towed TD battalions in the
Battle of the BulgeThe Ardennes Offensive was a major German offensive , launched towards the end of World War II through the forested Ardennes Mountains region of Belgium , France and Luxembourg on the Western Front...
and the existence of more mobile, better protected alternative in form of self-propelled tank destroyers led to gradual removal of the M5 from frontline service in 1945.
Development and production history
In 1940, the
US ArmyThe United States Army is the branch of the United States Military responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military and is one of seven uniformed services...
just started to receive its first antitank gun, the 37 mm Gun M3. While it fitted the request of the
InfantryInfantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of the Combat Arms they are the backbone of armies...
for light, easy to manhandle anti-tank weapon, Artillery and Ordnance foresaw a need for a more powerful gun. This led to a number of expedient designs, such as adaptations of the
75 mm M1897The French 75mm field gun was a quick-firing field artillery piece adopted in March 1898 after 5 years of research and secret trials. It saw widespread service in World War I including in the American Expeditionary Forces . It also served during World War II in various but more limited capacities...
or towed variants of the
75 mm M3The US 75 mm gun was an American tank gun of the Second World War. there were two main models, M2 and M3.Besides use on the two main American medium tanks of the war the M3 Lee and the M4 Sherman, the gun was also used to equip the Light Tank M24. a and the B-25 Mitchell bomber...
.
Late in 1940 the Ordnance Corps started another project - an anti-tank gun based on the
3 inch anti-aircraft gun T9For Naval 3-inch gun see 3"/50 caliber gunThe 3-inch M1918 gun was a United States 3-inch anti-aircraft gun that entered service in 1918 and served until it was finally superseded by the 90 mm M3 gun just prior to the opening of World War II...
. The
barrelA gun barrel is the tube, usually metal, through which a controlled explosion or rapid expansion of gases are released in order to propel a projectile out of the end at a high velocity....
of the T9 was combined with
breechA breechblock is the part of the firearm action that closes the breech of a weapon at the moment of firing....
,
recoil systemRecoil is the 'kick' given by a gun when it is fired. In technical terms, this kick is caused by the gun's backward momentum, which exactly balances the forward momentum of the projectile...
and carriage, all adapted from the
105 mm howitzer M2The 105 mm Howitzer M2A1 was the standard light field howitzer for the United States in World War II, seeing action in both European and Pacific theatres. Entering production in 1941, it quickly entered the war against the Imperial Japanese Army in the Pacific, where it gained a reputation for its...
. The pilot of the weapon, named
3 inch Gun T10, was ready by September 1941. Although the subsequent testing revealed minor problems, it was clear that the gun, eventually standardized as M5 on carriage M1, presents major performance improvement over existing designs.
Production began in December 1942. In November 1943 a slightly modified carriage was standardized as M6. In this carriage a flat shield borrowed from the 105 mm howitzer was replaced by a new sloped one. In January 1944 AGF requested to upgrade the guns built with the early carriage M1 to carriage M6; consequently most of the guns that reached the frontline had the M6 carriage.
| Production of М5, pcs. |
| Year |
1942 |
1943 |
1944 |
Total |
| Produced, pcs. |
250 |
1,250 |
1,000 |
2,500 |
Description
As stated above, the
barrelA gun barrel is the tube, usually metal, through which a controlled explosion or rapid expansion of gases are released in order to propel a projectile out of the end at a high velocity....
was adapted from the
3 inch Gun T9For Naval 3-inch gun see 3"/50 caliber gunThe 3-inch M1918 gun was a United States 3-inch anti-aircraft gun that entered service in 1918 and served until it was finally superseded by the 90 mm M3 gun just prior to the opening of World War II...
; it had rifling with uniform right hand twist, with 28 grooves and one turn in 25 calibers. It was combined with
breechA breechblock is the part of the firearm action that closes the breech of a weapon at the moment of firing....
,
recoil systemRecoil is the 'kick' given by a gun when it is fired. In technical terms, this kick is caused by the gun's backward momentum, which exactly balances the forward momentum of the projectile...
and carriage from the
105 mm Howitzer M2The 105 mm Howitzer M2A1 was the standard light field howitzer for the United States in World War II, seeing action in both European and Pacific theatres. Entering production in 1941, it quickly entered the war against the Imperial Japanese Army in the Pacific, where it gained a reputation for its...
. The breech was of horizontal sliding type, manual; the recoil system hydropneumatic. The carriage was of split trail type, equipped with a single equilibrator spring beneath the breech and wheels with pneumatic tires.
Organization
Despite the performance advantages, it turned out that no branch of the US Army wanted the new gun. The Infantry considered it too large and heavy. The other possible user, the Tank Destroyer Center, preferred more mobile self-propelled weapons. Finally, a pressure from the head of Army Ground Forces,
Gen. Lesley McNairGeneral Lesley James McNair was an American Army officer who served during World War I and World War II. He was killed by a USAAF bomb during Operation Cobra as part of the battle of Normandy....
, resulted in the gun being adopted by the TD Center. McNair's opinion was apparently influenced by the experience of the
North African CampaignDuring the Second World War, the North African Campaign took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 16 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts and in Morocco and Algeria and Tunisia .The campaign was fought between the Allies and Axis powers...
, where self-propelled guns were found to be hard to conceal.
On 31 March 1943 AGF ordered to convert fifteen self-propelled
tank destroyer battalionsThe tank destroyer battalion was a type of unit used by the United States Army during World War II. The unit was organized in one of two different forms—a towed battalion equipped with anti-tank guns, or a self-propelled battalion equipped with armored tank destroyers. U.S. Army doctrine held...
to a towed form; eventually AGF decided that half of TD battalions should be towed. A towed TD battalion possessed 36 pieces, in three companies of 12. M3 Halftracks were issued as prime movers. The organization from 1 September 1944 authorized
M39 Armored Utility VehicleThe 76 mm Gun Motor Carriage M18 was an American tank destroyer of World War II. The manufacturer, Buick, gave it the nickname "Hellcat" and it was the fastest tracked armored fighting vehicle during the war with a top speed up to 60 mph....
instead, but these only reached frontline in spring 1945.
Those towed tank destroyer battalions were attached to US Army
divisionA division is a large military unit or formation usually consisting of between ten to thirty thousand soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, and in turn several divisions make up a corps...
to improve their anti-tank capabilities. Most often, a complete battalion was attached to an
infantryInfantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of the Combat Arms they are the backbone of armies...
division. In some cases towed TD battalions were attached to
armoredArmoured warfare or tank warfare is the use of armoured fighting vehicles in modern warfare. It is a major component of modern methods of war....
or
airborneAirborne forces are military units, usually light infantry, set up to be moved by aircraft and 'dropped' into battle. Thus they can be placed behind enemy lines, and have an ability to deploy almost anywhere with little warning...
divisions; sometimes companies of the same battalion were given to different divisions; and sometimes a single division had several TD battalions - including a mix between towed and self-propelled - at once.
Combat service
In October 1943 the first towed battalion - the
805th TDThe 805th Tank Destroyer Battalion was a tank destroyer battalion of the United States Army active during the Second World War.The battalion was formed from the 105th Antitank Battalion on December 15th 1941, in line with the reorganization of the anti-tank force...
- arrived in
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
. Subsequently the M5 saw combat in the
Italian CampaignThe Italian Campaign of World War II was the name of Allied operations in and around Italy, from 1943 to the end of the war. Joint Allied Forces Headquarters AFHQ was operationally responsible for all Allied land forces in the Mediterranean theatre, and it planned and commanded the invasion of...
and in the Northwest Europe.One of the most notable engagements came during the German
counterattack on MortainOperation Lüttich was a codename given to a German counterattack during the Battle of Normandy, which took place around the American positions near Mortain from 7 August to 13 August, 1944...
in August 1944. The 823rd TD, attached to the 30th Infantry Division, played a key role in the successful defence of
Saint BarthelemySaint-Barthélemy is a commune in the Manche department in Normandy in north-western France.-References:*...
, destroying fourteen tanks and a number of other vehicles, though at the price of losing eleven of its guns.
In addition to the anti-tank role, the gun was often used to supplement divisional field artillery or to provide direct fire against enemy fortifications (e.g. a combat report from the
614th TDThe 614th Tank Destroyer Battalion was a tank destroyer battalion of the United States Army active during the Second World War. The 3rd Platoon, Company C, of the 614th was the first black unit to receive a Distinguished Unit Citation.-Early service:...
mentioned a two-gun section firing 143 shells at enemy post, achieving 139 hits).
Although the M5 easily outperformed older anti-tank guns in the US service, it was large and heavy - making it hard to manhandle into position - and its anti-armor characteristics were found to be somewhat disappointing. In part that reputation reflected initial problems with fuses of APCBC/HE shells. It also must be noted that APDS round was never developed for the M5; an APCR round existed (see ammunition table below), but it is not clear if it was ever issued to towed TD battalions.
As a result of the aforementioned shortcomings, commanders and troops generally preferred an alternative in form of self-propelled tank destroyers, which offered better mobility and also better protection for their crews.
The greatest test of the TD battalions and their M5 guns came during the
Battle of the BulgeThe Ardennes Offensive was a major German offensive , launched towards the end of World War II through the forested Ardennes Mountains region of Belgium , France and Luxembourg on the Western Front...
. In this battle, towed tank destroyers fought much less successfully and suffered much higher losses than the self-propelled ones. A report from the aforementioned 823rd battalion said that "tank destroyer guns were one by one flanked by enemy tanks and personnel driven from guns by small arms and machine guns fire". Taking the recent combat experience into account, on 11 January, 1945 the
War DepartmentThe United States Department of War, also called the War Office, was the cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the US Army...
confirmed a request to convert the towed TD battalions to the self-propelled form. This decision meant gradual removal of the M5 from frontline service, a process that continued until the end of the war in Europe.
As of 2005, the M5 was still used by the US Army for
ceremonial purposesthumb|right|250px|Part of the ceremony of the Changing of the Guard in Whitehall, London.A ceremony is an activity, infused with ritual significance, performed on a special occasion.-Celebration of life:...
.
Ammunition
The M5 utilized fixed ammunition, with the same 76.2x585R cartridge case - designated
3 inch Cartridge Case Mk IIM2 - as other descendants of the
3 inch M1918 anti-aircraft gun, and had basically the same barrel. That meant the same anti-tank characteristics as those of vehicle mounted anti-tank guns derived from the T9, namely the M6 (used in the
3 inch Gun Motor Carriage M5, which never reached production) and the M7 (which was the main armament of the 3 inch Gun Motor Carriage M10 and the
M6 Heavy TankThe Heavy Tank M6 was an American heavy tank designed during World War II. The tank was produced in small numbers and never saw combat.-History and description:...
). The below table lists ammunition available for the three guns. It is possible that some types (e.g. the APCR round) were never issued to towed TD battalions.
| Available ammunition |
| Type |
Model |
Weight (round/projectile) |
Filler |
Muzzle velocity |
| AP-T |
AP M79 Shot |
12.05 / 6.8 kg
(26.56 / 15 lbs) |
- |
792 m/s
(2,600 ft/s) |
| APCBC/HE-T |
APC M62 Projectile |
12.36 / 7 kg
(27.24 / 15.43 lbs) |
|
792 m/s
(2,600 ft/s) |
| APCR-T |
HVAP M93 Shot |
9.42 / 4.26 kg
(20.76 / 9.39 lbs) |
- |
1,036 m/s
(3,400 ft/s) |
| HE |
HE M42A1 Shell |
11. 3 / 5.84 kg
(25 / 12.87 lbs) |
TNTTrinitrotoluene , or more specifically, 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, is a chemical compound with the formula C 6H 23CH 3. This yellow-coloured solid is a reagent in chemistry but is best known as a useful explosive material with convenient handling properties...
, 390 g |
853 m/s
(2,800 ft/s) |
| Smoke |
Smoke M88 Shell |
6.99 / 3.35 kg
(15.41 / 7.38 lbs) |
Zinc chloride (HC) |
274 m/s
(900 ft/s) |
| Target practice |
TP M85 Shot |
|
|
|
| Practice |
Practice M42B2 Shell |
|
|
|
-
| Armor penetration table |
| Ammunition \ Distance |
457 m
(500 yds) |
914 m
(1,000 yds) |
1,371 m
(1,500 yds) |
1,828 m
(2,000 yds) |
| AP M79 Shot (meet angle 30°, homogeneous armor) |
109 mm |
92 mm |
76 mm |
64 mm |
| APC M62 Projectile (meet angle 30°, homogeneous armor) |
93 mm |
88 mm |
82 mm |
75 mm |
| HVAP M93 Shot (meet angle 30°, homogeneous armor) |
157 mm |
135 mm |
116 mm |
98 mm |
| Different methods of armor penetration measurement were used in different countries / periods. Therefore, direct comparison is often impossible. |
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