World War 2 In Review

M5 High-Speed Tractor

M5 Tractor prime mover.

The M5 High-Speed Tractor is an artillery tractor that was used by the US Army from 1942.

The M5 is a fully track vehicle designed to tow the 105 mm Howitzer M2, and the 155 mm Long Tom field artillery, and carry the gun crew and ammunition. A winch and roller system allows the M5 to pull vehicles to the front or rear. Armament is a single anti-aircraft M2 Browning machine gun.

The M5 was standardized in October 1942 from the T21, a vehicle based on the tracks and suspension of the Stuart tank. International Harvester started production in 1942. The M5 did not serve in US Army for long after World War II, but Japan, Austria, Yugoslavia and Pakistan continued to use it.

Specifications

Type: Artillery tractor

Place of origin: United States

Used by:

U.S. Army

Belgian Army

Japan Self-Defense Forces

Austrian Armed Forces

Yugoslav People's Army

Lebanese Army

Pakistan Army

Wars:

World War II

Korean War

Lebanese Civil War

Designed: 1942

Manufacturer: International Harvester

Weight: 13.791 t

Length: 5.03 m (16 ft 6 in)

Width: 2.54 m (8 ft 4 in)

Height: 2.69 m (8 ft 10 in)

Crew: 1 + 10

Armor: none

Main armament: 1 x M2 Browning machine gun

Engine: Continental R6572 six-cylinder petrol engine; 235 hp (175 kW) at 2,900 rpm

Power/weight: 15.0 hp/t

Operational range: 125 mi (201 km)

Speed: 35 mph (56 km/h)

Variants

M5: Soft top, center driver, Vertical Volute Spring

M5A1: Hard top, left driver, Vertical Volute Spring

M5A2: Soft top, center driver, Horizontal Volute Spring

M5A3: Hard top, left driver, Horizontal Volute Spring

M5A4: Half top, center driver, side ammo boxes, Horizontal Volute Spring

Surviving Artifacts

Marshall Museum

One at 45th ID Museum

Museum of the American G.I., College Station, TX (unit is fully functional)

One M5A2 at Armourgeddon Tank Driving, Husbands Bosworth, Leicestershire, UK Armourgeddon

One M5 at the Kansas Museum of Military History in Augusta, Kansas, USA unit is fully functional

One M5 at the Arkansas National Guard Museum in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

Many M5 Tractors were used in British Columbia, Canada, as carriers for rock drills. The Chapman "Drilmobile," manufactured by Chapman Motor & Machine Shop of Delta, BC was designed specifically for logging road construction, and was quite popular.

Presentation of the three main artillery prime mover high speed tractors (HST), circa 1944. From Field Artillery Journal, April 1944.

Soldiers pulling 155mm howitzer with an M5 Tractor, Camp Adair, Oregon, 1945.

M5 Tractor dragging sleds of ammunition to the front on Saipan as a jeep equipped to lay wire waits on the side of the road.

Army personnel pulling a 155mm Howitzer with a International M5 High Speed Prime Mover during a test or demonstration. 1943.

Tractor, High Speed, 13-ton, M5, was designed as a prime mover for towing large field artillery guns such as the 90mm Anti-Aircraft Gun, the 155mm Gun, the 8-inch Howitzer, or other heavy weapons. It is shown here towing a 105mm Howitzer.

U.S. military equipment lined up outside International Harvester's Bettendorf Works. Pictured left to right are an M5 Tractor (1st design), an M5 Tractor (last design), an M4 Medium Tank, an M32 Tank Recovery Vehicle, and an M5 Light Tank.

The Soviet Union received almost 200 M5 High Speed Tractors in 1944 and, as being notoriously short in prime movers, instantly deployed them to their heavy artillery units.

Another M5 High-Speed Tractor in Soviet service. Both photos show them towing the Soviet 152mm ML-20 Howitzer.

M5 High Speed Tractor, artillery prime mover, with .50 cal. machine gun on ring mount.

Tractor, High Speed, 13-ton, M5, was designed as a prime mover for towing large field artillery guns such as the 90mm Anti-Aircraft gun, the 155mm Long Tom, the 8-inch Howitzer, or other heavy weapons..

Tractor, High Speed, 13-ton, M5, with canvas cover, towing 155mm Howitzer for visiting dignitaries.

M5 High Speed Tractor with cover and ring mount removed.

2nd Infantry Division M5 High Speed Tractor towing an M10 Ammunition Trailer, near Les Moulins, Omaha Beach West Exit D-3, Normandy, France, 7 June 1944. The partially destroyed anti-tank concrete wall was blocking the beach exit until destroyed by U.S. forces.

M5A4 High Speed Tractor, based on the M5A2 augmented with additional, rearranged storage.

Field artillery M5 High Speed Tractors with 155mm howitzers in tow, preparing for D-Day, southern England, late May/early June 1944.

13-ton High Speed Tractor, M5, towing a 155mm Howitzer, M1, on the Route Nationale 13 (RN 13), circa June 1944.

M5A1 High Speed Tractor towing the M1 155mm Howitzer, Germany, 1945.

M5 High Speed Tractor, artillery, and vehicles of the 90th Infantry Division prepare to cross the flooded Moselle River via a newly constructed treadway bridge, Cattenom, France, November 1944.

M5 High Speed Tractor pulling two M10 Ammunition Trailers, Biak Island, New Guinea, 8 June 1944.

M5A1 High Speed Tractor, with a cab similar to the M4 High Speed Tractor, circa 1945.

M5 High Speed Tractor towing a 155 Howitzer M1.

M5 High Speed Tractor towing a 155 Howitzer M1 across a ponton bridge.

The M5 High Speed Tractor continued in use into the 1950s. A convoy with artillery prime movers in Korea. The leading vehicle is an M5 High Speed Tractor.

M5 High Speed Tractor, Fort Lewis Museum, towing a 155mm Howitzer.

M5 High Speed Tractor, Marshallmuseum, Liberty Park, Oorlogs-museum Overloon, The Netherlands.

M5 3-inch Gun Motor Carriage

This is an early version of the 3-inch Gun Motor Carriage (GMC) M5. Many changes to stowage and the crew's positions were made during development, and a muzzle brake, shields for the crewmen seated in front of the gun shield, and a rear stabilizing spade were eventually fitted.

The 3-inch Gun Motor Carriage M5 was the first U.S. tank destroyer to carry a heavier gun than the 37mm anti-tank gun, but it was never a popular design and the project was abandoned before production got under way.

In 1941 U.S. Army Ordnance had designed the M6 37mm gun motor carriage, a tank destroyer that carried the standard 37mm anti-tank gun of the day on the back of a ¾-ton truck chassis. 5,380 of these vehicles were produced between April and October 1942, but by then it was clear that the 37mm anti-tank gun was obsolete.

Work began on a series of designs for tank destroyers with heavier guns. The first to get underway was the 3-inch Gun Motor Carriage T1. This mounted a 3-inch anti-tank gun on a chassis based on the Cleveland Tractor Company high speed tractor, an aircraft towing vehicle used by the USAAF. Work began at the end of 1940, and the T1 was standardized in November 1941 as the 3-inch Gun Motor Carriage M5.

The M5 was powered by a 160 hp Hercules diesel engine. The 3-inch gun was mounted at the back of the vehicle, with an open gun shield. There was no crew platform, and the crew operated the gun from the ground behind the vehicle.

The resulting vehicle was disliked by Brigadier General Andrew Bruce, commander of the Tank Destroyer Force. He refused to accept the M5 for his tank destroyer battalions, and instead wanted the 75mm Gun Motor Carriage M3, which was based on a half-track personnel carrier. Although work on this project only began in June 1941 it was standardized in October 1941 and was much more popular than the M5. As a result the M5 program was cancelled before the start of series production.

Rear view of 3-inch GMC M5.

Another view of the same 3-inch GMC M5.

Same 3-inch GMC M5 with modifications.

Later version of the 3-inch GMC M5 with added protection for the crew.

M2 Medium Tank

Medium Tank M2, 1939.

The Medium Tank M2 was a United States Army tank that was first produced in 1939 by the Rock Island Arsenal, just prior to the commencement of the war in Europe. Production was 18 M2 tanks, and 94 slightly improved M2A1 tanks, for a total figure of 112. Events in Western Europe rapidly demonstrated that the M2 was obsolete, and it was never used overseas in combat; it was, however, used for training purposes throughout the war.

The M2's unique features included an unusually large number of machine guns, bullet deflector plates, and sloped armor on the hull front (glacis plate). The main armament was a 37 mm (1.5 in) gun, with 32 mm (1.3 in) armor; the M2A1 had a 51 mm (2.0 in) gun mantlet. The features of the M2 series development, both good and bad, provided many lessons for U.S. tank designers that were later applied with great success in the M3 Lee, M4 Sherman and many other armored fighting vehicles.

Rock Island Arsenal started work on a new medium tank, based on the design of the M2 Light Tank. Initially designated the T5, the redesigned model (with a 350 hp R-975 radial engine) was re-designated as the M2 Medium Tank in June, 1939. After the first 18 units had been produced at Rock Island Arsenal and evaluated by the army, the upgraded M2A1 specification was approved with a redesigned turret and a more powerful engine.

The medium tank M2 was a larger development of the M2 Light Tank. Many components were common or used a similar design, including the vertical volute spring suspension which would be used in later tanks as well. Twin-wheeled bogies were mounted externally, and rubber-bushed and rubber-shod track proved durable on roads. The initial M2 model was powered by an air-cooled Wright R-975 radial engine. For the M2A1, this engine was supercharged to provide an extra 50 hp (37 kW) for a total of 400 horsepower (300 kW), and designated as the R-975 C1 radial engine.

The M2 had a high superstructure, with a sponson-mounted machine gun in each corner. In addition, two more machine guns were fixed in the glacis plate and fired by the driver. Surmounting the superstructure was a small revolving turret armed with a 37 mm Gun M3 and a coaxial machine gun. The 37 mm gun could penetrate 46 mm of face-hardened armor sloped 30° at a range of 500 yards (457 meters), and 40 mm at 1,000 yards (914 meters). This armament configuration was a hybrid between the sponson-mounted weapons of the Mark VIII Liberty tank of World War I vintage, and the combination of turreted cannon, coaxial machine gun and glacis-mounted machine gun that was almost universal in World War II medium tanks. (Two additional .30-caliber machine guns could be mounted on pintles on either side of the turret for anti-aircraft use, bringing the total to nine—surely a record for any tank brought into service by any army.) The crew consisted of the tank commander, a driver and four gunners. The vehicle provided internal stowage for 200 rounds of 37 mm ammunition and up to 12,250 rounds of .30-caliber.

Bullet deflector plates were installed over the rear fenders. The idea behind these plates was that the tank could drive over a trench, and the rear sponson machine guns could then fire onto the plates; the bullets would deflect into the trench or the area directly behind the tank. Like the sponson machine guns themselves, the deflector plates turned out to be useless in modern warfare, since shooting at enemy troops in open trenches as a tank passed directly over proved to be a fairly unusual occurrence and a distinctly secondary manifestation of tank capabilities, with most engagements occurring at longer ranges.

Chrysler was appointed to manage a new tank plant, the Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant, to manufacture the M2, and the US Government contracted in August 1940 for 1,000 vehicles to be produced. Events in Europe made it obvious that the M2 was obsolete, and the government modified the contract two weeks later, before production began. Instead of M2 medium tanks, the plant would now build 1,000 M3 Grant tanks once they had been designed. In the interim production of the M2 was given to the Rock Island Arsenal, where 94 M2A1s were built up to August 1941. The M2A1 had slightly better armor and a slightly larger turret than the original M2, since it had the turret from the M3 Light Tank, with gun mantlet armor 2 inches (51 mm) thick.

The M2 was already obsolete when it entered service. It compared poorly with contemporary European tanks, such as the French S-35 and German Panzer III which could withstand 37 mm (1.5 in) anti-tank guns. The 37 millimeters (1.5 in) main armament of the M2 was equivalent to the 37 mm (1.5 in) the Panzer III, 47 mm (1.9 in) S-35 had more powerful guns. By 1941, Germany had upgunned the Panzer III with a 50 mm (2.0 in) L/42 gun, and the Soviets had fielded the vastly superior T-34, with a 76 mm (3.0 in) gun and a sloped 52 mm (2.0 in) glacis plate. Given this, the M2 was essentially a stopgap measure until more capable tanks like the M3 Lee and M4 Sherman came along in 1942-43. Although 18 M2s and 94 M2A1s were produced, the Ordnance office recommended in January 1942 that they should only be used for training purposes, and they were never sent overseas to combat areas. The U.S. Army fielded the M2 and M2A1 with the 67th Infantry Regiment (Medium Tanks) and, subsequently, the 1st Armored Division's 69th Armored Regiment during intensive training maneuvers in the United States in 1941, and the M2 design continued to prove useful in a basic training role for tank crewmen. The trained crewmen from the 69th Armored were scattered to provide cadres to several new armored divisions and independent M4 tank battalions, as U.S. armored forces were rapidly expanded in 1942-44.

For combat the M2 was generally a poor design, with thin armor, inadequate main armament and a high profile. The four sponson-mounted machine guns proved to be completely unnecessary and ineffective. But the design provided a few important lessons that were used for the later M3 and M4 medium tanks. In particular, the M2's sloped frontal hull (glacis plate) was extremely advanced for a 1939 design — the one bright spot in an otherwise dismal design — and a sloped glacis plate with substantially heavier armor would become a permanent feature of U.S. tank design. The next medium tank would have to match the German Panzer IV's 75 mm (3.0 in) turret gun. Since no suitable turret had been designed in the US, the Lee was designed first to mount a 75 mm (3.0 in) gun in the right sponson, which had been tested on an M2; the experimental vehicle was designated T5E2. The Lee's gun was mounted in a conventional turret on a modified M3, to produce the first Sherman eight months after the first Lee.

Specifications

Type: Medium tank

Place of origin: United States

Manufacturer: Rock Island Arsenal

Number built: 18 M2s; 94 M2A1s

Variants: M2; M2A1

Weight: 41,000 lb (18.7 metric tons)

Length: 5.38 m (17.7 ft)

Width: 2.59 m (8 ft 6 in)

Height: 2.82 m (9 ft 3 in)

Crew: 6 (commander, driver, 4 gunners)

Armor: M2 6.4–32 mm (0.25–1.26 in); M2A1 6.4–51 mm (0.25–2.01 in)

Main armament: 1× 37 mm Gun M3; 200 rounds

Secondary armament: 7× (maximum 9) .30-06 Browning M1919 machine guns; 12,250 rounds

Engine: Wright R975 EC2 air-cooled radial gasoline; 400/340 hp (298/253 kW)

Suspension: Vertical Volute Spring Suspension (VVSS)

Fuel capacity: 473 liters (125 U.S. gal)

Operational range: 210 km (130 mi)

Speed: 42 km/h (26 mph)

T5 Medium Tank Phase I.

T5 Medium Tank Phase III (M2 Pilot).

T5E1 Medium Tank.

Medium Tank T5E1.

Medium Tank T5 Phase 1.

M2 medium tanks.

M2A1 Medium Tank.

Medium Tank M2A1.

The M2 Medium Tank with E2 Flame Projector was an experimental mounting of the E2 Flamethrower unit upon the M2 Medium Tank.

An M2A1 Medium Tank (late production series).

The plethora of machine guns arming the Medium Tank M2 is well illustrated here. Each corner of the fighting compartment, each side of the bow, and the sponson roof anti-aircraft mounts all featured a .30 cal machine gun. Bullet deflector plates were installed over the rear fenders. The idea behind these curious additions was that the tank could roll over a trench, and the rear sponson machine guns could then fire onto the plates and the fire would deflect into the trench or the area directly behind the tank.

The turret on the M2A1 featured vertical sides to increase working room. The bullet splash deflectors on the hull front slope and rotor shields and sights on the sponson machine guns are also readily visible. The M2 family featured cooling fins on the final drive housings; these were dropped when the medium tank M3 was designed.

The T5E2 Medium Tank was the Phase III model reworked, mounting a 75mm Pack Howitzer in the modified right front of the vehicle, with the bow and rear corner machine guns being retained. A small six-sided cupola with rangefinder and machine gun replaced the turret. This was a test vehicle in the development of the Medium Tank M3.

T5E2 Medium Tank.

E2 Flame Thrower mounted in the M2 Medium Tank. Note the length of the flame thrower and its vulnerability when moving through wooded areas. Fort Knox, 11 June 1941.