I own a M5 upgraded to M5A1 status at the end of the war. During the war
radial engines were needed for aircraft and Cadillac proposed the twin V8's
the Army was not interested in it. They said they would not hold up but, go
ahead and make a test one. They drove it from the Cadillac plant to Aberdeen
a distance of apx 1000 on the road , then Aberdeen put it through its paces
and was adopted. After they used it for awhile, when they started to have
the M24 designed the said the power plant is to be twin caddie's. Design a
tank around it. So the twin V8's have proved themselves over and over. This
was the first American tank to have automatic remissions. Also the main
reason they radial engines in the first place in in the 30's they could be
had cheap.
Frank Robertson
Memphis, TN. USA
"Miss Dixie" "Tha Thing"
_______ ______
___| (.o.) |___ _/______\
|___|___n___|___| _/|_______|\_
|\ /| / [___][___] \
|_\[o]o____[o]/_| /\_ [o] [o] _/\
|w||_________||w| |w||_________||w|
|w||u_______u||w| |w|\u u/|w|
|w| |w| |w| \_______/ |w|
[w] [w]
M5A1 Stuart Light Tank M20 Armored Car
Tankdriv@gte.net
http://home1.gte.net/tankdriv/index.html
-----Original Message-----
From: Military Vehicles Mailing List [mailto:mil-veh@mil-veh.org]On
Behalf Of Richard Notton
Sent: Saturday, November 11, 2000 5:09 PM
To: Military Vehicles Mailing List
Subject: Re: [MV] Veteran's Day Parade and cadillac engines
----- Original Message -----
From: "Geoff Winnington-Ball" <gwball@sympatico.ca>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 11, 2000 8:22 PM
Subject: Re: [MV] Veteran's Day Parade and cadillac engines
> james swan wrote:
>
> > Think that you are not quite right re the nickname Honey re Stuart tanks
> > the nickname goes back to the early M3 Stuart. cheers James
>
> According to Robert Crisp in BRAZEN CHARIOTS, the appellation 'Honey' as
applied
> to the Stuart tank, was coined by his driver, Whaley, in Egypt, early in
the
> desert war, regarding the M-3. . . . . . .
> they had been unable to even throw a track (endemic with early British
tanks),
> Whaley had proclaimed, "...it's a 'honey', sir!". The name stuck.
>
It certainly did, I had the chance to "de-brief" my now rapidly ailing and
un-quizzable relation who fought a Stuart in the desert with the 8th Irish
Hussars, as these things do the unofficial name stuck and propagated
rapidly.
The dependability was welcome but the thin armour and inadequate gun (or
pop-gun as Jim calls it) was a liability against German tanks. They were
advised (ordered) not to engage anything over 400yds range as this is a
waste of ammunition, even so Jim tells me the sight of rounds bouncing off
was somewhat galling, however this crew was likely saved by the lack of
armour in that an 88 passed harmlessly through without splattering and only
ruptured an oil line on the radial, when it finally seized they baled out to
fight again.
Richard
Southampton - England
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Dec 03 2000 - 20:29:53 PST