Tom
Very interesting, thank you.
> his brief combat history. The US Army honored the Civil War Generals with
> quite a few named tanks, the Stuart (Jeb Stuart), the Lee (General Robert E.
> Lee - overall commander of southern forces) and of course the Sherman
I disagree. The names were conferred by the British War Department.
The US did not have a habit or history at that point in time of
"naming" armoured vehicles. You will not find names mentioned in
official (eg manuals) or unofficial use.
In US use British
M4 Sherman 1
M3 (light) Stuart (but to the troops = "Honey")
M3 (medium) Lee (US turret) Grant (British turret)
etc
M60 Never used by the British, so never named.
M113 Ditto
M114 Ditto
There has over time been sporadic attempts by the US to name vehicles
but due to the "M" number system it has never taken off.
eg M1 Abrams
Note that it is quite similar with the US Air Force they too used
number designators.
US British
P-51 Mustang
P-40 Kittyhawk
Although the British do have number designators, especially in the
pre-war and war years, the system was such a dog's breakfast that
only burocrats bothered. I believe the whole issue came to a head
one day when Winston Churchill couldn't figure out which Cruiser
tank was which (A series) and decreed names would be used. This is
where the British got stuck on the letter "C" for the names of
Tanks produced in Britian. I has been the case ever since.
The latest is Challenger. They are now actually recycling names
as they have run out of realistic names. Bit like the US has run out
of "M" numbers and started again at M1.
Regards
Doug
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Armoured Vehicles Collector
_______
_/_(_o_)_\_ ____
_/|___|_|___|\_ /____\
/ [___] [___] \ Douglas Greville _/[o]___\_
/\_ [o] [o] _/\ Broken Hill __/=_|____|_=\__
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|w|\u u/|w| Australia |w| \ / |w|
|w| \_________/ |w| |w|$ \______/ $|w|
[w] [w] [w] [w]
M8 Ferret
dgrev@ruralnet.net.au
Web Armour site at:
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