3" Anti-Tank Gun M5

The 3" Anti-Tank Gun M5 was a U.S. Army weapon developed in response to the rapid success of Nazi Panzer divisions in 1941, when Army Ordnance hastily combined a World War I-era 3" anti-aircraft gun with the carriage, breech, and recoil system of the 105mm howitzer M2. Standardized as the 3" Anti-Tank Gun M5 on the M6 Carriage, it was issued only to Tank Destroyer Battalions during World War 2, formations created specifically to stop massed German tank attacks. Anti-tank guns equipped 28 of the 60 Tank Destroyer Battalions that saw combat, and each of those 28 battalions had 36 guns. Although designed to destroy tanks, the guns were frequently used against other targets and in an indirect fire role, first seeing action in Italy in October 1943. During the war, 58 were lost in combat in Italy and 228 in the European Theatre of Operations, including 86 during the Battle of the Bulge alone. In integrated defense against attacking tanks, the 3" ATG M5 ended the war with a favorable loss ratio of about 1:1.3, but Tank Destroyer Battalions using the same 3" gun on the self-propelled M10 achieved a much better 1:6 kill ratio against enemy tanks, leading to the gradual withdrawal of towed 3" Anti-Tank Guns from service during World War 2 and their replacement by self-propelled guns. From December 1942 through September 1944, 2500 were produced, with the M5 gun manufactured at Rock Island Arsenal in 1943 and the M6 carriage by Pullman Standard in 1942. The weapon weighed 4875 pounds, was towed by an M3 Half-Track, could fire up to 15 rounds per minute, and had a crew of 10 consisting of a gun commander, gunner, driver, and cannoneers numbered 1 through 7.

Summit, Illinois · United States