Military Officer - June 2007 - (Page 69)

An M-26 Pershing fights in Korea (facing page, top). Tank action during the Korean War was limited. Shortly before war with Japan, soldiers trained in the Philippines with this British M-3 Stuart — named after Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, according to British convention (facing page, middle). reels charging across great open spaces to assail the foe. These boxy, rivet-bristled vehicles had little maneuverability outside ﬂat terrain. The M-3 fought well in British hands in North Africa’s deserts in 1942, as did the M-4 Sherman and M-5 Stuart. (The British named their American lend-lease tanks after American Civil War generals; the U.S. Army continued this practice of naming tanks after generals — although not those who fought for the Confederacy.) General or no general, the M-3 design had a serious ﬂaw: The tank’s main 75 mm gun was mounted in the hull and not the turret, so the entire vehicle had to be aimed at the target when ﬁring. Invincible battleship The Vietnam-era M-551 Sheridan (facing page, bottom) is a lightweight tank (some purists prefer the term “light armed reconnaissance vehicle”) designed to be dropped by a parachute; it played a pivotal role in the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989. Equipped with a hedgerow-busting plow, a Sherman tank (above) moves through the French countryside during the invasion of Normandy, June 1944. America’s first diesel-fueled tank, the M-60 main battle tank (below), crosses the Maas River in the Netherlands. On the eve of the Pearl Harbor attack, both the Army and the Marine Corps had an independent tank battalion and were equipping with a more advanced vehicle. The Sherman tank burst onto the scene. Magazine ads during the war depicted the Sherman as an invincible battleship of the land, rolling over everything in its path and sweeping triumphantly toward victory. It made for good drama: Though the Sherman was robust and reliable, it typically was armed with a 75 mm gun that lacked the range and ﬁrepower to cope with the German Tiger and Panther tanks and the infamous German 88 mm cannon. But direct tank-versus-tank battles were rare, and the Sherman was more than adequate for other challenges on the battleﬁeld. Armored units fought in Shermans across North Africa and into Italy and later across the hedgerows of France. Marines used Shermans in the invasion of Tarawa in November 1943, the ﬁrst time tanks participated in an amphibious landing under ﬁre. Later in the war, many Shermans were manufactured with an JUNE 2007 PHOTOS: ABOVE, SP4 FREDERICK SUTTER, USA; TOP, U.S. ARMY/TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES MILITARY OFFICER 69

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Military Officer - June 2007

Military Officer - June 2007 Contents From the Editor From the President Your Views MOAA Directory Rapid Fire Washington Scene Financial Forum Ask the Doctor Chapter Activities Getting the Best Care Stand By Me Promise for PTSD Cover Story: Heavy Duty Unified Medical Command Pages of History Faces of MOAA Information Exchange Member Books Advertising Index MOAA Member Services MOAA Calendar MOAA Scholarship Donors Sounding Taps Encore

Military Officer - June 2007

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