Patton's Growing Pains

The US Army received the M48A5 tank in the early 1970s. This index represented earlier tanks, chiefly the M48A3, upgraded to match the characteristics of the M60. The modernization consisted of installing a 105 mm gun, new fire control systems, new engine, improved cruising range, etc. Large scale modernization began in 1975 and touched about 2100 tanks. However, there were earlier attempts to modernize the M48 to the M60 standard, attempts that will be covered in this article.

Warspot Article: Tanks Worth Their Weight in Gold

One can often hear the argument that Moscow would have fallen in 1941 if not for Lend Lease tanks provided free of charge to the USSR. The truth is somewhat more complicated than that. Read what effect foreign tanks had at Moscow and how they got there in my latest Warspot article.

Gas Siphon

 "Award Order

1. Name: Polyakov, Anatoliy Arkadyevich
2. Rank: Guards Red Armyman
3. Position and unit: mechanic-fitter of the technical support company, 18th Minsk Order of the Red Banner Guards Tank Brigade
   is nominated for the "For Courage" medal.

1. Year of birth: 1920
2. Nationality: Russian
3. In the Red Army since: 1940
4. Party affiliation: none
5. In combat since: August 7th, 1942
6. Wounds and contusions: none
7. Prior awards: Defense of Stalingrad medal
8. Recruited by: Vladimir recruitment office, Ivanovo oblast

Brief and specific description of combat heroism or accomplishments: A T-34 tank was knocked out in battle on October 13th, 1944. In order to repair it, several road wheels had to be transported from the brigade's repair base.

When the order was given, the repair truck had no gasoline, which delayed delivery of spare parts. Comrade Polyakov suggested siphoning gasoline from a Panther tank knocked out in no man's land. He carried out this mission within 20 minutes, which made delivery of parts and repair of the T-34 tank possible.

For his resourcefulness and fearless action, he is worthy of the "For Courage" medal.

Commander of the technical support company of the 18th Minsk Order of the Red Banner Guards Tank Brigade, Guards Captain Denisov"

Via Podvig Naroda

A Sequel with Improvements

The American Heavy Tank T26E3 was standardized as the Heavy Tank M26 on March 29th, 1945. This stage was preceded by front line trials where the vehicle that the Americans spent so much time and effort building showed itself pretty well. Standardization was a green light for mass production. The end of the war limited the production volume to 2022 units, so the M26 never replaced the Medium Tank M4. It seemed that the end of production would herald in a new tank that had better armour and armament, but that was not the case. The first American post-war tank was the Medium Tank M46 or Patton, effectively a modernized M26.

Upgrade

 "#006
March 19th, 1945

In order to refresh the materiel of the Transbaikal Front tank forces, I order to:

1. Rearm the first regiment of each tank division of the Transbaikal Front with T-34 tanks (69 T-34 tanks).
2. Rearm the first battalion of each tank brigade with T-34 tanks according to TO&E 010/346 (25 T-34 tanks) and #010/318 (23 T-34 tanks).
3. Keep old tanks left over from rearming tank regiments and tank battalions in the reserve of the commanders of the tank divisions and brigades.
4. The Commander of Armoured and Mechanized Forces of the Red Army must send 234 T-34 tanks to the Commander of the Transbaikal Front to rearm tank regiments and tank battalions.
   Send the tanks and crews from May 1st to May 31st, 1945.
5. The Chief of the General Staff will give any necessary directions on transferring tanks to the Transbaikal Front.

People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR

Marshal of the Soviet Union, I. Stalin"

RGVA F.4 Op.11 D.160-161

Printed in Glavnoye Bronetankovoye Upravleniye Lyudi, Sobytiya, Fakty v dokumentakh, 1944-1945 p.440

Foreign Aid

"GBTU Tank Directorate report on the amount of imported tanks received from 1941 to January 1945

March 10th, 1945

	Crom-well	Chur-chill	Matil-da	Valen-tine 3-5	Valen-tine 7	Valen-tine 9-10	M4-A2	M4-A4	M3 med	M3 lt	M5-A1	Bridge-layer	Tetrarch	Total
1941	-	-	145	216	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	361
1942	-	84	626	636	323	-	36	-	812	977	-	-	20	3514
1943	-	174	147	430	709	637	469	2	164	255	5	-	-	2992
1944	6	-	-	82	9	290	2345	-	-	-	-	25	-	2757
January 1945	-	-	-	-	-	-	289	-	-	-	-	-	-	289
Total	6	258	918	1364	1041	927	3139	2	976	1232	5	25	20	9913

	Mk.1	M3A1	M2	SU-57 (T48)	SU-76 (T70)	SU-76 (M10)	SU M17	SU-37 (M15)	ARVs
1941	330	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1942	903	261	83	-	-	-	-	-	-
1943	403	608	30	251	-	-	-	-	-
1944	351	1954	-	409	5	52	1000	100	127
January 1945	16	180	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	2003	3003	113	650	5	52	1000	100	127

Deputy Chief of the GBTU TU, Engineer-Colonel Muravich

Chief of the 5th Department of the GBTU TU, Engineer-Colonel Biletkin"

CAMD RF F.38 Op.11355 D.3016 L.118 

Printed in Glavnoye Bronetankovoye Upravleniye Lyudi, Sobytiya, Fakty v dokumentakh, 1944-1945 p.429