75 mm GMC M3
Halftrack Td · USA
A Sherman-class 75 mm on a fast open halftrack with almost no armour. It cannot turn on the spot and the gun swings 20° each way: shoot from a hull-down spot, then drive off.
(the vehicle's description in the garage)
At a glance
| Nation | USA |
| Role | Tank destroyer (TD) |
| Modelled variant | 75 mm Gun Motor Carriage M3 (M1897A4 on the M2A3 pedestal mount, M3 half-track), 1942 production with the standard flat shield, as the US tank destroyer battalions used it in Tunisia 1942-43 |
| Price | 450 credits |
| Team stock | 2 per five-player team (scales with team size) |
| Hit points | 520 |
| Main gun | 270 damage per AP shot, 4.4 s reload |
| Speed | 72.4 km/h on roads, 34 km/h off-road |
| View range | 240 m |
| Ability (B) | Ammo Drop |
| Garage ratings | Armour 1/10 · Firepower 5/10 · Mobility 10/10 · Spotting 7/10 |
History
The 75 mm Gun Motor Carriage M3 was an improvised tank destroyer: a 1897-design French 75 mm field gun on a pedestal mount in the back of an M3 half-track, behind a gun shield. It was fast and had a good gun, but almost no armour and an open crew compartment.
The M3 GMC equipped the first US tank destroyer battalions in North Africa and fought at the Kasserine Pass and El Guettar in early 1943. It was also used in the Pacific. It was replaced by the M10 from 1943.
In Armor Heads
Design note: 75 mm GMC M3: the French 75 (M1897A4) on an M3 half-track, open, 19 deg left / 21 right (README 114), no smoke; steers like the 250/9 (about an 18 m turning circle).
Compared with the other 34 WW2 vehicles, it is bottom 5 for hit points (#33 of 35); bottom 5 for effective hp (#33 of 35); bottom 5 for hull front armour (#35 of 35); bottom 5 for turret front armour (#35 of 35); top 5 for road speed (#2 of 35); top 5 for off-road speed (#3 of 35); bottom 5 for aim time (#34 of 35); bottom 5 for turret / gun traverse speed (#31 of 35).
Survivability
- Hit points: 520. Damage taken multiplier: 1.22 (effective HP 426).
- Open-topped: HE near misses do 1.5x splash damage and hit the crew three times as hard, so they knock crew out far more easily.
- Tracks: a hit on the running gear breaks a track 45 % of the time (the hit does no damage); the crew repairs it in 5 s.
| Zone | Real plate | Damage multiplier (lower = thicker) | Raw shell damage to destroy through this zone | AP of the other 34 vehicles that gets through |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull front | 12.7 mm | 1.51 | 176 | 34 |
| Hull side | 6.3 mm | 1.9 | 140 | 34 |
| Hull rear | 6.3 mm | 1.9 | 140 | 34 |
| Roof | open | 1.9 | 140 | 34 |
| Turret front | 15.9 mm | 1.37 | 194 | 34 |
| Turret side | 6.3 mm | 1.9 | 140 | 34 |
| Turret rear | open | 1.9 | 140 | 34 |
Real plate: the thickness of the real vehicle's armour there, and its slope from vertical with the line-of-sight thickness in brackets; each zone's multiplier is worked out from it (see how the numbers work). The last column counts square-on hits under 100 m.
Main gun
- Mount: casemate, gun arc 19° left / 21° right of the hull centreline at 14°/s; turn the hull to aim further.
- Elevation +29° / depression -10°, at 18°/s.
- Reload: 4.4 s.
- Damage per minute (AP): 3,682.
- Accuracy: 0.065° dispersion when settled, aim time 1.76 s, move bloom 0.1.
- Gunner's sight: M33, 4x (binoculars 6x / 10x / 15x).
| Shell | Type | Damage | Splash | Blast radius | Muzzle velocity | Penetration threshold | Rounds | Crew shock |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Armour Piercing | AP | 270 | 20 | 2.5 m | 610 m/s | 0.68 | 20 | - |
| High Explosive | HE | 182 | 140 | 6.5 m | 604 m/s | 1 | 10 | 1 |
The penetration threshold is the lowest zone multiplier (the thickest armour) the shell still gets through: zones below it stop the shell (10 % damage for AP, 20 % for HE). See how the numbers work.
HE and the crew: every direct hit shakes the crew (slower reload and traverse, a wider aim circle) for about 1.9 s when the plate stops it and 3 s when it bursts through. It is big enough to knock crew members out of their seats even when the plate stops it.
Matchups (AP against the hull front, square-on, under 100 m)
- Its AP gets through the hull front of 16 of the other 34 vehicles. It is stopped by: Tiger I, M4 Sherman, Panther, T-34/76, T-34-85, Panzer IV Ausf. H, Sherman Firefly, M26 Pershing, Tiger II, IS-2, Churchill VII, KV-1, StuG III Ausf. G, SU-100, Jagdpanther, ISU-152, M32 TRV, Jagdpanzer 38 Hetzer.
- 34 of the other 34 vehicles' AP get through its hull front. None of them is stopped by it.
- From the side, 34 of them get through its hull side; from behind, 34 get through its hull rear (every zone is in the table above).
Secondary weapons and equipment
- No working roof machine gun.
- No smoke dischargers.
Mobility
- Running gear: halftrack: front-wheel steering, no pivot turns, minimum turning radius 9 m.
- Top speed 72.4 km/h on roads, 34 km/h off-road (47 %), reverse 14.5 km/h, acceleration 4 m/s².
- Turn rate 46°/s (25°/s at top speed). Mass 9,100 kg. Engine start 1.5 s.
Special ability (B)
Ammo Drop: a supply crate comes down by parachute just behind the tank and lands 8 s later; every tank of the team (this one too) that drives over it in the next 60 s gets 50 % of its full shell and smoke load back, once each. Ready 30 s after the round goes live, once per round; another use costs 150 credits.
Where it appears
Players can take it on all seven WW2 maps, on either team. The AI fields it on:
- Kasserine Pass 1943, Blue (Allied side): 2x in an 8-vehicle line-up (first at position 3).
Where it ranks (1 = best of 35)
| Stat | Rank |
|---|---|
| Hit points | 33 |
| Effective HP | 33 |
| Hull front armour (lower multiplier = thicker) | 35 |
| Turret front armour | 35 |
| Road speed | 2 |
| Off-road speed | 3 |
| Shot damage (AP) | 27 |
| Damage per minute | 9 |
| Reload (shortest first) | 12 |
| Accuracy (smallest dispersion first) | 18 |
| Aim time (fastest first) | 34 |
| Turret / gun traverse speed | 31 |
| View range | 11 |
| AP penetration (lower threshold = goes through more) | 27 |
| Price (1 = most expensive) | 32 |
The real vehicle
| Variant | 75 mm Gun Motor Carriage M3 (M1897A4 on the M2A3 pedestal mount, M3 half-track), 1942 production with the standard flat shield, as the US tank destroyer battalions used it in Tunisia 1942-43 |
| Length with gun | 6.24 m |
| Hull length | 6.24 m |
| Width | 1.98 m |
| Height | 2.49 m |
| Ground clearance | 0.435 m |
| Track width | 0.31 m |
| Gun | 75 mm gun M1897A4 on the M2A3 pedestal mount: traverse 19 deg left / 21 deg right, elevation +29 / -10 deg (M3A1 with the M5 mount: 21 / 21, +29 / -6.5) |
Sources used for the model: TM 9-710 Basic Half-Track Vehicles (1944) par. 4 tabulated data https://archive.org/details/TM9-710-BasicHalf-TrackVehicles-WhiteAutocarandD ; Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M3_Gun_Motor_Carriage ; tank-afv.com https://tank-afv.com/ww2/US/T12-M3_Gun-Motor-Carriage.php ; V. Maltsinov three-view (refs/tafv_blueprint_M3A1.jpg)
In-game model: 6.24 m long (gun included) × 2.02 m wide × 2.51 m high (antenna excluded), 6,338 triangles, built at true scale.
Images
Renders of the in-game model in a plain nation colour (the game paints its camouflage at runtime).
