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The US M3 Medium Series
in Australia

Part One - Gun Tanks

by Paul D. Handel

A Grant Tank of the 1st Australian Armoured Division Headquarters Squadron, in mid-1942. The 75mm Gun is the shorter M2 Type, and the tracks are of the Double I type. The registration number 9154 is an Australian one and the 1st Australian Armoured Division “Battleaxe” formation sign is visible on the transmission housing.

Introduction

The most prolific foreign built armoured vehicle to serve in the Australian Army prior to the current M113A1 family of vehicles was the United States built M3 Medium Tank series. Altogether, some 757 M3 Mediums were received in Australia during 1942, and some of these served until 1955 in reserve units. This tank equipped the armoured regiments of 1^st Australian Armoured Division and allowed training to proceed with relatively modern and reliable vehicles.

Deliveries to Australia

A commonly held belief is that the M3 Mediums were shipped to Australia at the end of the North African campaign. Examination of records shows this to be most unlikely. The indications are that all the M3 Medium tanks for Australia were shipped directly from the USA, although the tanks formed part of orders from the British War Office on the US Government. During the second part of 1942, the M3 Medium formed a large portion of British tank strength in the Middle East, and it would seem most unlikely for tanks of this type to be removed from the Middle East at such an important time. It was the most modern of the AFVs equipping the British 8^th Army until the arrival of the first of the Sherman series in North Africa during August/September 1942.

Further evidence found shows that, in April 1943, the Australian Chief of the General Staff wrote to the Minister for the Army in reference to why Australia had supposedly received “defective tanks”, in reference to later model Lees not being fitted with side doors. The CGS commented that between November 1941 and May 1942, when the tank strength of the Commonwealth Armies was perilous, that the allocation of M3 Medium tanks from US production was as follows:

	M3 LEE	M3 GRANT	TOTAL
Australia	255	522	777
India	517	379	896
Middle East	75	657	732
United Kingdom	119	97	216
TOTAL	966	1655	2621

The delivery dates of these vehicles to Australia shows that by the end of April 1942, 54 M3 Mediums had arrived in country and by December 1942 a total of 757 M3 Mediums were on hand. All were therefore delivered to Australia within a period of nine months. (The discrepancy of 20 tanks with the above table is due to loss in transit.) Photographs of M3 Mediums on the wharves or in depots immediately after their arrival in Australia show them in a dark colour, most probably Khaki or Olive Drab, indicating the United States as their place of origin. Also, comments by Australian Ordnance personnel on receipt of the early shipments of M3 Mediums indicated that very good packing and preservation material was used, indicating a factory job. In fact many vehicles were carefully stripped of their packing and preservation and the details noted by the Australian Ordnance personnel, so that these could be used in the future for the proposed shipment of tanks from Australia to overseas destinations. This would most probably refer to the proposal to send the newly formed 1st Australian Armoured Division to serve in the Middle East after it was equipped and trained.

Grants of the Armoured Division on exercise in Western Australia late in 1942. These tanks have sandshields fitted, and the leading tank has the M2 75mm sponson gun fitted with a counterweight, signifying that stabilization is fitted to the gun. The registration number 24643 in white on black is the British number.

The first tanks arrived only a few months after the first prototypes of the Australian Cruiser Tank were completed, and by the time the go ahead for the AC production was given, substantial numbers of M3 Medium tanks were in Australia and already equipping the units of the 1^st Armoured Division. This was one of the factors which led to the termination of the Australian-built tank programme in the middle of 1943.

M3 Medium Types in Australia

By the end of 1942, some 502 Grants, both radial and petrol engined types, and 255 Lees had been received in Australia. A breakup of the 737 M3 Mediums still on strength in June 1944 was as follows:

M3 Medium Grant (Petrol) - 266

M3 Medium Grant (Diesel) - 232

M3 Medium Lee (Petrol) – 239

Thus it would appear that the three main types were roughly one third each of the total number of vehicles.

As for the actual models of M3 Mediums supplied to Australia, it has proven difficult to find a breakup of the types, but the following details, gleaned from photographs and archive documents, may be of interest. Certainly most of the early supplied tanks were the M3 Grant, with radial petrol engine. However, in one photograph of Grants parading at Puckapunyal in May or June 1942 there appears an M3 Medium Grant with radial petrol engine and welded hull - an M3A2. According to US sources, only 12 M3A2 tanks were built between January and March 1942, and photos only show the US type (Lee) turret fitted. The M3A2 Grant may therefore be a very unique vehicle. How many M3A2 Grant tanks arrived in Australia cannot be ascertained.

A Grant M3A5 on the firing point during post war exercises. The later type exhaust deflector with wire mesh protection screen is visible, as is the stowage of a spare idler wheel. This tank is also fitted with M4 suspension units.

The M3A5 Grant with rivetted hull would appear from photographic evidence to be the more common type of diesel engined Grant. There were numbers of M3A3 Grant with welded hull and the GM 6-71 twin diesels, and an examination of available photos shows possibly about l5-20% of Australian diesel-engined Grants were based on the welded hull M3A3.

The first Grants received carried the M2 75mm sponson gun with short barrel. Later deliveries had both the M2 barrel with counterweight or the M3 75mm with longer barrel.

Most of the tanks delivered in April and May 1942 were fitted with the so called WE 210 Double I rubber block track, but later the plain rubber block track was the more common type. Grousers could be fitted to the tracks, and on tanks seen later in the war, these were fitted in grouser racks carried on the glacis plate of the tank.

The M3 Medium Lee was also supplied in large numbers as noted above. All appeared to be petrol engined and had all rivetted hulls. At least one armoured unit, the 2nd Army Tank Battalion, was fully equipped with Lees in 1944. It appears that some early Lees were provided from a mid-production batch, having hull roof ventilators and hull side doors, and some of these were used for conversion to the Tank Recovery vehicle. Most Lees photographed had the hull side doors eliminated, and it appears that no Lee was supplied with a turret cupola as per the US vehicle – all photographic evidence shows a Grant style cupola fitted to the ones in service. The Australian Army believed these late model Lees to be unsuitable for service, and at one stage a programme was proposed for the modification of Lees. The 16 major modifications proposed included the fitting of hull doors, fitting a bulge to the turret to take a radio set, fitting turret hatches as per the Grant, fitting a 2-inch bomb thrower to the turret and installing 6mm armour plate to the ammunition bins. Not all the modifications were eventually undertaken, but certainly the turret hatches were fitted to make the vehicles at least useable for training.

M3 Lees mixed with Australian LP2 Carriers on a train. The Lees have their turrets traversed to the left and are not fitted with their 37mm guns. The C Squadron sign is duplicated on the turret, hull sides and hull rear. These tanks have no side doors and are of a late batch supplied to Australia indicated by the British number on the hull rear.

Some sources state that the Australian M3 Lees came from surplus British stocks from the Burma campaign. Given the fact that all M3 mediums were received in Australia by the end of 1942 makes it most unlikely that this was the case, and a glance at the table above shows that India received their M3 Mediums in the same allocation as those for Australia.

To say the designation of the Mediums in Australia was confused would be an understatement. The Australian-produced driving and maintenance manual for the diesel Grant dated 1943 gave the designation as Tanks Grant II, Medium M3A5. However, a 1944 amendment stated "For Tanks Grant II Medium M3A5 read Tanks Medium M3 General Grant III" and "The M3A5 tank known in Australia as the General Grant III has both welded and rivetted hull. The explanation in the Census of Warlike Stores (Mechanical Vehicles) November 1945 adds further to the confusion with these descriptions.

Tanks Medium M3 General Grant I	Radial Petrol Engine Turret (British design) has top half of rolled plate, otherwise cast armour.
Tanks Medium M3 General Grant II	Similar to above but turret entirely of cast armour.
Tanks Medium M3 General Grant III	Diesel engine, otherwise similar to Grant II.

The registration numbers of the M3 Medium in Australia offer some details of the vehicles. The first arrivals which paraded at Puckapunyal in May and June 1942 during the early public appearance of the 1^st Australian Armoured Division, were all petrol-engined Grants. These carried registration numbers in the 9001-10000 series, allocated according to an Australian Mechanisation Circular issued in March 1942. After mid-1942 M3 Grants were seen with registration numbers in the 23000, 24000 and 25000 series. These appear to be British War Department numbers, as they correspond to those issued by the British for M3 Medium Tanks. Some M3 Grants photographed in mid-1942 carried the British WD number, complete with T prefix, as well as an Australian 9000 series number. M3 Lees often carried numbers in the 25900 and 26000 series.

Modifications

A number of modifications were made or proposed during the war. An Tank Recovery Vehicle was designed and built in Australia during 1943, and it appears most production models were built on M3 Lees. A dozer tank, utilizing the M1 blade assembly as fitted to the M4 Sherman series was also built. Most Grants in service during 1944 and 1945 were refitted with M4 suspension units with trailing return idlers, as the M3 types were no longer available from the United States. Based on the experience of the Matildas in jungle operations, where the Japanese concentrated their fire against the lower hull and tracks of the Matildas, an applique armour plate was designed and built for the transmission housing of the Grant. This was about 38 mm thick and made from cast steel. Likewise. “bomb” covers for the rear engine deck hatches were made, and anti-grenade meshing was supplied for the top of the fighting compartment. These protective modifications can all be seen on the M3A5 Grant and M3A5 Grant Dozer preserved at the RAAC Memorial and Army Tank Museum at Puckapunyal.

Other proposed projects included the fitting of an Australian Cruiser Tank Mark 3 turret mounting a 25 pounder gun, fitting a Frog flamethrower in a Grant turret and fitting a Hedgehog Rocket projector to a Grant. These did not amount to anything due to the cessation of hostilities.

Post War Use

All petrol-engined Grants and all Lees were declared obsolete at the end of the war and were disposed of. In August 1947, a total of 149 Grant diesels were available for issue, although not all were serviceable. The formation of the post-war Army in 1948 saw the main armoured units of the Royal Australian Armoured Corps being one regular regiment equipped with Churchills, and two Citizen Military Force (Reserve) armoured brigades, one equipped with M3 Medium diesels and the other with Matildas.

A column of Grants of a regiment of the 2^nd Armoured Brigade passing the saluting base during a parade in the 1950s. The first vehicle is a welded hull M3A3 , which is fitted with M4 Sherman suspension units. The empty grouser racks can be seen on the hull front.

The Grants and their variants were allocated to the 2^nd Armoured Brigade, based in Victoria. The 4/19^th Prince of Wales’s Light Horse Regiment and the 8^th/13^th Victorian Mounted Rifles Regiment both used the Grants. Even post war, modifications to the Grants continued. The Yeramba Self-Propelled Gun, designed and built in Australia and based on the M3A5 hull, was used by 22 Field Regiment (SP) in support of the 2^nd Armoured Brigade. A Beach Armoured Recovery Vehicle (BARV) was also built on the M3A5 hull and used by the Royal Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (RAEME) Training Centre until the 1960s.

By October 1955 only 50 Grant diesels were available for the series of annual CMF camps for the 2^nd Armoured Brigade, and they were then taken out of service and disposed of. Thus ended a service life of some 13 years for M3 Medium diesel-engined tank with the Australian army, a very commendable effort, and a tribute to their durability.

M3 Medium Tank Data

	M3	M3A5	M3 Lee
Length	18 ft 6 ins	18 ft 7 ins	18 ft 6 ins
Width	8 ft 11 ins	8 ft 11 ins	8 ft 11 ins
Height	9 ft 9 ins	9 ft 9 ins	9ft 10 ins
Weight (laden)	29 tons	30 tons	29 tons
Armament	1 x 75mm M2 or M3	1 x 75mm M2 or M3	1 x 75mm M2 or M3
	1 x 37mm M5 or M6	1 x 37mm M5 or M6	1 x 37mm M5 or M6
	2 x 0.30 in MG	2 x 0.30 in MG	2 x 0.30 in MG
	2 x 4 in Smoke dischargers	2 x 4 in Smoke dischargers
Ammunition	40 rounds 75mm	40 rounds 75mm	40 rounds 75mm
	182 rounds 37mm	182 rounds 37mm	182 rounds 37mm
Engine	Wright 9 Cylinder Radial , Air Cooled Petrol	Twin General Motors 6046 Series 71 Diesel	Wright 9 Cylinder Radial , Air Cooled Petrol
	6000 rounds 0.30 in	6000 rounds 0.30 in	6000 rounds 0.30 in
Fuel Capacity	142 gallons	120 gallons	142 gallons
Crew	Commander Gunner (hull) Operator (hull) Gunner (turret) Operator (turret) Driver	Commander Gunner (hull) Operator (hull) Gunner (turret) Operator (turret) Driver	Commander Gunner (hull) Operator (hull) Gunner (turret) Operator (turret) Driver
Maximum Speed	25 mph	25 mph	25 mph

Notes on data:

If fitted with the 75mm gun M3, the tank is 1 ft 7 ins longer.
Early tanks fitted with WE 210 Double I track or T41 Smooth rubber block track, 16 inches wide. Later tanks, and those fitted with M4 style suspension units were fitted with T51 Smooth Rubber block track, 16 ½ inches wide.
The hull machine gun was rarely, if ever, fitted to M3 Mediums in Australia.

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS

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	This Grant appears to be the M3A2 welded hull with petrol engine. The tracks are in almost pristine condition. It carries an interesting array of markings- both an Australian registration number 9144 on the engine doors, and a British number T 23708 on the hull side. The 1^st Australian Armoured Division formation sign and the white 62 on green square, indicating the second armoured regiment of the Division’s junior armoured Brigade ( probably 2/9^th Armoured Regiment). Location is Puckapunyal in May 1942.
	Motoring along the street along tramlines, this Grant is pictured in late 1943 sporting the Australian two colour camouflage. The irregular shaped Bridge Classification disc is in yellow with the weight (27) in black. The British registration number is shown without the T prefix, and the vehicle carries the formation sigh of the 4^th Australian Armoured Brigade. This vehicle may also belong to the 2/9^th Armoured Regiment.
	A late war Grant, sporting grouser racks on the glacis plate and next to the driver’s hatch. The registration number is partly obscured by the tow cable. A triangle with 3 on the hull sides denotes a vehicle from A Squadron.
	A welded hull diesel engined Grant making a dramatic exit from a washaway. This M3A3 carries a B Squadron square on the turret and hull.
	A close up of the Australian Designed and built cast armour applique piece fitted over the transmission housing. This plate was 1 3/8 inches thick, and it was often seen on late war Grants, as well as many post war Grants and Yeramba SP Guns.
	An M3 Lee driving onto an Diamond T Tank Transporter. This vehicle of the 2^nd Army Tank Battalion is painted in two colour camouflage, and has no hull doors. The markings are a white 10 on red square, with the formation sign of an mailed horse’s head indicating the Regiment’s parent formation, the 3^rd Army Tank Brigade.
	A Lee exiting a creek during tests with grousers on the rubber block tracks. The later type solid bogie wheels are evident in this view.
	Another Lee in the creel line. This vehicle has the M2 gun fitted with counterweights and appears to have the driver’s visor missing. A windscreen with wiper has been mounted in the driver’s hatch. The Grant type commander’s hatch can be clearly seen.