County of Display: San Diego County.
Location of Display: Hochmuth Ave., James L. Day Hall Museum, MCRD.
MCRD: Marine Corps Recruit Depot.
Plaque Text:
United States
37mm M3 Anti-Tank GunThis gun was developed in the late 1930's. It is 6 feet 10.5 inches long and weighs 191 Lbs (912 Lbs with the carriage). The M3 has a range of 8,000 yards and fires fixed ammunition with a projectile weight of 1.61 Lbs. The rate of fire is 25 rounds per minute.
Development History (from Wikipedia):
In the mid-1930s the United States Army had yet to field a dedicated anti-tank artillery piece; anti-tank companies of infantry regiments were armed with .50-cal machine guns. Although were some consideration had been given to replacing the machine guns with more a powerful anti-tank gun, the situation only began to change after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Combat experience from Spain suggested that a light anti-tank gun, such as the German PaK 35/36, was capable of neutralizing the growing threat posed by tanks.
In January 1937, the Ordnance Committee recommended development of a such a weapon; two PaK 36 guns were acquired for study. As the projected main user of the weapon the Infantry branch was chosen to oversee the work. They wanted a lightweight gun which could be moved around by the crew, so any ideas of using a larger caliber than that of the German gun were discarded.
Development and testing continued until late 1938. Several variants of gun and carriage were proposed until on 15 December a combination of the T10 gun and T5 carriage was officially adopted as the 37mm Gun M3 and Carriage M4. Although the weapon followed the concept of the PaK 36 and often referred to as a copy of it, the M3 differed significantly from the German design and used different ammunition.
The gun was manufactured by Watervliet Arsenal and the carriage by Rock Island Arsenal. The first pieces were delivered early in 1940, the production continued until 1943.
Production of M3,
Number of Pieces
Some minor changes in the gun construction were introduced during production. The carriage received a modified shoulder guard and traverse controls (carriage M4A1, standardized on 29 January 1942). Although Ordnance requested an upgrade of all M4 carriages to M4A1, this process was not completed. Another change was a threaded barrel end to accept a big five-port muzzle brake (gun M3A1, adopted on 5 March 1942). According to some sources, the latter was intended to avoid kicking too much dust in front of the gun, which hindered aiming; however, the brake turned out to be a safety problem when firing canister ammunition and consequently the M3A1 went into combat without the muzzle brake. Other sources mention the muzzle brake was intended to soften a recoil and they say that it was dropped simply because additional recoil control measures were not really needed.
In an attempt to increase the armor penetration of the M3, several squeeze bore adapters (including the British Littlejohn adaptor) were tested; none were adopted. Experiments with rocket launchers on the M4 carriage (e.g. 4.5in rocket projector T3) did not produce anything practical either.
U.S. ARMY use:
Under organization from April 1942, each infantry battalion had an anti-tank platoon with four 37 mm guns and each regiment an anti-tank company with twelve. Each of the four divisional artillery battalions possessed six anti-tank guns, combat engineering battalion nine pieces; in addition, divisional headquarters had four and divisional maintenance company two. 3/4 ton trucks or 1/4 ton trucks (better known as the jeep) were used as prime movers, except for engineering battalion which employed M2 halftracks in this role.
Although an earlier organization included divisional anti-tank battalion (two companies of 37 mm guns and one company of 75 mm guns), in December 1941 AT battalions were removed from divisional structure and reorganized as independent tank destroyer battalions; their towed guns were replaced with self-propelled ones as soon as the latter became available.
In 1942 the first airborne divisions were formed. According to their organizational structure of October 1942, an airborne division had 44 37 mm anti-tank guns: four in divisional artillery (AA/AT battery of parachute field artillery battalion), 24 in AA/AT battalion, and eight in each of two glider infantry regiments; parachute infantry regiment did not have anti-tank guns. In practice, airborne divisions often had only one glider infantry regiment and therefore 36 guns.
37 mm guns were also issued to the infantry regiments of the only mountain division formed in the United States - the 10th Mountain Division.
Marine Corps Use:
Under the D-series Tables of Organization (TO) from 1 July 1942, the role of AT weapons in Marine Corps service was officially entrusted to 20 mm automatic guns, in regimental weapon company (three platoons) and battalion weapon company (one platoon). In practice units used the World War I era 37mm M1916 for training. They were equipped with the M3 (four in each platoon) before being sent to the frontline. Additionally, a divisional special weapons battalion was equipped with self-propelled 37mm GMC M6.
Under the E-series TO from 15 April 1943, self-propelled guns in the divisional special weapons battalion were replaced with 18 37 mm towed guns in three batteries of six; an infantry regiment had a weapons company with 12, in three platoons of four. The battalion-level AT guns were removed. In total, a division possessed 54 pieces. The F-series TO from 5 May 1944 removed the special weapons battalion from the divisional organization, resulting in a total of 36 guns per division. The subsequent G-series TO reduced regimental weapon companies to two platoons, meaning 24 pieces per division. Although the G-series TO was only adopted on 4 September 1945, in practice in some divisions this change was introduced early in 1945.
Other who used the weapon:
The only major lend lease recipient of the M3 was the Chinese Kuomintang Army (1,669 pieces). The gun was also supplied to Bolivia (4), Canada (3), Chile (198), Colombia (4), Cuba (1), El Salvador (9), France (130), United Kingdom (78), USSR (63) and other countries (100). Some nations still had it in service in early 1970s.
Combat Service (from Wikipedia):
The M3 saw action for the first time during the defense of the Philippines in December 1941. It went on to become a factor in the Guadalcanal Campaign, where it was successfully employed against both Japanese armor and infantry. Throughout the war it remained effective against Japanese vehicles, which were thinly armored and were rarely committed in large groups. The light weight of the gun made it easy to move through difficult terrain; for example, when attacked by Japanese tanks on Betio during the Battle of Tarawa, Marines were able to heave the M3 over the five-foot-high seawall. While canister ammunition proved useful in stopping Japanese infantry attacks, against enemy fortifications the M3 was only somewhat effective because of its small high-explosive projectile. Its overall effectiveness and ease of use meant the gun remained in service with the Marine Corps and with some Army units in the Pacific until the end of the war. Unhappy with the unusually low shield of the M3, some Marine Corps units extended it to provide better protection. A standard kit was tested in 1945, but was never issued.
The experience of the M3 in the North African Campaign was completely different. The gun was not powerful enough to deal with late production Panzer III and Panzer IV. After the nearly disastrous Battle of Kasserine Pass in February 1943, reports from some of the involved units mentioned 37 mm projectiles "bouncing off like marbles" from the turret and front armor of German medium tanks and proclaimed the gun "useless unless you have gun crews with the guts to stand and shoot from 100 yards". The Army was initially uncertain if these reports reflected the obsolescence of the weapon, or whether unrefined tactics and lack of experience were to blame. Yet on 26 May 1943 a new organization had the M3 replaced by the 57mm Gun M1 (the US-produced version of the British QF 6 pounder), with Dodge 1 1/2 ton trucks as prime movers. But only by spring 1944 did the 57 mm gun reach the battlefield in large numbers.
Meanwhile, the Italian campaign was launched, and M3 guns saw action from the day of the Sicily landing on 10 July 1943. That day the 37 mm guns demonstrated once again both their effectiveness against pre-war tanks – when they helped to repel an attack by Italian Renault R 35s – and inability to cope with modern threats in a subsequent encounter with Tigers from the Herman Göring division. The Italian theater had a lower priority for reequipment than Northwest Europe, and some M3s were still in use in Italy in late 1944.
By mid-1944 the M3 had fallen out of favor even with airborne troops, despite their strong preference for compact and lightweight weapon systems. The Airborne Command had rejected the 57 mm M1 in the summer of 1943 claiming its unfitness for airlifting and the Table of Organisation and Equipment (TO&E) of February 1944 still had airborne divisions keeping their 37 mm guns. Nevertheless, the 82nd and the 101st, were reequipped with British-manufactured 6 pounders on carriage Mk III (designed to fit into the Horsa glider) for the Normandy airdrops. This change was officially introduced in the TO&E of December 1944.
The M3 was phased out of US service soon after the end of the war.
More can be found here: M3
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