M8A1 GMC

Description

Sometime in 1943, a project was underway to investigate how far light tank firepower could be improved. This culminated with the installation of a 75 mm gun from the M4 Sherman into the 75 mm HMC M8, which originally held a howitzer for infantry support. The modification proved successful, to the extent that both Armored Board and the Tank Destroyer Branch requested the conversion for evaluations. The modified M8, considered as the 75 mm GMC M8 or the "M8A1" in the evaluations, was determined to be a sufficient modification, carrying and firing the gun without detriment to the vehicle, with the downsides being the expedient nature of the modification, small ammo stowage, and crew discomfort due to the smaller internal space. While Armored Board had no interest in procuring the vehicle, the Tank Destroyer Branch found the M8 GMC suitable as an expedient design prior to the fielding of their newest M18 Hellcat tank destroyer, but this ultimately went nowhere when it was determined that the M8A1 could not be produced any sooner than the projected M18, and so the vehicle project was ended by June 1943.

Introduced in Update 1.45 "Steel Generals", the M8A1 is a Stuart light tank package with a medium tank firepower not too unlike the M24 Chaffee. Although its armour and crew survivability is poor, the emphasis on firepower and mobility allows players to use it as a light tank destroyer to flank and destroy enemy tanks with its firepower. Though the open-top design makes the vehicle vulnerable to aircraft strafing, a M2 machine gun is available to try and fight back against enemies, hopefully warding them off enough to avoid outright destroying the M8A1.

The M8A1 is one of the rarer American vehicles to acquire, being made available in a Winter 2014 event as an unlockable gift in the "War Thunder Christmas Special". After that, the M8A1 became available again as a Warbond shop reward as part of War Thunder's 4th anniversary.

General info

Survivability and armour

Armour type:

• Rolled homogeneous armour
• Cast homogeneous armour (Gun mantlet)

Notes:

• Suspension bogies and wheels are 15 mm thick while tracks are 10 mm thick.
• Tracks laid out on the turret side give an additional 10 mm of armour where they are stacked.
• Sandskirts on the bottom hull give additional 5 mm thickness.

Mobility

Modifications and economy

Armaments

Main armament

Ammunition

Ammo racks

Ammo racks of the M8A1 GMC

Machine guns

Usage in battles

This vehicle plays along with the American concept of the tank destroyers, fast and powerful, but lacking in armour. Using the terrain for cover is necessary to survive against the enemy shells, plus constant repositioning is needed to keep the enemy guessing where the M8A1 is located. However, if able to get the jump on the enemy, the 75 mm gun on this vehicle can destroy the vehicles at its rank and the addition of the .50 cal M2 Browning on top aids its versatility against lightly armoured vehicle and aircraft.

The main tactic for this vehicle is Shoot and Scoot, constant repositioning after every shot as the armour on the M8A1 is rather thin for its battle rating. If hiding behind a rock, pop up from one side then the other rather than just from one side to force the enemy to spend milliseconds reacquiring the M8A1 in their sights, milliseconds that can put the favour of the battle to the M8A1. This involves many trick and will take some time to learn, but once learned, the M8A1 will be a huge assist to the team. Be careful to not get greedy and trigger-happy, the exposure trying to get a target may result in a loss, so play conservatively and know full well when that sometimes there will only be assist and move on. An M8A1 that is used properly is such a powerful tool that it can single handily swing the game. That being said one unlucky second and it is a pile of charred metal, due to the huge amount of ammo crammed into such a small area.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Deadly firepower at its BR, penetrating the toughest tanks with ease, such as the B1, Matilda or even the early KV-1 in an uptier. Other tanks like the T-80 will easily get one-shot.
• Great gun depression allows hull-down shots on hills
• Multirole capacity (tank destroyer/light tank) allows flexible and fun gameplay
• Great mobility: reaches top speed relatively fast, and it doesn't lose speed drastically upon turning, allowing it to perform flanking manoeuvres easily.
• .50 cal machine gun can eliminate low flying aircraft & soft targets such as BT-7, Marder III, SU-76M. Also its low profile makes it easier to hide.
• No ammunition is stored inside the turret, decreasing the chance of ammo detonation which increases survivability
• Commonly misidentified as short-gunned M8 Scott

Cons:

• Thin armour plus the cramped crew gives it poor survivability. Can get destroyed easily by vehicles like ZiS-30, SU-76, StuG III A
• Gun breech is often damaged when turret is penetrated, making it defenceless
• Prone to drifting when cornering at high speeds
• Rather slow turret traverse speed (around 11 deg/s)
• Open-topped turret (exposing the crew & ammo rack) makes it vulnerable to artillery strikes and air attacks
• Although the gun is powerful, it still struggles to frontally penetrate the StuH 42 G especially with add-on tracks, while the StuH usually knocks out the M8 with a single shot
• All of its ammunition are stacked in every corner inside center compartment, single explosion in the middle of the hull can explode the ammo racks.

History

Development

In United State's entry into World War II, the troops in the front lines require a support vehicle similar to those in use by the German forces in the form of the StuG III. The project for such vehicle began as a design submitted in late 1941, which was a M5 Light Tank mated with a howitzer on the hull front, designated the T41. This design didn't pass as the howitzer on the hull sacrificed crew protection. The design was revised on the same M5 light tank and instead had the M5 turret removed and replaced with an open-topped turret similar to the US tank destroyers M10 GMC and M18 GMC, which mounted a 75 mm howitzer. This change caused the hatches for the driver and assistant driver to be placed on the glacis front rather than the hull roof. This design, called the T17E1 HMC was approved and put into production under the designation 75 mm Howitzer Motor Carriage M8, or the M8 Scott. The 75 mm M2 howitzer was the initial armament of the M8 before switching to the updated 75 mm M3 howitzer on the M8A1 variant. The howitzer was capable of firing smoke M89 or high-explosive M48 rounds, the vehicle could hold 46 of these 75 mm rounds. The M8 does not have any machine guns on the coaxial or hull-mounted area, but a .50 cal Browning was mounted on the rear right corner of the turret for infantry defense. The vehicle was put into production in April 1942 and continued until January 1944, of which a total of 1,778 units were produced by Cadillac only.

Combat usage

These vehicles would go on to serve in the Italian Campaign, European Campaign, and in the Pacific in the hands of the US Army. The M8 saw use in American service until the M7 Priest 105 mm self-propelled gun could be fielded in large numbers, which stopped the M8 production and service in American units. After being phased out of American service, the M8 was then given to the Free French forces that use them in the Western Front of the European operations. The French continue to use them all the way to 1954 in the French-Indochina conflict in use by South-Vietnamese forces. Other users of the M8 included the Khmers national army, Laos, China, and the Philippines.

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the M8A1 GMC from live.warthunder.com.

Videos

See also

Vehicles equipped with the same chassis

• M8 General Scott (Family)

External links

• [Wikipedia] Howitzer Motor Carriage M8
• [Tanks Encyclopedia] 75 mm Gun M3 on 75 mm Howitzer Motor Carriage M8 Chassis