M103 Heavy Tank 1950–74
Author: Kenneth W Estes
Illustrator: Richard Chasemore
This 48 page paperback book is number 197 in the New Vanguard series from Osprey Publishing.
The T43 design represented the pinnacle of U.S. Army tank engineering of the late 1940s. The heavy tank proved fairly popular with its crews, who above all respected the powerful armament it carried. The outbreak of war in Korea brought a rush order in December 1950 which led to a complete production run of 300 vehicles. After 1951, the Marine Corps alone retained confidence in the heavy tank program, investing its scarce funds in the improvements necessary to bring about its fielding after a hurried production run in midst of the ‘tank crisis’ of the year 1950-51. The eventual retirement of the M103 in 1972, over 20 years after manufacture and after 14 years of operational service, demonstrated the soundness of its engineering. It may have been the unwanted ‘ugly duckling’ of the Army, which refrained from naming the M103 alone of all its postwar tanks. For the Marine Corps, it served the purpose defined for it in 1949 until the automotive and weapons technology of the United States could produce viable alternatives.
- The contents of this book are;
- Introduction
- Chronology
- Developing the T43 Heavy Tank, 1948-55
- The M103 Series Heavy Tank in Service
- Other Variants in Service
- Conclusion
- Further Reading
- Index
This book would be invaluable to the modeler or diorama builder because of all the color plates, photographs and especially the color cutaway view of the interior of the M103 Heavy Tank.
