The effective employment of German armored forces was a subject of serious study following the fall of France in 1940. For the United States, it was suggested that the best way to combat a mechanized force would be with specifically designed anti-mechanized units, with emphasis on firepower, mobility, visibility for the gunner, and little armor. While these specifics would go on to dominate US tank destroyer philosophy for the duration of the war, at the beginning of 1941 there was little available in the way of guns or chassis for such a self-propelled weapon, and the process of designing and producing a special-built tank destroyer would take at least a year. But the US needed tank destroyers now.
One of the earliest designs was the T21 GMC, which was a light Dodge truck with a 37 mm gun mounted to the bed. This vehicle would soon be standardized as the M6 GMC, but numerous technical faults kept the production of the vehicle extremely limited, and the mechanized units that received them deemed the M6 GMC an overall failure. In light of this, some units removed the gun and its assembly, and replaced the .50 caliber machine guns on their M2 Half-Tracks with them.
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| Artistic rendition of the M2 anti-tank variant, courtesy of Tanks-Encyclopedia. |
While there's little difference between the M2 and M3 half-tracks, it's important to make distinctions between them nevertheless. Because the M2 with the 37 mm gun is a field modification, it lacks a proper identification. So, I went ahead and constructed the name "M2 GMC" for a tank destroyer based on the M2 Half-Track. It may not have been actually realized, but I think it's the most accurate we can get.
Truthfully, the M2 GMC is more of a light tank than a tank destroyer. It's just remarkably fast for its tier, and in exchange for that mobility to lacks a turret.
Guns: .50 Caliber MG HB M2; 37 mm Gun M3
Engines: White 160AX (147 hp)
Suspensions/Alternate Hulls, Total Weight (metric tons): M2 Half-Track (8.7); M2A1 Half-Track (8.89)
Hull Armor (mm): 13/6/6
Top Speed: 72 km/h
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