Customer Reviews

M10 and M36 Tank Destroyers 1942-53 (New Vanguard)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book describes American tank destroyer development from the unauspicious beginnings with the cheesy M5 that constantly broke down, various prototypes that weren't put in production, and halftrack mounted guns to the effective M10 and M18 76mm gun tank destroyers. Several pages describe the conversion of M10s with a new turret armed with a 90mm gun which became the M36 tank destroyer, the shortage of M10 hulls requiring some to be completed with Sherman tank hulls, as well as the British M10C Achilles armed with the much vaunted 17-Pounder gun.

After reading this book, I feel it should have been titled "The M10 Tank Destroyer...Oh Yeah, And The M36 Too". While I had no idea before reading this book that M36 tank destroyers are mostly converted M10s and also are not officially called 'Jackson', the deployment history of the 90mm M36 series feels abbreviated. Like Zaloga's M4A3(76mm) Sherman 1943-1965 book, post-war use is sparse, with only a page and a quarter of text but several nice pictures and caption commentary filling in for the laconic state of the post-war section. I certainly would have appreciated more details on how some of these foreign customers of the M10 and M36 used them; instead, the nations are described in passing, such as the Western European allies, Egypt, South Korea, Pakistan, and Yugoslavia, with no unit descriptions or how they fared in battle. It really is unfortunate that considering the Zaloga quality of work of the development and deployment of the M10 76mm gun tank destroyer, the M36 90mm gun tank destroyer appears like an afterthought that was appended merely to flesh out a book about the M10.

Steven Zaloga is one of my favorite writers on AFVs and Tanks. This new series does not disappoint. I was particularly interested in the performances of the M10 and M36 in combat, and Zaloga describes those in detail, in particular the inadequacies of the 76mm gun in combat and the effectiveness of the 90mm, especially against the German Panther and Tiger tanks in the Ardennes. What I really liked were the little charts that Zaloga inserts throughout the book, which shows statistics such as the armor penetration comparisons of the 76mm & 90mm, the production numbers of the M10 and M36 in 1943-1944, the combat losses, and the conversion numbers of M10s into M36s. As usual, the Vanguard series offers great B & W photographs as well as colored illustrations of the vehicles in the middle. Zaloga always includes a good bibliography and notes on the color plates. Zaloga is able to pack it a lot of information in 48 pages of text. This is an excellent treatment of the M10 & M36. If you're an armor enthusiast or a modeler, you'll enjoy this book. Highly recommended!

I found the book to be a thorough and complete review of tank destroyers during that time period. Included is a discussion of their usage and history as well as usage in WWII battles where they played a key role.

In 1940, the US army was the 17th largest in the world. After watching the German Blizkreig, everyone knew something had to be done, and quickly. Here the idea developed to creat a mobile Anti Tank gun to stop the German offensive. It had to be put into production quickly and cheaply.

To save weight, there was no turret top. Mistake. Made the crew vulnerable to granades and sniper file. Ironically,the turret was unbalanced, so they had to add counter weights of 3,000 pounds so it would rotate properly. Did't save much weight after all.

Another design feature - trade armor protection for speed. Did not work that way. US tank destroyers were sent in as tanks to support infantry. As usual, we put cannons on the destroyers that were no better than the M-4's until late 1944 when 90mm versions arrived.

This is a great book on a brief history of US tank development of the M-10 and M-36. A lot of important information, statistics and data is included. Numbers manufactured, dates, etc. Very good B&W photos, some line drawings. A good balance between a history book and a modelers book.

The author tucks away a neat factoid on the cover page - the M-36 commonly referred to as the "Jackson" was a post war name and not found in WW2 references by the Army or crew. Nor was the M-10 called the Wolverine. Intersting and shows how these small jems can suprise you with information you thought you already knew. I recommend this book.