What tank is this?
 

I took this pic from a 'History' program on the campaign in North Africa, US troops on the beaches in Tunisia (I think). But I am not familiar with this tank alighting a landing craft.

It is Marmon-Herrington CTL-3M light tank. Initially built as the CTL-3 with rubber band track, they were rebuilt in 1941 as CTL-3M for the USMC and delivered in 1942. They were fitted with a vertical volute suspension system and track identical to the M2A4 Light Tank.

For more information see my website: http://www.geocities.ws/marmonherrington/

Also of interest on my site is The 'Marine Tank' of 1936: The Strange Case of the Marmon-Herrington Tank in the US Marine Corps by Kenneth W. Estes

HTH,
Hanno

Attachment 66426

Thanks Hanno, the suspension looked familiar as it looks like a common system to a number of tanks. I'd never seen this profile previously and the pic doesn't show it as heavily armed. Thanks for your reply and links. Cheers Tim

Tim,

According to the documentation available, they were equipped with 3 x .30 Cal. MGs. But this seems to have been the idea of the manufacturer, in practice so many MGs in a confined space was not practical.

I think these "tanks" could be classified as the "crawl" phase in "crawl-walk-run". Amazing how much progress was made during the course of WW2.

Hanno

Hi Hanno, I guess after WW1 it was a steep learning curve, developing tracked vehicles in the hope another war wouldn't come along. It was interesting reading your link and the development of this vehicle by the marines. Weight restrictions etc. but it seems it was really a light tank for infantry support with greater expectations on it than it could provide at the time.
My interest has developed through model making as a kid, I guess I'm surprised I've never seen a model of this tank, when there seems to be a variation on just about every other vehicle that saw some kind of service. Thanks though, and thanks for your widespread input on this site. Cheers Tim