M3 vs. M3A3 Stuart

Questions

Is the M3A3 Stuart really a 1943 tank?

Production of the M3A3 began in August 1942 and was discontinued in April of 1943. This makes it a 1942 tank talking about production dates, and a 1943 tank when talking about deployment dates since troops didn't get the M3A3 until early that year.

What's the difference between the M3 and M3A3?

The M3 started production in August 1941 at American Car & Foundry Company but was declared obsolete by mid-1943. It's replacement, the M3A3, began production in August 1942 and was issued to front line units in early 1943. So what's the difference between the M3A1 and M3A3 in regards to WWII Online?

Technical Details

	M3	M3A3
Crew	4	4
Weight	28,000 lbs	31,752 lbs
Height	7 ft 7 inches	7 ft 7 inches
Width	7 ft 4 inches	7 ft 4 inches
Ground Pressure	10.3 psi	10.56 psi
Main Gun	37mm M5	37mm M6 L/56
Main Gun Ammo	103	174
Secondary Gun	4x .30 cal M1919A4 (coaxial, hull,aa)	3x .30 cal M1919A4 (coaxial, hull, aa)
Secondary Ammo	8270	7500

The M3 is about 3 and 1/2 thousand pounds lighter and thus has less ground pressure. The big hook is the fact that the M3A3 carries roughly 40% more main gun ammo than the the regular M3. The main gun is also different although penetration statistics are similar. The real issue comes down to armor and how the tank itself is designed. The M3 was assembled by welding and rivets, and it's armor was rolled face-hardened steel. In contrast, the M3A3's armor was all welded (stronger than rivets) and sported homogeneous steel, which was stronger than the face-hardened steel on the M3. Keep in mind then, that not only is the M3A3's armor stronger, but it's sloped better as well. The statistics are below.

Hull Front, Upper	38mm @ 17°	25mm @ 48°
Hull Front, Lower	44mm @ 23°	44mm @ 23°
Hull Sides, Upper	25mm @ 0°	25mm @ 0°
Hull Sides, Lower	25mm @ 0°	25mm @ 0°
Hull Rear	25mm @ 0°	25mm @ 0°
Hull Top	13mm @ 90°	13mm @ 90°
Hull Bottom	13mm @ 90°	13mm @ 90°
Turret Front	38mm @ 10°	38mm @ 10°
Turret Mantlet	51mm @ 0° - 14°	51mm @ 0° - 14°
Turret Sides	32mm @ 0°	32mm @ 0°
Turret Rear	32mm @ 0°	32mm @ 0°
Turret Top	13mm @ 90°	13mm @ 90°

Not a big difference on paper huh? Well, take a look at the two pictures below and see how different that armor is. You'll notice there's a lot of flat faced sections of the M3 where the M3A3 is round or sloped. This means the M3 would have more impacts (and more penetrations) than the M3A3 which would have more ricochets.

Alright, so the M3A3 has more main gun ammo, better armor sloping, and is made of stronger material than the M3. So what else is there? The M3A3 has a 110 gallon fuel tank while the M3 only carries 54 gallons of fuel. Having a smaller fuel tank will limit the range of the tank, although it's not a huge concern in the mechanics of WWII Online at this time.

The M3A3 also has a turret traverse rate of 24° per second and is hydraulic, while the M3 is sporting the older M23 turret that can only turn at 20° per second and manual only. While a few degrees doesn't seem impressive, the M3A3 can fully traverse 3 seconds faster than the M3, a difference of almost 20%. The main guns were also different in that the M3A3's 37mm gun was 6" longer and had a semiautomatic breechblock instead of the M5's manual breechblock. Lastly, the M3A3 had a 360° periscope in it's turret that the M3 did not.

The last difference, and this will have to be investigated further: the M3 is rated at a top speed of 58kph road speed while the M3A3 is rated only at 50kph road speed. If it turns out to be true, the Stuart we have in game now is too fast. I'll have more from that once I get back from the Aberdeen Proving Grounds this spring.

Conclusion

The Rats modeled the M3A3 Stuart because they felt it would be "most representative" of the Stuart series and a good addition to the French tanking game. Unfortunately that could be said for a lot of units that the Americans and British would have liked to see as well. The fact that the M3A3 wasn't deployed until 1943 breaks all the rules we had assumed about Tier 1 RDP. The M3A3 is a much more survivable tank than the M3, and this point is punctuated by the fact that the M3A3 was entering production years after the other Tier 1 tanks had been declared obsolete. I don't blame the Rats for making the choice they did since they did it for monetary reasons and they're strapped for cash, but when times are better and more resources can be put to modeling, the M3A3 should be put in Tier 3 where it belongs and replaced by the M3. Until that point the integrity of the historical aspects of this game will be tarnished.

Please send any data, comments, or mindless flames here.

Sources

Hunnicutt, R.P. Stuart: A History of the American Light Tank, volume 1. Navato, CA: Presidio Press, 1992.
Reprinted with permission from Stuart, R.P. Hunnicutt Š1992, available from Presidio Press, 505B San Martin Drive, Suite 160, Navato, CA 94945.
Chamberlain, Peter, and Chris Ellis. British and American Tanks of World War Two. Frome, England: Cassell & Co., 2000.
Miller, David. The Illustrated Directory of Tanks of the World. Osceola, WI: MBI Publishing Co., 2000.
Siemers, Cary. "USA's M3 and M5 Light Tanks." World War II Tanks & Vehicles and Advanced Squad Leader. 25 Nov 2000. 10 Dec 2000 <http://www.shadowsfolly.com/WWII/USA/LightM3_M5.htm>.
Zuljan, Ralph. "M3 Stuart." Second World War Armor. 16 Mar 2000. 10 Dec 2000 <http://www.onwar.com/tanks/usa/fltm3.htm>. Second World War Armor
---. "M3A1 Stuart." Second World War Armor. 16 Mar 2000. 10 Dec 2000 <http://www.onwar.com/tanks/usa/fltm3a1.htm>. Second World War Armor
---. "M3A3 Stuart." Second World War Armor. 16 Mar 2000. 10 Dec 2000 <http://www.onwar.com/tanks/usa/fltm3A3.htm>. Second World War Armor

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