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The M3 Lee Medium Tank — The Sherman’s Maligned Cousin
A common tank in WWII largely overshadowed by better variants
You can always tell which weapon platforms are considered good by how many get shipped to international partners. Countries will rarely ship their latest and greatest options to their allies. Most nations prefer to ship outdated, outmatched, or unpopular variants rather than the best option.
That is exactly what happened to the M3 Lee medium tank in World War II. Over 6,000 were manufactured and deployed, but many of the tanks were shipped to nations such as India, the Soviet Union, and Australia. That is because the M3 was an ineffective medium tank and an odd variant that could not stand up to the newest models of Panzer IV in the field.
The M3 Lee tank was rushed into production in 1940 as a way to provide Britain with a large number of medium tanks. But since the design and production were rushed, the final choices were ultimately poor, leaving tankers with an unwieldy beast that was hard to maneuver and could not go hull-down.
Design Flaws
The M3 Lee suffered from some major design flaws that hampered its performance on the battlefield. First, the tank was extremely tall. Soldiers called it a cathedral that rolled down the road. It was easy to spot and easy to identify. The other problem was that it used archaic design choices for the hull, turret, and rivets. The tank could not operate in a hull down position, which was a major problem for the crew. The rivets had a nasty habit of popping out when the tank suffered a glancing blow causing the turret to come off completely or shredding the tankers inside. The suspension was bad and rattled badly when the tank went off-roading or down dirt roads (like those primarily found in North Africa, where the tank was deployed).
The main gun was a 75mm turret which was an improvement over the old 37mm guns that the soldiers derisively called “the squirrel gun.” The 75mm turret was supposed to up the Allies' firepower to match the Germans, but the M3 Lee was hard to maneuver, had poor…
