m3 medium:

the m3 lee(official us designation: m3 medium) was a medium tank created and produced in the us from 1941 to 1943 and was used by britain as the m3 grant from 1941 to the end of ww2. it used on the north african front, the eastern front(by the ussr) and asia against japan by the uk.

development:

in 1940, the us had after seeing the succes of the panzer iii and panzer iv in france deemed that the current medium tank in service at the time, the m2/m2a1, was unmodern and would be useless against german tanks of the time. it was planned then to fit a 75mm gun to the m2a1's turret but the americans did not have the design experience to fit a 75mm gun into the m2a1's turret so it was decided to design a new turret with a 75mm gun and an interim tank with a 75mm gun to service before the new turret was ready. an experimental modified m2 medium was fitted with a 75mm howitzer in the hull to turn it into an spg, designated the t5e2, and it was decided that the interim design would be based off of it. the americans decided that the tank would have to have a 75mm gun and decided to make the tank be based of a modified version of the m2's hull and the turret of the m2a1 which had a 37mm gun.

design:

the tank had its 75mm gun mounted in an odd way; an offset sponson in the hull. it had the turret and 37mm gun of the m2 with a cupola on top with an m1919 .30-06 machine gun. the hull also had two machine guns that the driver could control and as stated, a 75mm gun mounted in a sponson. its hull was riveted, which if struck even with non-penetrating shots could send the rivets flying in the tank in a deadly ricochet.

crew:

the tank had a driver, commander, a gunner and loader for the 75mm, a gunner and loader for the 37mm gun and while the lee had a radio operator, the grant did not. the crew count totalled to 7 for the lee and 6 for the grant. the full-time radio operator for the lee was later removed and the job was given to the driver.

armament:

for the lee, it had a 75mm m2/m3 gun in the hull with 47 shells stored for it, a 37mm m5/m6 gun in the turret with 178 shells stored for it, an m1919 mmg in a cupola mounted on the top of the turret and two m1919 mmg's mounted in the hull that the driver could control. the grant however, as the radio was placed in the turret made it take the place of 50 shells for the 37mm gun. the two hull mounted mg's were later removed, though they apeared on early shermans.

service history:

the m3 fought in a few different fronts, these are: the north african front, the eastern front, the east asian front and the pacific theater(although not many fought in the pacific). how it ended up on the eastern front was from soviet service from lend-lease agreements, though it was not popular with the soviets due to its petrol engine and that it could catch fire and its general weakness to most types of german tanks. stalin wrote in a letter to franklin d. roosevelt "I consider it my duty to warn you that, according to our experts at the front, U.S. tanks catch fire very easily when hit from behind or from the side by anti-tank rifle bullets. The reason is that the high-grade gasoline used forms inside the tank a thick layer of highly inflammable fumes."[the quote was copied from wikipedia here]

variants:

lee:

the original design. the radio was placed in the hull and the turret had a cupola with a machine gun.

grant:

the british design, the radio was moved to the turret, thus removing the need for a radio operator and the cupola was replaced with a simple hatch. the turret armor was also improved