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VHU will introduce new item of its collections, the M3A1 tank

17.07.2017, 12:00

Visitors of NATO Days in Ostrava & Czech Air Force Days can expect not only modern equipment of security and armed units, but also the historical one. It is traditionally presented also by the Military History Institute (VHU) that will offer a display of the U.S.-made light tank M3A1, acquired in November 2016.

In previous years, the VHU presented vehicles made by the Czechoslovak military industry and now, after six years, returns to products of American origin, as it presented the M-36 Jackson tank destroyer in 2011.

“The Military History Institute provides very interesting and rarely seen pieces of equipment every year, this time it is also a premiere participation, although the tank was produced 75 years ago,” says Zbyněk Pavlačík, Chairman of Jagello 2000. “It was never in service in regular Czech or Czechoslovak army, regarding its origin, but it was still used by Czechoslovak forces that were part of the Western Allied armies.”  

The light tank M3A1 was the main combat version of the M2/M3 type, used in the U.S. Army in 1941, when it entered the World War II. It was reliable vehicle, but it cannot in direct combat match German tanks, because of its construction and only 37mm cannon. That is why it was primarily used for infantry support and reconnaissance missions. However, it proved to be effective for fighting in jungle environments against Japanese forces.

Large numbers of these tanks were send also to other Allied armies, especially the British one (where they were named “Stuart”). They were supplied under lend-lease policy to the armaments of the Red Army as well, and belonged to the equipment of the 1st Czechoslovak Independent Armoured Brigade Group that was containing the German-held port of Dunkirk at the end of the World War II. After the war, surplus tanks were acquired by many Asian, Latin-American or African countries, which continued to use them often till 1970’s.

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