Sahara

Rewatched this classic WWII movie.  Starring Humphrey Bogart.  There is a baby faced Lloyd Bridges who is trying to do a Brit accent and rarely is 'gasping for air.'


But the real star of the show is the M3 Lee tank that Bogie is in charge of.  Lulubelle.

Gosh I love that tank.  Recognized as having limited capability even before it first rolled off the assembly line, by the time of the movie's filming in 1943 the Army could afford to loan one to Hollywood.  They had M4 Shermans they were concentrating on sending to Britain.

Tall, and ungainly looking, it had that offset 75 mm gun in a sponson with limited traverse.  Above that a 37mm turreted gun with a .30 cal co-axial.  That turret would have done well against Panzer IIs in France of 1940 if the French had a couple thousand of them.  On top of THAT turret was... another turret.  DANG!  With a M2 .50 cal.  At least in the movie.  That .50 (I think it is... no wait, it's prolly a .30 M1919) in that configuration in this movie doesn't seem typical.  This guy doesn't have one:

 
So, what do you do with a few thousand tanks that are obsolete before the paint dries?  I mean besides put them in a movie.  You chop off the top and make it an open top vehicle with a 105 mm howitzer.  Call it the M7 Priest.  Now THAT is a useful thing.  Coupla dozen of those in a battalion behind the front edge of a push?  That's a lotta rain.  And then, displace to a new area.  As long as the enemy has no planes to strafe you with that is a recipe for mobile success.