January 18th, 2025
7minute read
Technology veritably exploded in the six years that encompassed the World War II.
The world had never seen such extraordinary growth before.
This 33,500-pound sportscar of a tank sported a piddly little 37mm cannon that was obsolete soon after its introduction.
During the First Indochina War, these French soldiers crewed an American-made M24 Chaffee light tank at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. Image: U.S. Army
The M3 had a top road speed of 36 mph and a range of 100 miles.
The Stuarts armor ranged between 0.375 and 2 inches and was mostly flat and square.
That made it susceptible to most German anti-armor weapons of the day.
This U.S. Army M24 Chaffee tank is part of a static display at Chièvres Air Base, Belgium. Image: Libby Weiler/U.S. Army
By 1943, it was obvious we could do better.
In addition to enhancing crew comfort, the improved running gear made the Chaffee a more stable gun platform.
The diminutive 37mm gun was arguably the Stuarts most glaring defect.
In this 1951 photo, soldiers of the Royal Netherlands Army are on the move in M24 Chaffee tanks during Exercise Crescendo on the Leusderheide. Image: Netherlands National Archive
By contrast, the M24 was fitted with a new lightweight 75mm gun pioneered aboard theB25H Mitchell bomber.
Hardened steel armor was about an inch thick all around and half again thicker across the gun mantlet.
However, unlike that of the previous Stuart, the turret and hull of the M24 were sharply sloped.
The M24 Chaffee was both fast and reliable. These attributes made it arguably the most successful light tank of WWII. In this display, you can see the tank’s steering differential.
This both assisted in deflecting solid shot and increased the practical thickness of the armor plate.
Standard HE rounds packed 1.5 pounds of TNT explosive filler.
Capped armor-piercing rounds would penetrate 3.2 inches of rolled homogenous steel at a range of 500 yards.
A Dutch M24 tank in action during training. The Netherlands employed about 50 of the tanks through the early 1960s, which they replaced with the French AMX-13. Image: Netherlands National Archive
Standard stowage for these two weapons was 3,750 rounds.
There was also anM2HB .50-cal.on the roof with 440 rounds for antiaircraft use.
American power transfer systems had come a long way in a few short years.
The Chaffee’s sloped armor gave more effective protection than the squared-off sections on the previous Stuart.
The M24s Hydramatic transmission offered eight forward speeds and four reverse.
When slaved to a Twin Cadillac Series 44T24 powerplant, the M24 had plenty of spunk.
The cumulative result was a fast and agile light reconnaissance tank.
During NATO exercise Grand Repulse, this Dutch M24 Chaffee light tank stands ready to counter a communist invasion in West Germany. Netherlands National Archive
Combat Cred
Cadillac delivered the first M24 Chaffee on 15 October, 1943.
Army evaluators were so impressed they ordered 5,000 copies.
Production began in 1944 at both Cadillac and Massey-Harris.
In January 1946, Pvt. Eugene Hamilton of Huntington, Long Island, guards the 761st Tank Battalion tanks, including the M24s in the foreground. Image: NARA
The first M24 tanks landed in Europe in November of 1944, some four months after D-Day.
By August of 1945, 4,731 Chaffees had been built.
Unit cost was $39,653 apiece.
Australian troops work on a damaged American Chaffee tank that had been abandoned during a firefight with the Chinese in February 1951. It was returned to U.S. troops several weeks later. Image: AWM
The first serious combat seen by the M24 was the Battle of the Bulge.
These fresh armored vehicles were rushed into action to stem the German assault through the Ardennes.
When used in the reconnaissance role as intended, the M24 acquitted itself well.
U.S. M24 Chaffee tanks drive down Charlottenburger Chaussee during a VJ Day parade in Berlin. The street would be renamed Straße des 17. Juni to commemorate an uprising in East Germany. Image: IWM
The enhanced mobility and ease of maintenance made the Chaffee popular with its crews.
Many to most of the Chaffees arrived in theater too late to influence the outcome of the war.
Several units did not exchange their Stuarts for Chaffees until after V-E Day.
A M24 tank leads a parade through the Netherlands town of Nuenen commemorating the 80th anniversary of Operation Market Garden. Image: Sgt. Austin Robertson/U.S. Army
However, its crews used the frisky little tanks speed and agility to good advantage.
This did not end well.
Once deployed to the frigid wastes of Korea, the guns and turret gear often failed.
Able Company of the 78thTank Battalion was the first American armored unit to deploy.
A mere 30 days later, only two of their 14 Chaffees were still mission capable.
The short-barreled 75mm guns on the Chaffees performed poorly against theT-34/85 tanksthe Russians had gifted the North Koreans.
The lightly-armored Chaffees suffered at the hands of North Korean anti-tank weapons as well.
When these WWII-surplus Chaffees were finally employed properly, they excelled.
The M24 was replaced in U.S. service by theM41 Walker Bulldog tankin 1953.
These 10 tanks ultimately fired some 15,000 rounds before finally being overwhelmed five months later.
Some 66 Pakistani Chaffees were lost as late as 1971 in the Indo-Pakistani War.
IndianT-55 tanksandPT-76 amphibious tankshad the older Chaffees badly outmatched.
They used M24 Chaffees as M4 Sherman analogs and Spanish M47 Pattons in lieu of German Panthers and Tigers.
The M24 Chaffee was born in the crucible of combat.
It reflected unproven technology and was thrown into action as quickly as possible.
