[Milsurplus] RE:Radio in USMC Gun Motor Carriage 75mm M3

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

Yes, he was one of the gun crew, but according to Brent, says he never 
operated the radio.  He had an (illegal) camera and took some photos of the M3.  But 
all he's located so far are external shots.

A Self Propelled Gun is any type of Gun, Howitzer, Morter, Machine Gun, etc. 
able to move under its own power.  I.e., not towed.  In this case, "Gun" is 
generic, not specific.  Specifically, a Gun fires at an angle to the horizontal >
= 45 degrees.  > 45 degrees, it's a Howitzer.  Artillery and, with a few 
exceptions early in the last century or late in the previous where they called 
rifled cannon "Naval Rifles" didn't get into the "this is your rifle, this is 
your gun" like the Infantry did.

The M3, M10, M18 and M36 Tank Destroyers were all classed as Self Propelled 
Guns, not Tanks.  Or in other words, they were Artillery, not Tanks.  There 
were a number of SPG's built up on the M4 Medium Tank chassis.

TD's in general were also used as artillery, although in the indirect fire 
role they were handicapped in not having the same sort of sights or telescopes 
as most towed pieces.  In fact, for the most part, the Marine usage was as 
direct fire artillery, as the Japs had relatively few tanks.

The radios were mostly used for what you'd expect - There's a target over 
there.  Go shoot it.  :-)

In a message dated 11/10/2005 4:34:50 AM Central Standard Time, 
kargo_cult at msn.com writes: 
> >Muzzle blast from the 75mm M1897A5 made it nearly impossible for anyone to 
> 
> >stay in the front of the vehicle when the gun was being fired.  On the 
> other 
> >hand, I guess the auxiliary control box would have made it possible to 
> operate 
> >the radio from the back of the vehicle.
> >
> >Incidentally, the OK City veteran still insists that they only had a 
> >receiver.
> >Robert Downs - Houston
> 
> He was on that kind of vehicle?
> The manual was definitely for the pair-up. However, i suppose it wouldn't be
> too offbeat, that maybe only a "lead vehicle" or ground equivalent to 
> squadron or flight leader, to have the two-way?
> 
> Remember that ARB + TA-12 pair-up in a wooden chest that was on Epay a few
> months back ( unreasonable minimum, no home found for that weird child ), 
> that
> had been assembled by Alaska Land or Fisheries or similar Dep't ?  Like the 
> SPG
> RU-GF, this task would have been better done by an off-the-shelf boat radio 
> of
> the type built right up to WW2 - but i suppose all boat radio manufacturers 
> instead converted to "military production" !
> BTW, what was an SPG? Not a TD, was this basically just a rifle ( to use the
> Art'y lingo ) on a mobile chassis? So what would be the radio use? Not to
> Art'y observer, would it be? -Hue Miller ( who still regrets not buying  
> that
> RU-GF, Navy built AC supply when it was offered to him. ) ( and who still
> remembers RU receivers for  $2.99 in Seattle surpus store. )

Robert & Susan Downs - Houston
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