@SOMTHING-o2m

9 months ago

i would shoot it with a T5 Phase 1. A dummy 37 mm has been installed. Also, note the wheels on the upper track, these would be removed later on (Photo: Hunnicutt’s Sherman)

For armament, there were two arrangements under consideration. The first had the main weapon mounted in a 360-degree traverse turret, as was the case on the failed T4 Medium Tank. The 2nd was to have the main armament carried in a barbette or essentially casemated in the hull, in an arrangement like that of the T4E1.

As early as 1934, Captain George H. Rarey* had proposed a combination of both in a design based on the earlier Christie chassis. This idea was liked but a few more changes would need to be made. In order to stay in line with the intended role of infantry support, it was decided to mount 4 machine guns in rotors mounted in the sponsons at the corners of the fighting compartment, and to have the main armament mounted in a turret above all of this, much like the 1934 turret design. This arrangement was then finally adopted for the T5, although one difference was that the original design had the 2 forward .30 caliber machine guns mounted in auxiliary turrets rather than in the sponsons. Additionally, 2 .30 calibers were added in the hull for the driver to use with an additional provision made for anti-aircraft mounts for two more additional machine guns. The turret was also designed to carry the new high velocity 37 mm then in development, however, this gun was not available when the tank was delivered in its final state for trials in 1938. In its place, 2 older 37 mm cannons were installed to mimic the higher recoil of the new 37 mm, with the intention being to later replace them with the single high velocity 37 mm for further tests. However, this was seemingly never done as the surviving T5 today still has both 37 mm cannons.

*Captain H. Rarey (1881-1954) was a US Infantry Captain. He is little known today, but he co-authored a book ‘The Fighting Tanks 1916-1933’ and wrote a few pieces in magazines like ‘The Coastal Artillery Journal’ about tanks. and had numerous patents pertaining to tanks or weapon mountings.

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