M36 GMC (China)
| This page is about the tank destroyer M36 GMC (China). For other versions, see M36 Jackson (Family). |
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Contents
Description
The ␗90-mm Gun Motor Carriage M36 represents the single M36 GMC captured by the People's Voluntary Army (PVA, 中國人民志願軍) during the Korean War in Cheorwon County (철원군，鐵原郡) which is now displayed at B1 hall of Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution; on the other hand, ROCA acquired ten M36B2 from the surplus of France after their loss in Indochina, these GMCs were then utilized as mobile artillery platforms during the First Taiwan Strait Crisis, using them to retaliate against the PLAGF in the artillery battles between the two powers. Until the late-1970s, these M36s had varying records of victories and losses against the PLAGF. They were eventually decommissioned and distributed across Taiwan Island and Kinmen Island as monuments or left abandoned.
Introduced in Update 1.91 "Night Vision", this vehicle is a version of the American M36 GMC, sharing identical characteristics. The only notable difference is that the Chinese M36 lacks the M304 shot APCR round available to the American M36 GMC.
General info
Survivability and armour
Armour type:
- Rolled homogeneous armour
- Cast homogeneous armour (Gun mantlet, Transmission area)
| Armour | Front | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 38.1 mm (56°) Front glacis 50.8-107.8 (9-63°) Transmission housing |
19.05 mm (37°) Top 25.4 mm Bottom |
19.05 mm (42°) Top 19.05 (1-45°) Bottom |
19.5 mm Front roof 9.5 mm Engine deck |
| Turret | 31.75 mm (2-53°) Turret front 76.2 mm (°) Gun mantlet |
31.75 mm (0-21°) | 25.4 mm (2-23°) |
Notes:
- Tracks are 30 mm thick, bogies are 10 mm thick while the wheels are 20 mm thick.
- Small slivers of 5 mm armour hang off the top side hull armour, giving minuscule protections at those areas.
- Track blocks on the side hull armour allows an extra 30 mm of armour at their locations.
Mobility
| Game Mode | Max Speed (km/h) | Weight (tons) | Engine power (horsepower) | Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forward | Reverse | Stock | Upgraded | Stock | Upgraded | ||
| Arcade | 52 | 7 | 28.1 | 710 | 954 | 25.27 | 33.95 |
| Realistic | 48 | 7 | 442 | 500 | 15.73 | 17.79 | |
Modifications and economy
| Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armaments
Main armament
The 90 mm cannon on the M36 is great at its BR. The stock AP has good penetration but lacks damage, so it is recommended to quickly unlock the APCBC which is superior in every aspect.
| 90 mm M3 | Turret rotation speed (°/s) | Reloading rate (seconds) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | Capacity | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Upgraded | Full | Expert | Aced | Stock | Full | Expert | Aced |
| Arcade | 47 | -10°/+20° | ±180° | N/A | 21.10 | 29.25 | 35.52 | 39.28 | 41.79 | 9.70 | 8.63 | 7.95 | 7.50 |
| Realistic | 14.28 | 16.80 | 20.40 | 22.56 | 24.00 | ||||||||
Ammunition
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | |||||
| 10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
| M77 shot | AP | 162 | 160 | 148 | 135 | 123 | 113 |
| M82 shot | APCBC | 185 | 182 | 169 | 155 | 142 | 130 |
| M71 shell | HE | 20 | 20 | 18 | 17 | 16 | 16 |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | |||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| M77 shot | AP | 822 | 10.61 | - | - | - | 47° | 60° | 65° | |||
| M82 shot | APCBC | 853 | 10.91 | 1.2 | 14 | 137.2 | 48° | 63° | 71° | |||
| M71 shell | HE | 823 | 10.55 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 1,210 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
| Smoke shell characteristics | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Screen radius (m) |
Screen deploy time (s) |
Screen hold time (s) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
| M313 | 821 | 10.7 | 9 | 5 | 20 | 50 |
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
3rd rack empty |
4th rack empty |
5th rack empty |
6th rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 47 | 39 (+8) | 30 (+17) | 21 (+26) | 12 (+35) | 7 (+40) | 1 (+46) | No |
Notes:
- Recommended load is 21 (+26) shells to remove most ammo from the hull.
- Racks 5 and 6 are ready racks and take priority in being filled as well as depleted.
- Full reload speed will be realized as long as ammo exists in either ready racks. If both ready racks are empty, a penalty to reload speed will occur.
- Simply not firing when the main gun is loaded will load ammo from racks 1 to 4 into 5 then 6, as long as there is ammo present in racks 1 to 4. Firing the main gun will interrupt the loading of the ready racks.
Machine guns
| 12.7 mm M2HB | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Pintle | 1,000 (200) | 576 | -10°/+70° | ±60° |
Usage in battles
Playstyle with the M36 should be about the same as the M10 GMC. The speed is slightly better and armour is still just as thin, but it has an improved turret traverse rate and a 90 mm gun, making it able to engage targets much easier. The playstyle is also similar to the M18, since they have the same concept - speed and manoeuvrability with a powerful armament.
The greatest advantages of the M36 are its speed and its armament. As such, the best course of action is to make use of the speed to get to good early game positions on the map. The 90 mm gun is powerful at its BR, and it can penetrate many tanks at its BR from the front. But, this is not the case for more heavily armoured targets such as those in the IS series or the Panther series, but it can reliably kill every tank at its BR from the side in 1 to 2 shots because of the high explosive filler in the APCBC round. In addition, most enemy tanks can reliably penetrate you from the front, as the M36 does not have thick armour. Your armour can only protect you when a shell hits it at an extreme angle, or against low penetration weapons, such as those one some anti-aircraft vehicles. All of these factors mean that the M36 should never engage enemy tanks from the front, unless they are preoccupied with a friendly vehicle or not looking in your direction, but the M36 should engage enemies from the side. As such, the M36's mobility should be used to get to positions that the enemy would not expect where it will be able to shoot the enemy in the side before they even realize you are there. The M36 can also use its mobility to flank effectively. If an enemy knows your location and has an operational gun, you should not push out into their line of fire, as they are likely to come of better than you. If an enemy is likely to be able to shoot you, do not chance it, as only one shot will often knock out or disable the M36.
In a downtier, there are not a lot of heavily armoured tanks that the M36 can't penetrate, so the player can also choose to not flank, but to sit at a position and be a sniper. It's best to find a spot that:
- Overlooks a key street / passageway where enemies will likely to pass / go to
- Has hard cover or hill to hull-down
- Has bushes to hide in
- Is not too close to the frontline
This way when any enemy comes in sight, the M36 can easily finish it off, therefore "locking down" this key passageway, preventing the enemies to push and attack which gains a significant advantage to your team.
One thing to note: if there is an enemy plane in the vicinity, getting to cover is a priority as the turret is open topped, and a plane can kill all three turret crew in one pass with only low-calibre machine guns.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Easily achieves its top speed of 42 km/h regardless of the terrain, allowing it to get to most positions in good time
- Excellent firepower; easily penetrates and knocks out most opponents like the Tiger H1, Pz.IV 70 and the Shermans, combined with its 5x scope magnification it is a deadly sniper
- 10° gun depression provides great terrain adaptation.
- Around 16°/sec of turret rotation is adequate to respond to surprise attacks
- Powerful roof mounted M2 MG can deal with light vehicles and incoming planes
Cons:
- Only 5 km/h of reverse speed can get the player killed sometimes
- Weak armour overall, can die from artillery strikes or small bombs
- Open topped, vulnerable to aircraft attacks
- Quite big and tall for a tank destroyer- harder to hide
- Does not have access to the better APCR like the American one
History
Jacksons in Chinese Hands
According to available documents, neither the People's Liberation Army (PLA) nor the Republic of China Army (ROCA) received the base variant of M36 GMC (although one was captured by the People's Volunteer Army (PVA) in 1951 during the Korean War, which is currently displayed in Beijing). However, the ROCA did receive the M36B2 variant from France.
During the retreat from Vietnam following the complete loss of French Indochina, eight M36B2 tanks from the French Army were returned to the United States and then handed over to the ROCA in 1955. They were assigned to the 3rd Armored Artillery Company, 600th Field Artillery Group of the Kinmen Defense Command as part of emergency military aid in the ongoing artillery war between the ROCA and the PLA in coastal Xiamen/Kinmen. These tanks were positioned in fortified positions with an angled slope to enhance trajectory against PLA targets on the opposite side of Xiamen Bay. According to a memoir by a ROCA veteran, one of these M36B2 tanks successfully destroyed a PLA broadcast station, while ROCA records indicate that two M36B2 tanks were lost during the war.[1] Some photographs suggest that the remaining M36 tanks were likely decommissioned in 2000, although two of them were reportedly still in service as late as 2001.
Currently, the six remaining tanks are located in Taichung (at Chenggongling Training Facility), Hsinchu (in the ROCA Armor Training Command in Hukou Township and at a theme park in Xinfeng Township), Kaohsiung (ROCMC School in Zuoying), and three on Kinmen (two of which are still in their combat fortifications, while the other known tank is located at the Rushan Fort tank walkway[2]).
Media
- Skins
See also
- Vehicles equipped with the same chassis
- M36 Jackson (Family), except the M36B1
- M10 (Family)
External links
References
- Citations
| China tank destroyers | |
|---|---|
| PLA | |
| Gun vehicles | PLZ83 · PLZ83-130 · PTZ89 |
| Missile vehicles | AFT09 |
| ROC | |
| Missile vehicles | CM25 |
| USA | |
| Gun vehicles | ␗M8 HMC · LVT(A)(4) (ZiS-2) · ␗M10 GMC · ␗M36 GMC |
| Missile vehicles | ␗M113A1 (TOW) |
| USSR | |
| Gun vehicles | ␗SU-76M · ␗ISU-152 · ␗ISU-122 · ␗SU-100 |
