M8 Scott
Contents
Description
The 75 mm Howitzer Motor Carriage M8 (shortened to M8 HMC) is a rank I American tank destroyer
with a battle rating of 1.3 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.67 "Assault".
General info
Survivability and armour
Armour type:
- Rolled homogeneous armour
- Cast homogeneous armour (Gun mantlet)
| Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 28.5 mm (48-49°) Front Glacis 38.1 mm (15-30°) Lower glacis |
28.5 mm Front 25.4 mm Rear |
25.4 mm (1-47°) Top 25.4 mm (1-20°) Bottom |
12.7 mm |
| Turret | 38.1 mm (6-40°) Turret front 38.1 mm (1-65°) Gun mantlet |
25.4 mm (18-20°) | 25.4 mm (1°) | N/A |
Notes:
- Suspension wheels are 15 mm thick while tracks are 10 mm thick.
- Tracks are peppered on the turret sides that give 17 mm extra where they are.
- Belly armour is 12.7 mm thick
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 | 70 | 19 | 15.6 | 420 | 565 | 26.92 | 36.22 |
| Realistic | 64 | 17 | 262 | 296 | 16.79 | 18.97 | |
Armaments
Main armament
| 75 mm M2 Howitzer | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity | Vertical guidance |
Horizontal guidance | |||
| 46 | -20°/+40° | ±180° | |||
| Turret rotation speed (°/s) | |||||
| Mode | Stock | Upgraded | Prior + Full crew | Prior + Expert qualif. | Prior + Ace qualif. |
| Arcade | 5.28 | 7.31 | __.__ | __.__ | 10.45 |
| Realistic | 3.57 | 4.20 | 5.10 | 5.64 | 6.00 |
| Reloading rate (seconds) | |||||
| Stock | Prior + Full crew | Prior + Expert qualif. | Prior + Ace qualif. | ||
| 4.29 | 3.80 | 3.50 | 3.30 | ||
Ammunition
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration in mm @ 0° Angle of Attack | |||||
| 10m | 100m | 500m | 1000m | 1500m | 2000m | ||
| M48 shell | HE | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| M66 | HEAT | 89 | 89 | 89 | 89 | 89 | 89 |
| Shell details | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Velocity in m/s |
Projectile Mass in kg |
Fuse delay
in m: |
Fuse sensitivity
in mm: |
Explosive Mass in g (TNT equivalent): |
Normalization At 30° from horizontal: |
Ricochet: | ||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | |||||||
| M48 shell | 381 | 6.3 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 666 | +0° | 79° | 80° | 81° |
| M66 | 304 | 6.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 548.13 | +0° | 62° | 69° | 73° |
| Smoke characteristic | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Velocity in m/s |
Projectile Mass in kg |
Screen radius in m |
Screen time in s |
Screen hold time in s: |
Explosive Mass in g (TNT equivalent): |
| M64 | 381 | 6.9 | 13 | 5 | 20 | 50 |
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
3rd rack empty |
4th rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 46 | 35 (+11) | 23 (+23) | 12 (+34) | 1 (+45) | No |
Machine guns
| 12.7 mm M2HB | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pintle mount | ||||||
| Capacity (Belt capacity) | Fire rate (shots/minute) |
Vertical guidance |
Horizontal guidance | |||
| 400 (200) | 576 | -5°/+70° | ±180° | |||
Usage in battles
In general, the M8 Scott plays like a beefed-up M5A1. The massive increase in gun caliber and destructive potential means that enemies the light tank previously have difficulty destroying are now more easily dealt with. Like the M3/M5 Stuart, playing this tank aggressively will almost always guarantee a place on the leaderboard. Push for the cap and then take it without hesitation. Should an enemy get there first, enter the cap and flank the target. Get behind their turret and go for a shot to the turret rear. Once the capture point is held, find a good hull down position and use the 75 mm HEAT to destroy any and all oncoming tanks.
Against heavier armour, the need to find a good hidden position is critical. On certain tanks, the addition of track armour can give the M8 difficulty in penetrating them. Hence a good hull down position on their flank can provide a good position to hit their side armour, with almost certain destruction coming from it.
Tanks like the Panzer IV F2 and it's line of tanks can be a serious headache for the vehicle to encounter. Aim for the right side of their turret and knock-out their gunner first, then aim for the middle of their hull (upper or lower glacis works) for a final shot. Outside of that most of the heavy armour will be out of the M8's BR range, leaving most encountered vehicles viable to destroy.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- 12.7 mm heavy machine gun is very good at dealing with AA vehicles and soft targets.
- 75 mm HEAT round can handle most contemporary adversaries.
- Fast reloads for the caliber.
- Low muzzle velocity shell's parabolic path can allow for shooting over hills.
- Speed and mobility akin of the Stuart light tanks.
Cons:
- Open-top turret exposes crew to artillery and aircraft strafing fire.
- Thin armour.
- Shells have low muzzle velocity, not good for long-range fighting.
- Very slow turret traverse rate.
- Bad steering at high speeds.
History
Development
In United State's entry into World War II, the troops in the front lines require a support vehicle similar to those in use by the German forces in the form of the StuG III. The project for such vehicle began as a design submitted in late 1941, which was a M5 Light Tank mated with a howitzer on the hull front, designated the T41. This design didn't pass as the howitzer on the hull sacrificed crew protection. The design was revised on the same M5 light tank and instead had the M5 turret removed and replaced with an open-topped turret similar to the US tank destroyers M10 and M18, which mounted a 75 mm howitzer. This change caused the hatches for the driver and assistant driver to be placed on the glacis front rather than the hull roof. This design, called the T17E1 HMC was approved and put into production under the designation 75 mm Howitzer Motor Carriage M8, or the M8 Scott. The 75 mm M2 howitzer was the initial armament of the M8 before switching to the updated 75 mm M3 howitzer later in production. The howitzer was capable of firing smoke M89 or high-explosive M48 rounds, the vehicle could hold 46 of these 75 mm rounds. The M8 does not have any machine guns on the coaxial or hull-mounted area, but a .50 cal Browning was mounted on the rear right corner of the turret for infantry defense. The vehicle was put into production in April 1942 and continued until January 1944, of which a total of 1,778 units were produced by Cadillac only.
Combat usage
These vehicles would go on to serve in the Italian Campaign, European Campaign, and in the Pacific in the hands of the US Army. The M8 saw use in American service until the M7 Priest 105 mm self-propelled gun could be fielded in large numbers, which stopped the M8 production and service in American units. After being phased out of American service, the M8 was then given to the Free French forces that use them in the Western Front of the European operations. The French continue to use them all the way to 1954 in the French-Indochina conflict in use by South-Vietnamese forces. Other users of the M8 included the Khmers national army, Laos, China, and the Philippines.
Media
An excellent addition to the article will be video guides, as well as screenshots from the game and photos.
See also
Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the series of the vehicles;
- links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.
External links
Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:
- topic on the official game forum;
- encyclopedia page on tank;
- other literature.
| USA tank destroyers | |
|---|---|
| M10 | M10 GMC |
| M36 | M36 GMC · M36B2 |
| T95 | T28 · T95 |
| M109 | M109A1 |
| ATGM | LOSAT · M901 |
| Wheeled | M3 GMC · T55E1 |
| Other | M8 HMC · M50 · M56 |
| China | ▃LVT(A)(4) (ZIS-2) |
