M8A1 GMC
Contents
| This page is about the American premium tank destroyer M8A1 GMC. For other uses, see M8 (Disambiguation). For other vehicles of the family, see M8 General Scott (Family). |
Description
The 75 mm Gun Motor Carriage M8 is a gift rank II American tank destroyer
with a battle rating of 2.7 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.45 "Steel Generals", along with all other American tanks, but wasn't available until Winter of the 2014 as an unlockable gift in the "War Thunder Christmas Special". After that, the M8A1 became available again as a Warbond shop reward as part of War Thunder's 4th anniversary.
An upgunned M8 Scott armed with 75 mm M3 gun, the M8A1 is a light tank destroyer capable of flanking & destroying enemy tanks at the same time with its outstanding mobility.
General info
Survivability and armour
Armour type:
- Rolled homogeneous armour
- Cast homogeneous armour (Gun mantlet)
| Armour | Front | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 28.5 mm (49-50°) Front glacis 44.1 mm (15-45°) Lower glacis |
28.5 mm Top 28.5 + 5 mm Bottom |
28.5 + 5 mm (2-46°) Top 25.4 mm (2-21°) Bottom |
12.7 mm |
| Turret | 38.1 mm (6-32°) Turret front 38.1 mm (13-62°) Gun mantlet |
25.4 mm (20°) | 25.4 mm (1°) | N/A |
Notes:
- Suspension bogies and wheels are 15 mm thick while tracks are 10 mm thick.
- Tracks laid out on the turret side give an additional 10 mm of armour where they are stacked.
- Sandskirts on the bottom hull give additional 5 mm thickness.
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 | 71 | 19 | 15.6 | 419 | 565 | 26.86 | 36.22 |
| Realistic | 64 | 17 | 261 | 296 | 16.73 | 18.97 | |
Armaments
Main armament
| 75 mm M3 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity | Vertical guidance |
Horizontal guidance | |||
| 46 | -10°/+30° | ±180° | |||
| Turret rotation speed (°/s) | |||||
| Mode | Stock | Upgraded | Prior + Full crew | Prior + Expert qualif. | Prior + Ace qualif. |
| Arcade | 7.10 | 9.90 | 12.00 | 19.60 | 20.90 |
| Realistic | 7.10 | 8.40 | 10.20 | 11.28 | 12.00 |
| Reloading rate (seconds) | |||||
| Stock | Prior + Full crew | Prior + Expert qualif. | Prior + Ace qualif. | ||
| 8.71 | 7.71 | 7.10 | 6.70 | ||
Ammunition
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration in mm @ 90° | |||||
| 10m | 100m | 500m | 1000m | 1500m | 2000m | ||
| M72 shot | AP | 110 | 109 | 92 | 76 | 62 | 51 |
| M48 shell | HE | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| M61 shot | APCBC | 90 | 88 | 81 | 73 | 65 | 59 |
| 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% | |||||||
| M72 shot | 619 | 6.3 | N/A | N/A | N/A | -1° | 47° | 60° | 65° |
| M48 shell | 463 | 6.3 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 666 | +0° | 79° | 80° | 81° |
| M61 shot | 618 | 6.8 | 1.2 | 20 | 63.7 | +4° | 48° | 63° | 71° |
| 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): |
| M89 | 259 | 3 | 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) | Yes |
Machine guns
| 12.7 mm M2HB | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pintle mount | ||||||
| Capacity (Belt capacity) | Fire rate (shots/minute) |
Vertical guidance |
Horizontal guidance | |||
| 1,000 (200) | 576 | -5°/+70° | ±180° | |||
Usage in battles
This vehicle plays along with the American concept of the tank destroyers, fast and powerful, but lacking in armour. Using the terrain for cover is necessary to survive against the enemy shells, plus constant repositioning is needed to keep the enemy guessing where the M8A1 is located. However, if able to get the jump on the enemy, the 75 mm gun on this vehicle can destroy the vehicles at its rank and the addition of the .50 cal M2 Browning on top aids its versatility against lightly armoured vehicle and aircraft.
The main tactic for this vehicle is Shoot and Scoot, constant repositioning after every shot as the armour on the M8A1 is rather thin for its battle rating. If hiding behind a rock, pop up from one side then the other rather than just from one side to force the enemy to spend milliseconds reacquiring the M8A1 in their sights, milliseconds that can put the favor of the battle to the M8A1. This involves many trick and will take some time to learn, but once learned, the M8A1 will be a huge assist to the team. Be careful to not get greedy and trigger-happy, the exposure trying to get a target may result in a loss, so play conservatively and know full well when that sometimes there will only be assist and move on. An M8A1 that is used properly is such a powerful tool that it can single handily swing the game. That being said one unlucky second and it is a pile of charred metal, due to the huge amount of ammo crammed into such a small area
Modules
| Tier | Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | Tracks | Parts | Horizontal Drive | ||
| II | Suspension | Brake System | FPE | Adjustment of Fire | M61 Shot |
| III | Filters | Crew Replenishment | Elevation Mechanism | ||
| IV | Transmission | Engine | M89 | ||
| This is a premium vehicle: all modifications are unlocked on purchase | |||||
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Deadly firepower at its BR, penetrating the toughest tanks with ease, such as the B1, Matilda or even the early KV-1 in an uptier. Other tanks like the T-80 will easily get one-shot.
- Great gun depression of -10 degrees allows hull-down shots on hills
- Multirole capacity (tank destroyer / light tank) allows flexible and fun gameplay
- Rapid rate of fire at 8.95 RPM (6.7 s reload time)
- Great mobility: reaches top speed (56 km/h) relatively fast, and it doesn't lose speed drastically upon turning, allowing it to perform flanking maneuvers easily.
- .50 cal machine gun can eliminate low flying aircraft & soft targets such as BT-7, Marder III, SU-76. Also its low profile makes it easier to hide.
- No ammunition is stored inside the turret, decreasing the chance of ammo detonation which increases survivability
- Commonly misidentified as short-gunned M8 Scott
Cons:
- Thin armor plus the cramped crew gives it poor survivability. Can get destroyed easily by vehicles like ZiS-30, SU-76, StuG III A
- Gun breech is often damaged when turret is penetrated, making it defenseless
- Slippy maneuverability. Prone to drifting
- Rather slow turret traverse (around 11 deg/s) requires good reaction for the player
- Open topped turret (which exposes the crew & ammo rack) can be barraged by artillery & airstrikes
- Although the gun is powerful, it still struggles to frontally penetrate the StuH 42 G especially with add-on tracks, while the StuH usually one-shots the M8
- All of its ammunition are stacked in every corner inside center compartment, single explosion in the middle of the hull can explode the ammo racks.
- Usually becomes a priority target when spotted due to its armament & mobility
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 on the M8A1 variant. The howitzer was capbale 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
- Skins
- Videos
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 the 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) |
| USA premium ground vehicles | |
|---|---|
| Light tanks | LVT(A)(4) · M2A4 (1st Arm.Div.) · M3A1 (USMC) · ▃Stuart VI (5th CAD) · M8 LAC · M8A1 GMC |
| M18 "Black Cat" · Super Hellcat · T18E2 · M551(76) · T114 · M1128 Wolfpack | |
| Medium tanks | ▃Grant I · M4A5 · Calliope · T20 · M26 T99 · M26E1 · M46 "Tiger" · T54E1 · T54E2 · ▃Magach 3 (ERA) · M728 CEV |
| XM1 (GM) · XM1 (Chrysler) · M1 KVT · M1A1 Click-Bait | |
| Heavy tanks | T14 · Cobra King · M6A2E1 · T29 · T30 |
| Tank destroyers | T28 · T55E1 |
