M10 GMC (China)

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Rank VI USSR | Premium | Golden Eagles
Su-25K Pack
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␗M10 GMC
AB RB SB
3.7 3.3 3.3
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This page is about the Chinese tank destroyer M10 GMC (China). For other uses, see M10 (Disambiguation). For other vehicles of the family, see M10 (Family).

Description

GarageImage M10 GMC (China).jpg


The ␗3-inch Gun Motor Carriage M10 is a rank II Chinese tank destroyer with a battle rating of 3.7 (AB) and 3.3 (RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.91 "Night Vision". This Chinese vehicle is mostly identical to the US M10 GMC, however it does not have access to the Add-on Armor modification.

General info

Survivability and armour

Armour type:

  • Rolled homogeneous armour
  • Cast homogeneous armour (Gun mantlet, Transmission area)
  • Structural steel (Counterweight)
Armour Front (Slope angle) Sides Rear Roof
Hull 38.1 mm (55°)
50.8 mm (7-55°) Transmission area
19.05 mm (38°) Top
25.4 mm Bottom
19.05 mm (28°) Top
25.4 mm (7-52°) Bottom
19.05 mm Front
9.5 mm Rear
Turret 25.4 mm (68-89°) Turret front
57.15 mm (0-47°) Gun mantlet
25.4 mm (24-47°) 25.4 mm (30-47°) Turret rear
50 mm (0-50°) Counterweight
N/A

Notes:

  • Suspensions wheels are 20 mm thick, bogies are 10 mm thick, and tracks are 20 mm thick.
  • Belly armour is 12.7 mm thick.
  • Hull rear sides are protected by attached grousers that give 20 mm of extra armour.

The armour of the M10 is quite decent for the rank and can make shells ricochet when angled properly, but nonetheless, the armour is not thick enough to resist the stronger tank weapons of Rank II. The thickest part of the front hull is the 51 mm lower plate and the upper plate is 38 mm, though both are sloping at 55 degrees from vertical. The sides and back are only 19 mm slightly angled and thus can be penetrated by most weapons stronger than a 12.7 mm machine gun. This fact is made worse by the positioning of ammo racks on the sides, making it easy to one-shot the M10 with a side penetration. The turret has slightly better armour with the gun mantlet having 57 mm angled at 45 degrees on the front, but it is still very weak on the sides and back. The front of the turret can often eat shells as the shell will fragment on the initial armour, and the massive breech of the 76mm cannon will often absorb most if not all of the spalling, leaving the turret crew untouched. This will take the M10 out of combat, but when backed up by team-mates it is possible to reverse away to repair. The turrets top is exposed and because of that artillery barrages and HE shells are much more lethal to the crew. One should avoid angling the armour a great degree as it may expose the weaker side armour at a more perpendicular angle.

For those fighting the M10 from the front, firing towards the upper left side of the hull glacis (towards the right from the firing perspective) will be able to knock out both the driver and/or gunner if the shot penetrates in the right angle. If this does not completely destroy the tank, it certainly has crippled it and the follow-up shot should go towards the opposite side to knock out the rest of the crew. Repeat if necessary in cases where the crews are still active inside the tank. It is also a good idea to shoot the bottom of the hull to disable the transmission if the M10 is trying to flee.

The M10's side is lined with ammo racks and it's extremely easy to one-shot the tank. Simply aim below the turret, shoot the side and the ammo should explode in a blaze of glory. If the ammo does not explode the first time, then try shooting the same spot again or aim more to the front of the hull to knock out any remaining crew. It is possible to blow up the fuel tanks or set it on fire by shooting the rear of the M10, the worse case at least the engine will be disabled.

There is not a whole lot of places to shoot at the back of the M10, though a shot at the turret can knock out the turret crew or a shot in the hull can cripple the engine. Two ammo racks are present at the rear of the turret, but these racks are most likely empty as 1) They are the first two to run dry and 2) Players will usually keep this empty with reduced ammo load. The best place to shoot in the rear would be the engine to immobilize the M10 and potentially set it on fire.

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 53 6 29.9 582 782 19.46 26.15
Realistic 49 5 363 410 12.14 13.71

Armaments

Main armament

Main article: M7 (76 mm)

The 3-inch (76 mm) cannon is a wonderful and powerful gun. APCBC ammo can penetrate any tank on the battlefield even from long range. The M10 also has AP ammo with no explosive filler that has higher penetration but does less post-penetration damage. Because APCBC has enough penetration, the AP ammo is less useful, although carrying a few of these shells could prove useful in certain situations. It is not a bad idea to carry HE ammo as well to fight lightly armoured and open top tanks like the M16 SPAA. The powerful gun and potent ammunition make the M10 a good sniper vehicle at its battle rating, especially with its -10° gun depression, giving the M10 the ability to maximize a hull-down position. Unfortunately, even though this tank destroyer does feature a turret, its turret rotation speed is extremely slow (< 4.0°/s) due to its historic configuration of only possessing a hand crank for the turret traverse. It is possible to crest a ridge and watch as the enemy rotates their turret, takes aim, and shoots the M10, all while the latter is rotating its turret into position. Thus, it is better to see it as a regular fragile SPG instead of a turreted SPG and fight from a distance and in possible concealment. Take warning that the gun's excellent penetration is too much for lower rank tanks and can lead to over-penetration, thus dealing less or even no damage to the enemy. Also, start each round with at least six missing shells (as detailed in the Ammo Racks section) to remove the ammo racks on the rear of the turret, reducing turret penetration vulnerability to an instant cook-off.

76 mm M7 Turret rotation speed (°/s) Reloading rate (seconds)
Mode Capacity Vertical Horizontal Stabilizer Stock Upgraded Full Expert Aced Stock Full Expert Aced
Arcade 54 -10°/+30° ±180° N/A 3.96 5.48 6.66 7.37 7.84 8.19 7.25 6.68 6.30
Realistic 2.68 3.15 3.83 4.23 4.50

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
M62 shell APCBC 149 146 133 119 106 95
M42A1 shell HE 7 7 7 7 7 7
M79 shot AP 134 132 121 109 99 89
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%
M62 shell APCBC 792 7.00 1.2 14.0 63.7 48° 63° 71°
M42A1 shell HE 800 5.84 0.1 0.5 390 79° 80° 81°
M79 shot AP 792 6.80 N/A N/A N/A 47° 60° 65°

Ammo racks

Ammo racks of the M10 GMC (China)
Full
ammo
1st
rack empty
2nd
rack empty
3rd
rack empty
4th
rack empty
5th
rack empty
6th
rack empty
Visual
discrepancy
54 52 (+2) 49 (+5) 37 (+17) 25 (+29) 13 (+41) (+53) No

Machine guns

Main article: M2HB (12.7 mm)
12.7 mm M2HB
Mount Capacity (Belt) Fire rate Vertical Horizontal
Pintle 300 (200) 577 -10°/+28° ±60°

Usage in battles

The M10 is a support vehicle. Find a good sniping position and lay behind the team taking out enemy tanks from a distance. Try to stay away from enemy tanks to avoid getting destroyed quickly.

The best way to survive combat situations is to find a hull down location. The M10 has enough gun depression to use many hull down locations, and it has a strong enough turret front and mantlet to consistently cause ricochets. From there, well aimed shots should be able to knock out most enemy tanks at the battle-rating range from long range.

If fighting in a close quarter's environment, do not try to push forward without support. Stay behind friendly tanks in order to support them without being shot at. If in an urban scenario on maps like Poland or Normandy, utilize the tank's turning speed to rotate the turret to the right angle. But, the best option is still to find a hull down location. For example, in Normandy, during arcade, the best location is towards the C point, where there are hills and dips that can be used to hide the hull, while giving a good view of the battlefield.

The M10 has a very slow turret rotation speed, but the M10 can traverse faster than it can rotate its turret and use its high speed when at high gear to produce some interesting skids via the physics engine to swerve the M10 and angle its gun at an enemy tank around the corner. It is recommended to understand and get a good feel of the M10's mobility and horsepower on dirt and paved roads before attempting this stunt. The low turret rotation speed means that a M10 player must always be aware of where the enemy tanks are, because they will not be able to turn the turret quickly if the enemy is able to flank the M10. In addition, the M10's side armour is weak, and the ammunition storage is in the hull sides, so if the enemy is able to shoot the M10 at that location, it is very likely to explode the ammo rack and destroy the tank with one shot.

Modules

Tier Mobility Protection Firepower
I Tracks Parts Horizontal Drive
II Suspension Brake System FPE Adjustment of Fire M79 shot
III Filters Crew Replenishment Elevation Mechanism
IV Transmission Engine

First off get all protection modifications: Parts and FPE. After that move on to research modifications from the Firepower tree: Horizontal Drive, Adjustment of Fire, and the Elevation Mechanism. Lastly research the Mobility tree: Tracks, Filters, Engine, Transmission, Suspension, Brake System.

Though the M79 shot stock is an available module in the modifications, it can be at the bottom of prioritization as it currently possess no advantage over the stock M62 shell, having the same shell velocity but with worse penetration at all distances and angles, shallower ricochet angle, higher shell cost

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Powerful gun, stock shell can penetrate virtually any opponent it encounters, even the Tiger H1 when aiming carefully, while the straight trajectory and good accuracy makes it a nice long-range gun
  • Good top speed allows it to get to positions in time
  • The huge, V-shaped gun mantlet can often bounce / absorb shells (eg. 75 mm M3 and 76 mm F-34 / ZIS-5), as well as the large gun breech behind it further protecting the turret crew
  • Good gun depression of -10° adapts almost all terrains
  • Powerful roof-mounted M2 Browning can damage light vehicles or low flying aircraft well

Cons:

  • Very poor turret traverse speed combined with its rather sluggish hull traverse "locks" it as a long range sniper for most players- close quarters combat is difficult and great situational awareness is required, as it often cannot get its gun on target in time
  • Base armour is quite thin, can get easily penetrated by common opponents like the Pz.IV F2 or the US M10
  • Open topped, vulnerable to aircraft strafing
  • Poor reverse speed can sometimes get the player killed
  • Does not have access to Add-on Armor, more vulnerable to enemy fire as a result

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the vehicle in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the vehicle and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the vehicle's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).

Media

Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, 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 the tank;
  • other literature.


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