M41A3 (China)

␗M41A3

␗M41A3

China

III Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
5.3	5.3	5.3

Class:

PREMIUM

Light tank

Purchase:2 980

Show in game

Description

The ␗M41A3, officially designated as M41A3戰車 or by its translated nickname 華克猛犬 (Walker Bulldog), was the light tank used by ROCA and ROCMC from 1958 to 2022 as one of their fleet of light tanks. The design concept of M41 series was for improvements on close-quarter self-defense firepower while retaining mobility on battlefield under the T41 program, while the tanks were produced during the Korean War, it was only until the Vietnam War when they were put in service. M41A3 was the modification of older M41A1 with the fuel-injected AOS 895-5 diesel engine which was received by ROCA in 1958 as the military aid to the heated Taiwan Strait frontline; although there were no significant combat records for these tanks, they mostly served as the fire support vehicle for the outer islands and training vehicles for ROCA armored corps. Due to the aging and obsolete performance of Walker Bulldogs, ROCA upgraded 50 of these tanks at better hull condition to the M41D standard, while the remaining ones would still serve until 2020s when a fatal vehicle rollover accident boosted the decommission of unconverted M41, as well as CM32 series replacing them; the final vehicle was decommissioned at Armor Training Command, ROCA in Hsinchu on 2022/2/25.

Introduced in Update "Sons of Attila" as a GE premium light tank, the overall performance of M41A3 is totally identical to its counterparts in different nations with pleasing mobility and sufficient firepower to take out most WWII tanks from the side; but in M41A3's case, it traded its advanced ammunitions (HVAP and HEAT) for a lower battle rating. Players could still enjoy the Walker Bulldog now at lower tier, flanking enemies will be a piece of cake with caution.

General info

Survivability and armour

Armourfront / side / back

Hull31 / 25 / 19

Turret25 / 25 / 25

Crew4 people

Visibility88 %

As a light tank, expecting the overall protection to be sufficient against enemies is rather irrational - the armor itself can stop .50 cal ammunition up front without problem; but once enemy vehicles with autocannon see M41A3, they can tear down the vehicle rather quickly, let alone full-caliber shells which mostly have more than enough, sometimes overkill penetration to go through the armor. For maximum survivability, finding terrains and hide the hull is a good option as the mantle could sometimes bounce oncoming shots if they landed on extreme angles, it also make sure only the largest autocannons will have the chance to penetrate you in this case.

Armour type:

Armour	Front (Slope angle)	Sides	Rear	Roof
Hull	28.5 mm (49°) Front glacis 63.5 mm (33-37°) Lower glacis	28.5 mm	28.5 mm (46°) Top 25.4 mm (1°) Middle 25.4 mm (20°) Bottom	12.7 mm
Turret	44.4 mm (11-13°) Turret front 50.8 mm (2-43°) Gun mantlet	31.75 mm (1°)	31.75 mm (1°)	12.7 mm

Notes:

Mobility

Speedforward / back

AB81 / 21 km/h

RB and SB73 / 19 km/h

Number of gears4 forward

2 back

Weight23.1 t

Engine power

AB954 hp

RB and SB500 hp

Power-to-weight ratio

AB41.3 hp/t

RB and SB21.6 hp/t

Although M41A3 was stated to be upgraded by a new engine, but the only change on the AOS 895-5 engine is fuel injection instead of carburetor on previous 895-3 engines; thus the overall mobility is totally identical to other M41A series in game and enables M41A3 for flanking operations while able to retreat quickly to safety.

Game Mode	Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
	Forward	Reverse		Stock	Upgraded	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	81	21	23.1	_,___	954	__.__	41.3
Realistic	73	19		_,___	500	__.__	21.65

Modifications and economy

Repair cost

AB1 173

RB1 361

SB1 721

Crew training10 000

Experts250 000

Aces630

Research Aces870 000

Reward for battleAB / RB / SB

2 × 90 / 130 / 180 %

2 × 160 / 160 / 160 %

Modifications

Mobility	Protection	Firepower
Tracks Suspension Brake System Filters Transmission Engine	Improved Parts Improved FPE Crew Replenishment	Horizontal Drive Adjustment of Fire Airstrike Elevation Mechanism Artillery Support Improved optics 76mm_us_M361_Smoke_ammo_pack

Armaments

Main armament

76 mm M32 cannon

Ammunition65 rounds

First-order11 rounds

Reloadbasic crew → aces

7.6 → 5.9 s

Vertical guidance-10° / 20°

All production M41 shares the same 76 mm M32 cannon onboard. The ballistics of the gun is quite user-friendly and easy to get on hand to, the internal space and the caliber also make sure the gun can reload faster as enemies with larger guns need more time to reload - by the time they finished the reload (given an injured/knocked-out loader), an aced M41A3 could deliver up to 2 shots.

76 mm M32					Turret rotation speed (°/s)					Reloading rate (seconds)
Mode	Capacity	Vertical	Horizontal	Stabilizer	Stock	Upgraded	Full	Expert	Aced	Stock	Full	Expert	Aced
Arcade	65	-10°/+20°	±180°	-	__._	__._	__._	__._	__._	_.__	_.__	_.__	_.__
Realistic					__._	__._	__._	__._	__._

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
M339 shot	APBC	177	173	159	143	129	116
M352 shell	HE	15	15	14	12	12	12

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%
M339 shot	APBC	975	6.6	-	-	-	47°	60°	65°
M352 shell	HE	732	6.8	0.2	0.1	867.22	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)
M361	713	7.1	13	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
65	__ (+__)	__ (+__)	__ (+__)	__ (+__)	__ (+__)	__ (+__)	__

Machine guns

12.7 mm M2HB machine gun

Ammunition2 200 rounds

Belt capacity200 rounds

Reloadbasic crew → aces

10.4 → 8.0 s

Fire rate575 shots/min

Vertical guidance-10° / 70°

Horizontal guidance-60° / 60°

12.7 mm M2HB
Mount	Capacity (Belt)	Fire rate	Vertical	Horizontal
	___ (___)	___	__°	__°

7.62 mm M1919A4
Mount	Capacity (Belt)	Fire rate	Vertical	Horizontal
	___ (___)	___	__°	__°

Usage in battles

M41 series are well-known for their great mobility and great variety of shells at their tiers due to their late introduction all the way by 1955; but for ROCA's M41A3 case, its battle rating is significantly lower than its US-allies counterparts, this might sound good to players as the gun can finally handle most targets even up front. All things come at a cost though - in this case, HVAP and HEAT are not available, so remembering where critical components of enemy vehicles is very essential for quick and clean victories, more shots fired means higher risk of being hunted down.

A thumb of rule for any light tanks: never, ever be the first tank to appear on the horizon of the enemy. Although M41A3 is designed to be a scout vehicle for armor divisions, the vehicle is not rated for heated battlefield with different caliber of shells flying everywhere; it does have the protection against .50 caliber HMGs though, which is a good news for players of Object 211 or M18 GMC as these duo are not well-protected all-around. This also brings to an odd phenomena - for most light tanks, due to their rather unprotected hull, there are occasions that penetrated shots with explosive filler do little harm to the vehicle; the more-protected M41A3 is prone to trigger the delay fuse of these shells and thus very likely lead to complete destruction of vehicle with a single shot. Having 65 shells on tank is a welcomed addition in case players need spare ammo for taking out multiple targets with multiple shots, which also means a nightmare for the 4 crews on M41A3 as they are literary sitting around ammunition (next to driver and below the turret; so taking less than half ammunition (at around 25 shells) should be more than enough to do extensive damage to enemy flanks.

Once players know the limits of M41A3, players will have to plan for a safe approach or a more efficient route to harass enemies; in urban maps that has many street corners, players can utilize them to sudden strike on enemy tanks, better yet, shut down the engine once you are in position. It will usually take within 3 shots to finish off an enemy tank (given all hits done damages to internal compartments or crews) with the APBC shell; in case of having an armor column going to the frontline, it is not a good idea to hit the leading tanks, taking out those who are lagging behind is a better option as the column might not have the reaction time to send vehicles to hunt down M41A3. Chances are the tank is now at an open-field map, especially like in Kursk with very little building as cover, in this case, utilize the terrain for cover thanks to the sufficient gun depression; this also shrinks the overall profile of M41A3 from afar and could be further hidden with camouflage bushes installed (the barrel itself has camouflage net by default). This will be the good time to seek for enemies who has exposed their sides or scouting for fellow enemy light tanks if they also attempt to flank the team, disable or destroy them according to their level of threat; be sure to aim enemy tanks as close to their center mass as possible since long-range shots can sometimes land on enemy tracks and do nothing to them, which will also expose your existence to the enemy team. But most of all, being a light tank and a scout, move from time to time after shots fired to minimize the risk of being found right away; if the battlefield allows you for more aggressive approach to enemy flanks, neutralize any backup unit going to the front is the key to secure victory for the team. M41A3 still has a .50 cal HMG by the commander side hatch with abundance of ammo, use them for armored cars or last ditch option to gun down strafing aircrafts.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Rather high mobility to navigate around the battlefield
  • Neutral steering transmission for tighter turns
  • Up to 72 km/h forward (at certain terrain) and 19 km/h reverse speed
• Fast reload and gun traverse speed
• .50 cal for gunning down light vehicles or oncoming aircrafts
• Currently the earliest tank to receive commander override for last-ditch retaliation
• Sufficient penetration to take down Panther or IS-1 up-front

Cons:

• Large profile for a light tank
• The armor is thin and more than enough to trigger delay fuse of shells
• Lacks HEAT and APCR (HVAP) from other production M41 in game
• Only solid shots available
• Very cramped combat compartment, all crews are literary sitting on/next to ammunition

History

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Media

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See also

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