M3A3 (1st PTG) (China)
| This page is about the Chinese light tank M3A3 (1st PTG) (China). For other versions, see M3 Stuart (Family). For other uses, see M3 (Disambiguation). |
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Contents
Description
The M3A3 Stuart 1st Provisional Tank Group (1st PTG) is the premium third variant of the Light Tank M3 (Stuart) family. It features hull improvements inspired by the new Light Tank M5 (Stuart) family, which was developed from the Light Tank M3 (Stuart) family (the M3A2 Stuart was never produced). Other enhancements to the original M3 light tank included a turret with a rear overhang to accommodate the SCR-508 radio and a welded hull with sloping armour 20°from the vertical on the front and sides. During World War II, it was part of the Chinese-American 1st Provisional Tank Group of the Chinese Expeditionary Forces (中國遠征軍), where the Chinese Kuomintang government equipped 48 such tanks under the lend-lease program and established the first tank battalion under the "China-U.S. First Temporary Tank Group" stationed in India. This lesser-known battalion received little coverage while fighting in the China-Burma-India theatre (CBI). While the U.S. Army Air Corps flew crucial supplies from India to China over the Himalayas, the 1st Provisional Tank Group helped the Allies reopen the land route through Japanese-occupied Burma by securing and repairing the Ledo-Burma Road.
Introduced in Update "Wind of Change", the M3A3 light tank is a continuation of the M3 Stuart family that shares many similarities with other U.S. Army light tanks of rank I. It is essentially identical to the Chinese Army ground forces tech tree M3A3 Stuart. Given the presence of sloping armour, the M3A3 provides significantly better protection than other light tanks in its rank. It improves survivability by preventing some small calibre shells from penetrating its frontal armour. However, since it is still a light tank, players should not rely heavily on its armour to exchange shots with adversaries.
General info
Survivability and armour
Aside from the naming of this vehicle and its delivery, it is identical to its main tech-tree counterpart. Having the minimal protection of a light tank (albeit sufficient to stop anything below 12.7x108mm up front) and sides which barely stops HMG rounds at longer ranges. It has at least 2 inches (25.4 mm) armour on its all-round while its turret is 1.25 inches (31.75 mm) all-around.
But to say at least: anything with 14.5x114 mm and beyond can tear down M3A3 with ease. So it is advised NOT TO go head-on against anything with a(n) (auto)cannon, flanking is the way to keep M3A3 from being knocked down into a smoking wreckage.
Armour type:
| Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 25 mm (50°) | 25.4 mm Top (40°) 25.4 mm Bottom (0°) |
25.4 mm Top (40°) 25.4 mm Bottom (21°) |
12.7 mm |
| Turret | 38.1 mm Turret front 50.8 mm Gun mantlet |
31.75 mm | 31.75 mm | 12.7 mm |
Notes:
Mobility
Like its tech tree counterpart, it was powered by a Cadillac Series 42 air-cooled piston engine with 220 hp; while it might not be much at first glance, it does push M3A3 at 57 km/h; making it a good flanker and able to pull out from chaos with relative else.
| Game Mode | Max Speed (km/h) | Weight (tons) | Engine power (horsepower) | Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forward | Reverse | Stock | Upgraded | Stock | Upgraded | ||
| Arcade | 65 | 8 | 14.4 | 406 | 500 | 28.19 | 34.72 |
| Realistic | 59 | 7 | 232 | 262 | 16.11 | 18.19 | |
Modifications and economy
2 × 40 / 40 / 40 % 2 × 112 / 112 / 112 % | Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armaments
Main armament
| 37 mm M6 | Turret rotation speed (°/s) | Reloading rate (seconds) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | Capacity | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Upgraded | Full | Expert | Aced | Stock | Full | Expert | Aced |
| Arcade | 174 | -10°/+20° | ±180° | Vertical | 19.0 | 26.4 | 32.0 | 35.4 | 37.7 | 3.77 | 3.34 | 3.07 | 2.90 |
| Realistic | 11.9 | 14.0 | 17.0 | 18.8 | 20.0 | ||||||||
Ammunition
The M3A3 (1st PTG) has access to 2 types of ammunition- M74B1 AP and M51 APCBC shells; since this is premium, M51 would be the go-to shell.
The stock M74B1, while having sufficient penetration at its tier to cause damage to enemies' tanks, due to its nature of AP shells without any ballistic cap, this shell has high possibility to cause ricochet on targets if they have angled, leaving a very embarrassing situation for M3A3.
The second round, M51B1 is APCBC, which has higher penetration while improved its aerodynamic and ballistic characteristics, this will be the go-to shell for the M3A3 (1st PTG). Thanks to its sufficient penetration, targeting the sides of enemies you flanked is viable and the likelihood of a confirmed penetration is higher.
But do keep in mind that both shells are non-filler shots, meaning no explosive filler is present; thus it is demanded to hit enemies' ammunition or gunner at all cost which gives higher possibility for a confirmed kill or assist kills.
| 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 | ||
| M74B1 | AP | 79 | 76 | 65 | 54 | 45 | 37 |
| M51B1 | APCBC | 87 | 84 | 73 | 60 | 50 | 41 |
| 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% | ||||||||||
| M74B1 | AP | 883 | 0.87 | - | - | - | 47° | 60° | 65° | |||
| M51B1 | APCBC | 883 | 0.87 | - | - | - | 48° | 63° | 71° | |||
Ammo racks
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| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
3rd rack empty |
4th rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 174 | 131 (+43) | 87 (+87) | 44 (+130) | 1 (+173) | Yes |
Notes:
- Only 144 shells are modeled in the racks 1 to 4.
- The 1st rack contains 13 shells but empties after having fired 43 shells.
- The 2nd rack contains 52 shells but empties after having fired 44 shells.
- The 3rd rack contains 24 shells but empties after having fired 43 shells.
- The 4th rack contains 55 shells but empties after having fired 44 shells.
- To go into battle with the turret and the flanks empty of ammo, pack 44 (+130) shells (racks 1 to 3 emptied).
Machine guns
| 7.62 mm M1919A4 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Pintle | 4,500 (250) | 500 | -10°/+70° | -60°/+15° |
| Coaxial | 3,250 (250) | 500 | N/A | N/A |
Usage in battles
As mentioned, this M3A3 shares the very same traits of the tech-tree one; so speed is your best friend; at 58 km/h, at plains this is an advantage thanks to this top speed, as a light tank, scouting enemies' vehicles beforehand and from their flanks help your team evaluate the main forces of the enemies, giving them some time to plan ahead while you can use your 37 mm gun on-board to harass or possibly scoring some kills while flanking your enemies, weakening the enemies while buying some time for teammates to set up defenses to send the enemies back to the hanger.
Although it might deemed useless, the M1919 (.30 cal) MG on the turret does actually do some damage against early propellers when they didn't dive upon you, leaving some chances to earn a surprise kill on aircraft.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Excellent speed and agility, on par with fast tanks like BT-5 allowing it to get to critical spots quickly
- 37 mm stabilised cannon is good for quick and accurate pinpoint of enemy crews
- Has narrow and low profile, harder to get spotted and shot at
- -10° gun depression is great for mountainous battlefields
- ~50 mm gun mantlet is challenging to penetrate, allowing it to perform hull-down to some extent
Cons:
- 37 mm solid AP lacks penetration and damage against well protected and/or spacious tanks like B1 and T-28
- Low survivability: thin armour, and the 4 crewmen are closely packed
- 37 mm shells tend to ricochet more when hitting sloped armour (e.g. T-50)
- -7 km/h reverse speed is inadequate to get it out of a dangerous situation quickly
History
The Chinese Expeditionary Forces (中國遠征軍) were among one of the most famous unit in the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theatre of WW2. Soon after the total outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War (抗日戰爭) in 1937, and the later Southbound assault by the Imperial Japanese Forces in December 1941, the major blood line of the ROC at that time was the Burma Road (滇緬公路). It was still under construction and would certainly become a target of the Japanese forces. On 1941/12/23, the Sino-British Joint Defense Agreement on Burma Road (中英共同防禦滇緬路協定) was signed, leading to the establishment of the Expeditionary Forces to defend this vital supply line.
After the bloody 1st expedition to Burma that resulted in severe casualties on the Nationalist forces (55k out of the 105k troops were lost), the remaining troops retreated back to Mainland China. While there were some troops in India, they were deemed insufficient to stop the menacing Japanese forces assaulting from Burma and into India; let alone retake the Burma Road. A year later, with the Sino-US joint command established in India with General Joseph Warren Stilwell in command, the Chinese garrison in India was then reformed as the New First Army (新一軍) with troops mobilized from Mainland China then transported to India via the Hump (駝峰航線). In October of 1943, the Sino-US 1st Provision Tank Group (中美第一臨時坦克群) was established at Ramgarh Cantonment in India with 6 tank battalions under their command; the unit was based on US Army order of battle but the battalions were composed of 3 light tank companies and 1 medium tank company instead, to fit the terrain of Burma and in view of lack of anti-tank weaponry from Japanese forces. They were first deployed in Walawbum in 1944/3/3 and successfully ran over (literary, it was remarked that the tank companies happened to ran over the command post of IJA forces among with most of their commanding officers) IJA's 18th Division (第18師團, which happened to be the one of the major culprits of the infamous Nanjing Massacre 南京大屠殺 on 1937/12/13); March 3rd is also the Armored Troops Day of ROCA due to this major victory. The joint forces then successfully reopen the Burma Road and eventually made it back to Mainland China in June of 1945, 2 months before the surrender of Japan.
This M3A3 delivery was the from the 2th tank of 3rd Company, 3rd Battalion, numbered USA 3027869 seen in Burma as of 1945.
Media
- Skins
- Skins and camouflages for the M3A3 Stuart (China) can be used for the M3A3 (1st PTG) (China).
See also
- Other M3A3 Stuarts
External links
Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:
- topic on the official game forum;
- other literature.
| China light tanks | |
|---|---|
| Type 63 | Object 211 · Type 63 · ZTS63 |
| Type 62 | Type 62 |
| WZ551 | ZSL92 · PTL02 · WMA301 |
| ZBL08 | ZLT11 |
| Type 86 | ZBD86 |
| WZ502 | ZBD04A |
| ROC | M41D · M64 |
| Type 59 | QN506 |
| USA | ␗M8 LAC · ␗M3A3 Stuart · ␗M3A3 (1st PTG) · ␗M5A1 · ␗M24 · ␗M18 GMC · ␗M41A3 |
| USSR | ␗T-26 · T-26 No.531 · ␗PT-76 |
| China premium ground vehicles | |
|---|---|
| Light tanks | T-26 No.531 · ␗M3A3 (1st PTG) · ␗M41A3 · M64 · WMA301 |
| Medium tanks | ␗M4A4 (1st PTG) · T-34-85 No.215 · Т-62 №545 · ZTZ59A · Type 69-IIa · T-69 II G · ZTZ96A (P) · Al-Khalid-I |
| Heavy tanks | IS-2 No.402 |
