Article by Ed
On my work bench now: a M24 Chaffee Light Tank kit by Border Models in 1/35 scale. I'm building this Chaffee as the US Army Korean War version.
The M24 Chaffee, officially called Light Tank M24, was an American armored vehicle first used by the Allies in WW2. The Chaffee entered service in 1944 as a replacement for the M3/M5 Stuart series of light tanks used primarily for armored cavalry reconnaissance missions. The Stuart, while it was a mechanically reliable vehicle, and fairly fast and maneuverable, its design dated back to the 1930s; and it was clearly obsolete by late 1942 with poor combat experiences in North Africa. The small tank was a huge liability to its crew, because of its thin armor, high silhouette, and light 37mm main gun.
This new light tank was named after US Army General Adna R. Chaffee, Jr., the "Father of the Armored Force", for his role in developing the US Army's post-WW1 tank forces. It had a crew of 5 (commander, gunner, loader, driver, assistant driver/radio operator), main armament with a 75mm M6 Gun and a secondary armament of .50cal Browning M2 machinegun, two M1919A4 .30cal machineguns (one in the bow and one alongside the main gun); also, sometimes the field unit added a .30cal machinegun on top of the turret. Development of the main gun was given special consideration. After several trials, the gun eventually chosen was a derivative of the T13E1 lightweight 75mm gun used on the B-25H Mitchell medium bomber. Designated the M6, it shared the same ballistics and fired the same ammunition as the M3 75mm gun found on the M4 Sherman, but used a different recoil system that allowed for a shorter recoil when the gun was fired.
Despite complaints (thin armor & under-gunned for German armor were common), armored cavalry troopers were satisfied with the Chaffee’s performance, especially its speed and mobility, than tank battalion crews. Once cavalry units were reequipped, armored divisions then began to switch out their M5s for M24s. Most of the M24s deployed to Europe saw action, starting with the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes-Alsace Rhineland, and Central Europe campaigns; only a handful reached Italy for service with the 1st Armored Division’s 81st Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron. None saw action during the fighting in the Pacific. The Marine Corps received ten M24s for evaluation but rejected the Chaffee for service. The British Army received M24s via the Lend-Lease Program and was very pleased with the tank’s performance.
After World War II, the M24 equipped units performed occupation duties in Germany and Austria. They also served with occupation troops in Japan—tanks such as the M4 were too heavy for Japanese roads and bridges. A total of 4,731 M24s were built from early 1944 to August 1945.
When the Korean War broke out on 25 June 1950, the Army rushed M24s to the fighting front in support of the 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. During combat against the powerful North Korean T-34s, the Chaffees performed badly, partly because they had been poorly maintained during the occupation of Japan. Despite being overmatched, the outgunned M24s managed to destroy as many as eight T-34s before large numbers of M4E8 Sherman medium and M26 Pershing heavy tanks arrived in Korea and replaced them as front-line tanks in the fall of 1950. For the rest of the war, the M24 was assigned to divisional reconnaissance companies. By 1953, the Army had withdrawn the M24 from service and replaced it with the M41 Walker Bulldog light tank.
The United States supplied many of its allies with surplus M24s in the years following World War II. France was the largest recipient with 1,254 Chaffees. French M24s saw action in colonial wars in Indochina (including the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954) and Algeria. Other NATO allies, including Norway, Belgium, Turkey, and Italy were equipped with M24s. South Vietnam received 137 Chaffees from the United States, but South Vietnamese M24s saw more action in the coup attempts of 1963 and 1964 than against the Viet Cong before being replaced by the M41. In all, the armed forces of twenty-eight nations were equipped with the M24, and a handful of Chaffees currently remain in service.
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