"Honey tank" - Turret-less or otherwise.

" I really don't know"

That one looks like a desert conversion with an 18Pdr SP gun

 

One of these?

 

That's exactly what it is. It appears in Chamberlain and Ellis, British and American Tanks of WWII, which I have. Details are scant though, don't know which unit came up with.

 

I wonder if it was just a one off?

I would be interested to see which unit is was with, and if it saw any action.

It looks rather top heavy and ungainly, like the German 15 cm gun on the PzKpfw I chassis.

 

seemingly. Just found two pictures and the usual mention it was jury rigged in North Africa.
But some guy built a nice scale model of it

Armorama :: Funnies

 

Fantastic model. Any more photos? Any idea of scale?

 

Besides the numerous shown at the linked page? Don´t know
Scale is assumedly 1/35

 

Sorry.
I meant photos of the real thing. But I didn't see the model link first time either.

 

A very early Honey tank at a very late date: just south of Florence (Greve valley, in Chianti), in July 1944; possibly south african? from3:57 to 4:11

 

here on the "Friends and Family of the 6th South African Armoured Division" at -9:08 to -9:00 you can see a turrettless M3 or M3A1 turrettless tank of the 6th SA AD, probably from Natal Mounted Rifles.

 

M5 on steroids
Brazilian X1A light tank. Saab-Scania Diesel and a 90mm DEFA gun. Converted by Bernadini Corp. in the 1970s:

 

That's alot of firepower in a small package. They must of upgraded the turret ring, unless it's a low recoil gun. I wonder if that's light enough to be air portable. No up armoring so anything over a .50 will penetrate it. All that aside I like it.

 

Thanks Dave 55.
Do we have 'who, what, where, when?'. Interested to know who it was captured from and tactical use - individual vehicle or a unit.

 

Hi Ceolredmonger,

I don't have any more info on what's going on in photo. Wish I did. Probably Philippines, right?

 

I agree. There is small a chance it could have been ex-British from the retreat from Burma however iirc those left behind were wrecked.

 

Philippines, early 1942. Japanese Soldiers posing with a captured American M3 Stuart Light Tank.

Althought the caption says M3 I think it's an M2

They captured quite a few in the philippines

 

Matt. That is an M3 - low idler wheel. Two US Battalions fought during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines 192nd and 194th with theoretically 54 M3 Light Tanks each. Even with battle losses and sabotage on surrender there would be a few left. Almost brand new.

 

The model with the 18 pounder may well be the one crafted by historian Steve Zaloga. He talks about it a bit here:

 

I have some questions about the Stuart in late war British service. The recce troops of armored regiments had or were supposed to have 11 of them. As has been noted here, many had their turrets removed and so became Stuart Recces. Yet some units, like the Sherwood Rangers, continued to use the turreted version. Was there any rhyme or reason to this, or was it just a matter of unit preference? Did any units use a mix of vehicles, i.e. a combination of turreted and turretless versions? Finally, did British forces get any of the T8, the purpose built turretless Stuart?