M3 Scout tank loadout, 1942 with Tommy gun bonus
M3 light tank, crew, and supplies at Fort Benning, Georgia note the Tommy gun and ten drums up front
M3 Stuart Light tank. Note the boxes of 37mm M6 rounds for the landship’s M44 main gun– the typical Stuart could carry as many as 174 of these shells. Then there were the trio of Browning M1919A4 30.06-cal light machine guns and the 4 man crew’s (Commander, gunner, driver, co-driver) own personal weapons. That’s a whole lot of stuff to fit into a 14×8-foot box. Some 25,000 Stuarts were manufactured between 1941-45, and a few still survive in service with the armies of Brazil and Paraguay. In pop-culture you may remember the haunted Stuart in the DC war comic “The Haunted Tank” and in the forgettable 1995 film adaptation of Tank Girl.