After the official outbreak of the Second World War, the U.S. Army, which had insufficient armor, immediately set its sights on the Spitfire tank, and at the time strongly instructed the U.S. Ordnance Bureau to refit as soon as possible with existing equipment. Spitfire tank with combat capability.
The first target of the U.S. Ordnance Bureau was the M2 medium tank. The method of modification is also very simple. It is to replace the 37mm anti-tank gun on the original M2 medium tank with a long-barreled E2 firearm. At the same time, the machine guns of the original M2 medium tanks installed around the car body were cancelled to free up space in the car to accommodate more fuel.
M2 Spitfire Tank
Although the modification attempt of the M2 medium tank was successful, the U.S. Bureau of Ordnance found that due to capacity constraints, the M2 medium tank The armored chassis of the tank was in short supply. In this case, the U.S. Ordnance Bureau went one step further and moved the flame-breathing equipment to the chassis of the M3 medium tank for testing.
The larger carrying capacity of the M3 medium tank compared to the M2 medium tank allows the M3 fire tank to carry more fuel, and the shorter E3 fire gun also allows the M3 fire tank to perform fire operations More convenient.
M3 Spitfire Tank
However, at this time the main attention of the US military is focused on the North African battlefield. At this time, the U.S. armored forces believe that compared to the Spitfire tanks that can only perform Spitfire operations, the U.S. armored forces have a more urgent need for anti-armor combat forces, so there are only a small number of M2 Spitfire tanks and M3 Spitfire tanks. Participated in the initial battle on the Pacific battlefield.
However, with the increasing importance of the Pacific battlefield in 1942, the Spitfire tanks that can quickly clear the Japanese army hiding in the tunnels have regained the attention of the US armored forces.
The injector of this fire-breathing tank is installed on the car body.
At this time, the M4 "Sherman" series of medium tanks with huge output is naturally better than M3 A more suitable modification material for medium-sized tanks. The U.S. Army initially selected the M4A2 tank. In order to allow the Spitfire tank to operate normally after the fuel is exhausted, this modification did not remove the main weapon on the M4A2 tank, but only used one. The E4-5 flamethrower replaced the machine gun of the original M4A2 medium tank at the front of the car body, and a 25-gallon fuel tank was installed in the car body.
These fire-breathing tanks formally participated in the battle in 1944. Although the battlefield performed well, the flamethrower installed on the front of the car body not only had a limited spray range, but also a relatively short spray distance. In response to the feedback from the frontline US military, the US Ordnance Bureau used large jets with a jet distance of up to 72 meters and installed the jets on the turret of the M4 medium tank.
This fire-breathing tank replaces the tank’s main gun with an ejector
This batch of modified tanks participated in the famous Battle of Okinawa, a total of 54 of this type Spitfire tanks participated in the battle, 15 of which were damaged. The main reason for battle damage was that crew members would often drive these tanks directly into the holes hidden by the Japanese army, and then spray flames into them. Because the main weapon was dismantled, these Spitfire tanks were not as capable of countermeasures as other M4 medium tanks in the face of Japanese counterattacks.
In desperation, the U.S. Ordnance Bureau had to reinstall the main weapon. Because of the different specific models of the modification, this part of the fire-breathing tank can be roughly divided into two versions, the 105mm gun version and the 75mm gun version. The flamethrower is still installed on the turret, and the position is on the right side of the main gun.
105 On the right side of the mm artillery is the flame jet tube
In addition to the internal fuel tank, the fire tank equipped with the 105 mm artillery Able to carry 20 rounds105mm artillery shells for combat, if it is a 75mm artillery version, the number of shells it carries can reach 40 rounds.
According to the plan of the U.S. Ordnance Bureau at that time, in order to further strengthen the continuous combat capability of the Spitfire tank, the U.S. Ordnance Bureau even planned to develop a heavy jet similar to the British "Churchill" Spitfire tank on the basis of the M6 heavy tank. Fire tank. However, at this time, with the end of the war, the significance of the existence of the new Spitfire tank was greatly reduced, and the U.S. Ordnance Bureau finally decided to stop the further development of the Spitfire tank.
