The M3 Lee or Grant was an American heavyweight medium of the Second World War. The first prototypes were built in 1941, and serial production was carried out in the period 1941-1942. In total, about 6,300 copies of this tank of all versions were built. The M3 Lee was powered by a single engine Continental R 975 EC2 340 HP or two engines General Motors 6-71 with a total power of 375 HP. It was armed with a single 75mm M2 or M3 gun in the hull, a single M5 or M6 37 gun mounted in the turret, and two or three 7.62mm Browning1919A machine guns.
The French campaign of 1940 made a great impression on the command of the US Army and made them realize that the M2 tank being put into production at that time did not meet the requirements of the battlefield. While waiting for the target structure, which turned out to be the M 4 Sherman, the project was commissioned to develop a transitional structure that would enable fairly equal combat with the Pz.Kpfw III and Pz.Kpfw IV vehicles. Yes, in 1941, the first prototype of the M3 Lee tank - called the Grant by the British - was created. The new tank had several advantages (nice armor when introduced to the line, high reliability and strong armament), but it had many disadvantages: low ability to negotiate obstacles, a very high silhouette that made camouflage difficult - especially in desert conditions - and low susceptibility to modernization. As a result of this, from 1943 it was systematically withdrawn from the linear units in favor of the M4 Sherman. However, it was used after 1943 by the Red Army in secondary combat directions and during the fighting in the Pacific by the Americans. Several versions of the car were created in the course of serial production M3 Lee. Chronologically, the first one was marked as M3 and still had riveted armor. A cast-armor version of the M3A1 followed shortly after, followed by the M3A2 with a welded armor. The last version was the M3A5 with riveted armor, but an elongated 37mm barrel.
Already after the first experiences of fighting in North Africa at the turn of 1942-1943, the US Army changed the position of the American armored division. From 1943, the full-time armored division consisted of three armored battalions, three mechanized infantry battalions, three artillery battalions and many support units. The exception was the 2nd and 3rd Panzer Divisions, which retained the structure with two armored regiments, three armored battalions each. For this reason, they were often called heavy armored divisions. The armored battalion of other divisions than the 2nd and 3rd consisted of three armored companies - three of medium tanks (M4 Sherman) and one of light tanks (M3 / M5 Stuart). In turn, the mechanized infantry battalion consisted of three infantry companies, a service company and a staff sub-unit. The American armored division also had, like the infantry division, a very strong artillery component, consisting of self-propelled artillery - most often M7 Priest howitzers, of which there were 54 full-time units in the division. In total, the American armored division consisted of, among others: approx. 11,000 men, approx. 250 tanks and approx. 500 M2 / M3 armored personnel carriers.