76mm Gun Light Tank M-41 Walker Bulldog

The driver’s station was exceptional.  The M-41 led the way on the new larger periscopes positioned direct front with two angled toward the fender corners and one looking back over your left shoulder.  Compared with all other tanks where the driver had to butt his nose against the older M-6 periscopes with a single 1 x 6 inch vision block, the M-41 driver could just sit back and peer out the panoramic view from a  foot away.  What a dream. The tank steered with a “T bar” like a bicycle handle and was easy to handle.  For night operations, on the A3, we had an infrared periscope that locked in the center of the driver’s hatch cover. (Tanks with the infrared can be  ID’d by the extra set of headlamps with very dark wine colored lens.) This was great and gave the M-41 very good night vision.  The IR scope had to be removed before the driver could open his hatch.  This IR deal was great but a bad design in that the tank commander did not have it.  I found this out first hand when I was an M-47 TC and my driver was barreling down a road at night and I couldn’t see a thing….very nerve racking when you are supposed to be in command!

The loader had all kinds of space and the turret was laid out so well, that with ammo and everything else stowed, everyone had sufficient room to move.

The gunner had either an earlier black hand wheel with indentations for fingers, or later, a two handed control for turret traverse.  Gun elevation/depression was only manual. The 76mm gun had a relatively small recoil cylinder and breech ring and was very easy to load and service. The TC  (Tank commander) behind the gunner, had plenty of room with an override control for the turret where he could take over control of the turret a lay the gun until the gunner could ID the target. The gunners primary gun sight was the periscope with a secondary telescope coax with the gun. This telescope had a sliding armored cover to close it off to possible enemy small arms damage, which the gunner could open and close with a turn of a handle. The gunner had an ammo index where he would turn the

ammo being fired into the window and the proper super elevation  would be indexed into the linkage to the gun and periscope. The M-48 had this which was referred to as “computer”…but was merely a cam operated box to index the proper elevation into the linkage for any particular ammunition.

The overall design of the tank was exceptional and I have never met anyone who served on one that didn’t love it. It was a gas hog, requiring  about 5 gal per mile, which restricted operating range to about 100 miles,  but, for overall performance, ease of maintenance and crew comfort , the M-41 Walker Bulldog was a one of a kind tank. We (USA)never used the tank in combat and it was strictly a cold war tank.  In Vietnam, the M-41s were given to the South Vietnamese Army who used them very well.  From reports that I have read, they took out some heavier Russian T-54 mediums and a great many PT-76 light tanks.

The army needed an air-droppable tank and unfortunately the M-41 was too heavy for such an assignment. Many Air Force Bases used the M-41 for perimeter defenses and security and it was deemed too heavy and not fuel efficient for this purpose. The M-41 was dropped from the inventory in favor of the M-551 Sheridan.

The M-41 does still serve in Brazil and Argentina with various modifications.

 

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