M43 Howitzer Motor Carriage

M43 Howitzer motor carriage

M43
Type Self-propelled artillery
Place of origin  United States
Specifications
Weight 83,000 Lbs
Length 289-inches
Width 124-inches
Height 129-inches
Crew 8
Shell separate loading, bagged charge
Barrels 1
Rate of fire Sustained:
Effective firing range Conventional:
Feed system hand
Sights M13 or M6
Main
armament
 M115 howitzer
Engine Continental R975-C4
400 HP
Suspension HVSS (Horizontal Volute Spring Suspension)
Operational
range
 107 Mi.
Speed 24 MPH

The 203 mm Howitzer Motor Carriage M43 was a United States self-propelled artillery vehicle built on a widened and lengthened Medium Tank M4A3 chassis, but with a Continental engine and HVSS that was introduced at the end of the Second World War.

History

Equipped with a 203 mm (8") Howitzer, it was designed to replace the earlier M12 Gun Motor Carriage. Its prototype designation was the T89, but this was changed to the M43 in March 1945. The M43 suspension had a load limit of 40.7 tons and a traverse speed of 22 d/s. It was first built with the Wright-Continental R-975C1 engine, but this proved not powerful enough for it to keep up with tanks, so it was changed to use the Wright-Continental R-975C4 engine, which had around 460 horsepower; 80 more than the first one. This engine weighed exactly the same as the older version, so the power to weight ratio was much improved. The first equipped radio set was the SCR 610. This was not sufficient for the U.S. army, so it was upgraded to the SCR 619. This enabled the SP artillery piece to get co-ordinates and hit them much better than with the original radio, bringing out the potential of this vehicle, which performed well in the Korean War.

Variants

Surviving vehicles

[1]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ http://the.shadock.free.fr/Surviving_Tank-based_GMC.pdf

References