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not a tank... Note that the top of the turret is open.

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M18 Hellcat Tank Destroyer / M39 Armored Utility Vehicle (AUV)

The widespread demand for tanks or tank-like vehicles outside of mechanized formations led to a number of tank surrogates, weapons designed to provide armored antitank defense, close support of the infantry attacky or both. In the latter case, the surrogate needed considerable frontal armor and a dual purpose (antitank and antipersonnel) main gun. The most original of these tank surrogates was the American "tank destroyer."

The 1942 tank destroyer battalions were combined arms forces in their own right, although they did not include a balance of all arms: each platoon had four self-propelled guns, an armored car section for security, and an antiaircraft section. When the U.S. Army first encountered the Germans in Tunisia during 1942-43, the tank destroyers proved a dismal failure. Both tank destroyer doctrine and German armor design had outpaced the actual development of American tank destroyers, so that 1942 tank destroyers were little more than improvised guns mounted on half-tracks.

Once in Normandy, the Americans discovered that the towed antitank gun was almost useless in the more restricted terrain of Western Europe. Towed guns were not only slow to move, but too close to the ground to shoot over hedgerows and other obstacles. Furthermore, between Africa and Normandy, the Tank Destroyer Center had procured much more effective, properly designed self-propelled guns. The M18 model with a 76-mm gun and especially the M36 with a 90-mm gun were excellent weapons, although even the 90-mm. had less penetration capability than the German 88-mm.

The M18 Hellcat tank destroyer was built on the chassis of the Sherman tank. It was the fastest armored vehicle of WW2 at 60 mph on roads. The M-18 was fielded in the latter part of WWII to replace the earlier M-10 Tank Destroyer. The primary mission of these vehicles was to serve in an anti-tank role. Although it appeared to have a turret like a regular tank, these Tank Destroyers had an open top to the turret fixture and they were not enclosed.

The 827th Tank Destroyer Battalion moved to Europe in November 1944 after its scheduled shipment to the Pacific in the spring of that year had been cancelled because of training deficiencies. Other Negro tank destroyer battalions had been converted to service troops by the spring of 1944. Some of these were considered by the 827th to have been better units than itself. The battalion, whose training career had been analyzed and found wanting by previous commanders, had had about two and a half years of training in the United States, but under unusual circumstances. By the time it moved overseas, it had had eight different commanders, more than one of whom had recommended that the battalion be made a service unit. It had been organized and reorganized under four different tables of organization and equipment. It was re-equipped with primary weapons four times. Starting its career with towed 75-mm. tank destroyers, it changed successively to self-propelled M-10's, then to towed 3-inch destroyers, and finally to self-propelled M18's. These changes, normal as tank destroyer theories and weapons changed and improved, involved the disbandment and reconstitution of the battalion reconnaissance company, a unit which, in its final form, was looked upon by the battalion's officers as especially inefficient.

M39 Armored Utility Vehicle (AUV)
The M18 Hellcat also made an excellent choice for an APC. The Army removed the turret and put people inside an open top. The M39 Armored Utility Vehicle (AUV) was designed, and saw limited service prior to the end of World War II and during the Korean conflict. One serious drawback was that it lacked overhead armor. With the introduction of the VT fuse to the battlefield this consideration was of prime importance.