Talk:Howitzer Motor Carriage M8

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Howitzer Motor Carriage M8 article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Military history: Land vehicles / Technology / Weaponry / North America / United States / World War II

This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.Military historyWikipedia:WikiProject Military historyTemplate:WikiProject Military historymilitary history articles

This article has been checked against the following criteria for B-class status:
Referencing and citation: criterion not met Coverage and accuracy: criterion not met Structure: criterion met Grammar and style: criterion met Supporting materials: criterion met

Associated task forces:
/
	Military land vehicles task force
	Military science, technology, and theory task force
	Weaponry task force
	North American military history task force
	United States military history task force
	World War II task force

On 27 August 2024, it was proposed that this article be moved to Howitzer motor carriage M8. The result of the discussion was no consensus.

Crew makeup vs the M3/M5 Stuart

When you say "(l)ike the Light Tank M5, the M8 had a crew of four; commander, gunner, driver, and assistant driver/loader", it appears to be saying that the M5 had a crew consisting of those members. As far as I know, the M3 and M5 both had crews of driver, bow gunner, loader and gunner/commander. That was how they fought; there was no room for a commander, gunner and loader in the turret, and if the bow gunner moved to the turret to load the gun in combat, there wouldn't be a whole lot of point in having the bow gun at all (and having the commander fight outside the turret at the AA mount would be plainly foolish for a front-line AFV, whereas it might perhaps be feasbile for a 2nd-line support SPG like the M8). The whole point is that the M8 had a larger turret, capable of holding three crew, which is why the driver and loader/assistant driver lost their roof hatches. I'm going to assume this is an honest mistake, and no-one was actually trying to suggest the M5 was manned the same way as the M8, but the language really does suggest that in at least two places. It ought to say "like the Light Tank M5, the M8 had a crew of four. However, unlike the M5, the M5 had both a gunner and a commander, the duties of loader being assumed by the assistant driver in action, whereas in the M5 the commander also served as gunner, and the assistant driver served as bow gunner" (or something less verbose; conscision is not my thing). This is all assuming that this was actually the way the men were trained to use the M8, not some localized thing units in the Pacific came up with, and which someone read about in some anecdote and proceeded to post on Wikipedia as standard tactics for the M8 in general. Because it seems a little suspect to me; perhaps the M8's AA gun can be manned and fired from inside the turret, unlike the M5's, in which case it would make better sense than having one man outside the tank totally. But it begs the question "why didn't they just make it a 3-man turret?"

Idumea47b (talk) 03:24, 26 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Move discussion in progress

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:M40 Gun Motor Carriage which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 22:48, 27 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]