The early American light tanks, like the M3 Stuart, or the improved version M5, were outdated near the end of the Second World War. The 37 mm guns which most tanks used in 1940 were replaced by larger caliber guns, 75 mm was the new standard and developments were increasing the bore even more.
Different variants were tried like the Medium Tank M7 but in 1943 the Ordnance Corp together with Cadillac started to work on a new light tank, designated Light Tank M24, better known as M24 Chaffee. The M24 was nicknamed in honor of Major General Adna R. Chaffee Jr. also known as the “Father of the Armored Force.
The M24 tank weighed 18,4 tons and had a crew of 5. Its armor ranged from 9,5 to 38 mm and its main gun was a 75 mm M6. The tank had one .50 calibre machine gun and two .30 caliber machine guns, all Brownings. Two Cadillac 16 cylinder engines gave it a top speed of 56 km/h on roads, 40 km/h on terrain. It had an operational range of 160 km.
Production started on 15 October 1943 after the Pilot was successful, until August 1945, when production stopped 4731 M24 Chaffee tanks had been built.
The Tank was mostly used by the U.S. Army but several hundred were in use by the British army. The reliability of the tank and its off road performances together with the 75 mm gun were appreciated by the crews even if it was outgunned and inferior to the German tanks. The light armor made it vulnerable to almost every German panzer, anti-tank guns and hand-held anti-tank weapons like the panzerfaust. Although it was not made for tank warfare the tankers praised the speed, low silhouette,maneuverability, mobility in mud and snow and reliability over the old M3 / M5 Stuart and M4 Sherman.
