M3 Lee

The M3 Lee is an American medium tank of the Second World War, entering service in 1941 with a distinctive layout that mounted its main 75mm gun in a sponson on the tank's hull rather than in a fully rotating turret, a design driven by the need to rush a gun capable of defeating German tanks into production before a proper turret-mounted 75mm gun design was ready. A smaller 37mm gun was carried in a conventional turret above the hull gun, giving the M3 an unusual double-armed silhouette, and the design saw combat with British Commonwealth forces in North Africa from 1942, where its 75mm gun outperformed the smaller guns of contemporary German tanks even as its high profile and sponson-mounted main armament, which could not traverse independently of the whole vehicle, were recognized as serious limitations. The tank's American service name honors Confederate general Robert E. Lee, following the United States Army's practice of that period of naming medium and heavy tanks after Civil War generals, and the M3 was withdrawn from frontline American and British use once the improved, fully turreted M4 Sherman became available in quantity.