M36/M36B1 Tank Destroyer (Images of War)

An illustrated history of two American tank destroyers used during World War II, featuring rare photographs from wartime archives. U.S. military strategy in World War II designated tanks as armored assault vehicles for breaching enemy positions, while specialized tank destroyers were assigned to counter enemy tanks. The M10 tank destroyer, equipped with a three-inch gun, proved inadequate against increasingly heavy German armor. To address this, the U.S. mounted a larger 90mm M3 gun in a new open-topped turret on purpose-built hulls and remanufactured M10A1s from training units, creating the M36. When chassis supplies ran low, Diesel-powered M10s were converted to produce the M36B2. The M36B1 was built from the ground up as a tank destroyer, using an M4A3-based hull with a standard M36 turret. Examination of surviving vehicles confirms that M36B1 hulls were manufactured specifically for this purpose rather than converted from existing M4A3 hulls. After World War II, changing antitank doctrine rendered these tank destroyers obsolete. However, many were supplied to other nations and some remained in combat use into the twenty-first century.