Hey all! Thank you so much for watching this video. I know I say it every time but this has truly blossomed into my largest project yet, and I hope you all enjoy watching the final product as much as I did making it. Most importantly, I also hope you learn a thing or two! My goal with this 2 part series is to bring to light all of the intricacies and logistics of the M3, and to tell the story of how important this tank was to the establishment of American tank forces and the American tank industry. In part 2 we'll cover all the individual variants of the M3 that existed and how to identify them, as well as it's use in combat and who all got to use them! So stay tuned! If you enjoyed, please leave a like and subscribe, it helps much more than you think! A little comment for the algorithm couldn't hurt either right? What is something from this video that you didn't know? What was your favorite part? Let me know!
Before this I thought the M3 was a stop-gap full of issues and unreliability. This video really showed me how the Lee brought American industry too the point it needed to be at for the Sherman. Thank you for making this and blessing me with this info using high quality script writing and editing.
14:10 The "phase" prototype naming scheme came back again during the T37 light tank program. There, they were used to denote the incrementally more advanced stages of development of T37. Phase 1 was testing the basic tank, phase 2 added a british two-stage stabilisation system and phase 3 was meant to add an autoloader.
I absolutely love this. I feel like I'm listening to one person passionately talk about tanks and it's fun and easy to listen to and I felt engaged and interested the entire time. 11/10 Eta320 best youtuber
I love the brief era of tanks with an absurd number of machine guns and other secondary armament. It gives more unique and versatile jobs to the crew, and I find that interesting to think about when most modern tanks have phased out those extra crew members in favor of automated systems and specialized crewmen with specific jobs.
... Not watched the video yet. However, M3 Lee and many of this early tanks where built with WW1 trench wars in mind. A big moving bunker of going into no-mans-land. Filled with bomb craters and such things. Making a mechanized machine to face the entrenched machine guns. Taking as many of the crew out of the tank and instead walk along with the tank? That is simply a far better use of resources. A tank without people on the ground in boots is asking for trouble. And if the situation calls for it, might it still be better to have tank crews instead work in the back line, or in any more numerous ways more useful then simply a machine gunner taking valuable space in the hull or turret. If you have 10 tank-crew members? A solid 10 people to operate a machine of battle importance? Why would you stuff 10 of them into a overweight box (enough armor to protect all 10) and do rather pointless tasks like only being able to work a light machine gun? It can be a 50cal far firing gun or whatever. It still is useless for 99.99999% of the time. Ok so 5 crew in one tank? And 5 crew in a other tank? No.. 3 crew + 3 crew + 3 crew + 1 driving a support tracked vehicle with foot soldier friends. Ending up with 3 tanks and a extra machine to simply move about the infantry group that can protect the 3 tanks. The extra foot soldiers are happily going to support 3 tanks. The alternative is to marsh alone into the line of fire of the enemy. Tanks are friends. Foot soldiers only have to be mindful that tank eats body parts rather without thought or care. 3-tanks is better then 1. 3-tanks is better then 2. A tank with 3 or at most 4 crew is what makes sense. A tank is doing it wrong when being alone left fighting surrounded. You do not need to keep your sides and rear clear... If you simply do not get into that being a chance to begin with. At any point that a machine gun makes sense on a tank? You would be better of making sure that your supporting allies are there to do it for you instead. From inside a tank you hardly have the view to even see or take effective action with a machine gun to begin with. Better off sticking your head out with a personal sub machine-gun.
Harder to train crewmen than to build tanks. Going from a five man crew with a relatively useless bow gunner to a four man crew allowed us to man 25% more tanks
The M2 and M3 Lee are my favorite early war tanks ever made, thank you for all the time and effort you went through to bring the true story of the M3 Lee to light 😊.
As someone who has a physiological problem and can't sleep at night, go to sleep, or you might end up like me, hating school, joining the army as a tanker and deploying as a TWAT (tanker without a tank) It's not worth it man, if you go to a stupid war make sure you bring your tank. See how it all makes perfect sense? Get some sleep.
Nope. It is far worse to derail a hole diesel engine (modern train) to power a hole town or at least part of a village. It was not that long ago in the news in USA. Emergency measure due to winter hitting Texas or something? Not to talk about electric cars straining the power-grid and then spend most of the battery to keep the car from braking down the battery cells in the cold following the complete electric grid network failure. Could you imagine the logic of producing battery cells that needs to heat itself to not ruin a expensive luxury car? Instead of the energy going to heating the occupant freezing? A petrol or diesel engine would happily stay outside the hole winter and not be a strain on the gird... A steam locomotive is a giant firebox on steel wheels. Taking hours of time to heat up before safely being capable to move and pull a train of wagons. A diesel train is a giant electric generator on steel wheels. A electric train do not carry batteries for majority of the energy, but takes the power from power-lines/network. Or a diesel engine producing electricity. A steam locomotive has a efficiency of about 10% when doing the intended job of a train. Meaning that 90% of the coal or liquid fossil fuel (oil) is in the end turned into heat. A space heater out in the open air. Or at best a 1% of light and electricity to power lights. So 90% of the energy completely wasted. It should not be forgotten that steam locomotives turned from coal to oil before diesel engines took over. So in that regard nothing has really changed over the years. Same source of energy and pollution. To pull in a steam locomotive as a space heater is pretty much a 100% return on input. The little bit of metal contact with the rail or ground is almost completely irrelevant loss. Since otherwise 100% of the energy (heat) would go into heating the place. Compare that to pulling in a electric car as a space heater. That do not lose 80-90% of the energy into mechanical loss. And in need of power generation to replenishing those batteries... Making it a rather useless contradiction. When in the end your left with the same problem of energy having to come from somewhere. Even if only to be a space heater. It is funny how we still have giant glass windowed buildings that hold heat really badly. With a giant waster of oil being airplanes and airports. Giant glass buildings of luxury, burning so much oil for no good reason. The reason factories have giant windows is to bring in natural lights for workers. Those that are taking a airplane ride do not need natural light. A factory worker spends most of their lives at that place. A air passenger do not want to be at a airport for more then 10min. The real issue of pulling in a locomotive into a building, would be more to do with the smoke produced from the fire. And if the locomotive would have to suspend some freight service to be stationed as a space heater. Imagine how many fancy glass buildings are wasting energy to the point of needing a big locomotive inside to keep the place heated. Most of this buildings are now airports. Since airports can afford the heating bill. Fossil fuel is cheap for oil giants. It is the ones paying green laws that it actually ramps up the prices.
As an Auto Engineer who's worked in Detroit for vendors and OEMs, I can confirm that a full sized Loco would struggle to heat a full sized assembly plant in a typical Michigan February. 🐧
43:19 Aye it’s the Chrylser built M4A3(76)HVSS “Field expedient Jumbo” from 4th armored division now on display at Rock Island Arsenal. Like some other shermans in 4th armored they up armoured it by taking the front plate from a knocked out sherman and welding that onto the tank, along with a piece of armour plate bolted onto the differential housing, a few pieces of armour plate on the cheeks of the turret, and some plate over the sponsons, the tank was hit 4 times in its front plate by a 7.5cm and finally knocked out by one round hitting the upper right of the turret which penetrated.
I built my first "good" model with my uncle when I was 10 in 1980. We used glue you could sniff and restored spray paint without masks. I still have it.
Thanks for this. The Lee is an extremely underrated tank. It's wasn't the greatest tank ever, but it pioneered so many technologies and paved the way for one of the greatest tanks ever built the M4.
I so like the production video spots. Here is a thought. Many men from young to probably mid 40's were totally involved with items concerning the M3 Lee light tank. Now so many years later we have another young man keeping the history of that involvement alive. There is a somewhat old saying concerning aircraft. The saying involves how a plane must look right and look fast to be accepted into mass production. We can't apply that test to the M3 Lee. It looks clumsy and it does not look like it fits but. A enemy tank hit with a round from that 75mm gun placed so clumsily off to the side did not know it was hit by an awkwardly aimed round. It simply burned.
I usually don't watch videos this long, much less one that comes in multiple long parts. However well within the first 15 mins I was super glad I committed myself to it! Great job!
Hi there! First time viewer here... just saw the first five minutes and am already sold... love the tone and music selection... (over the garden wall theme fits like a glove)
This is a very informative video. I'm from Flint, MI, where a lot of WWII war production took place. That sparked an interest in how America became the arsenal of democracy, so I've spent a good deal of time studying this subject on my own. I can say that I didn't spot a single error in this video. The research is solid and since so few creators discuss the production/logistical aspects of WWII, this video is a welcome addition in discussions of WWII history. Well done.
The M3 has always had a special place in my heart, there’s a few hulks on the side of the road that my family would drive down on the way to the Victorian mountains for a holiday. We’d stop by and take pictures with them and the turretless Matilda’s as they’d been used out there as tractors after the war. As I’ve grown older going through the “tiger best tank ever” to now I still love the look of it. Just the other day I got to see an actually complete one at the armour and artillery museum in Cairns (both grant and lee) and it was an experience. I fucking love this thing, and now I get a video essay (more like a thesis) on it? Phenomenal. Thank you so much
Very very glad to see a fellow appreciator of the Medium Tank M3. I'd say it's fair to say the M3 walked so the Sherman could run, prior to the M3 American tank development was, like most interwar tank programs, heavily dominated by World War 1 thinking. The M2 Medium was designed around trench warfare, and then almost immediately after it was finished the Battle of France happened and we realized trench warfare wasn't happening, while simultaneously realizing that mass producing tanks was a lot harder and more important than we'd thought. The US and the Allies as a whole needed to rapidly rethink their tank development and production, and it's impressive just how good the M3 is for how quickly it was put together. It still has the awkwardness of an early-war machine, but that was more than made up for by how gamechanging it was to be fielding massed amounts of tanks with 75mm guns and powerful engines. I think a lot about how Afrika Korps officers described the introduction of the M3 as the moment Germany lost armored superiority, at the time it was hitting the field people on both sides realized that the M3 was a turning point, even if later on it got overshadowed by its superior sibling the M4 Sherman. The way American industry was converted over to wartime production also remains one of my favorite parts of World War 2 history just because it shows what a massive industrial and logistical effort mobilization was, and how well the US government at the time understood that. The way some countries mobilized for war resembled something of a comedy of errors (I recall the Brits and the russians both cracked jokes about how little some tanks as built resembled their design specifications), the way the US mobilized was refreshingly the polar opposite of that.
The stripping of components from one item to another still goes on. We were building and doing flight testing on the MC-130H Combat Talon II aircraft when Desert Shield/Storm kicked off. The USAF sent all the C-130H aircraft they had which came from the Guard and Reserves. Since they normally didn't fly very much there were no spares to support a war. We stripped all the birds we did not need for testing and sent those parts to the war. We had one set of parts that we used to accept a plane, fly it to storage and then shipped the parts back to the factory for the next delivery. At one time I think we had nine aircraft stored around the US. We were worried that the last plane would have to be trucked to a storage site as replacement parts were sent back to the US on a slow freighter and took 9 months to get back to us.
You're doing the lords work big guy. I love the video. I really wish I lived near a decent tank museum so I could see it for myself, but this is a close second.
Everybody who saw the photos of M3 Lee you posted figured that you are doing M3 Lee but I didn't expect that it would be over hour long video that's just part 1 😂. I'm super excited though, can't wait to find time to watch it
Large numbers of Lees were given to the British in North Africa. They helped stem the tide until the Sherman arrived. It was part of Roosevelt's "Arsenal of Democracy" philosophy. By the time the US entered the war, it was already outproducing Germany and Japan combined in arms manufacturing.
The M3 Grant was the first US Medium tank supplied to the British in WW2. It was used in the North Africa campaign throughout 1942, but was replaced by M4 Sherman in early 1943. The British M3 Lee/Grant was then shipped to Australia who receiver 777 tanks, mostly Grant, but these were not used in combat. Another 900 were shipped to India, 520 Lee and 380 Grant, and these were used against the Japanese in the Liberation of Burma 1944-45. The Soviet Union also recieved the diesel powered Lee.
In my research I did not come across any mention of the Soviets getting Diesel Lee's in fact a source I have specifically mentions that they didn't. May I ask where you got the information that they did? I'd be very curious to cross reference what I've got. Thanks!
@@eta320 I read it years ago I think in a MAFVA (Tankette) publication. I know withthe British its said all models were used. But never seen M3A1 & A2, in British Commonwealth service. But never say never lol. The M3A5 Grant II was used for 8th Army Command tanks in Italy 1943-45. in India the Grant was used by 50th Indian Tank Brigade and the Lee by the 254th. Despite the name the Lee/Grant regiments were all British
My 2nd part of this M3 documentary covers all of this, but, from the book I have by David Doyle written in 2020 (as well as all the other sources I've listed in the description of both videos) it was said that the Soviets didn't purchase any diesel powered M3's. Instead they opted to wait for the Sherman to be ready, and purchase diesel powered tanks of that kind. The only model of the M3 that saw service in the Soviet Union was the standard M3 Lee. Riveted hull, radial engine, American style turret. As for the British, I can confirm that they didn't use the M3A1 or M3A2. The M3A1 never saw combat with anybody. ALCO built 300 tanks but they all stayed in the US for training. The casted hull was favored by the US and they wanted to save the M3A1's for themselves, but then the Sherman came out and the M3A1 was not needed in combat. The M3A2 was built in incredibly small numbers, 12 tanks total to be specific. 10 Grants and 2 Lee's. It was the first M3 to use the welded hull, but it also used the in short supply radial R975 gas engine. The welded hull Diesel tank, the M3A3, came around at the same time and Baldwin Locomotive Works was told in November of 1941 to switch over to diesel engines for all M3's going forward. The M3A4 also never saw combat with the British or anybody. Only 135 were built in the final months of the M3's production life, and with the Sherman coming out, the M3 was immediately obsolete. As a result all M3A4's stayed in the US and were issued to the 6th Armored Division and sent to Camp Chaffee, Arkansas where they took part in training maneuvers.
@@eta320 I am not into WW2 Soviet stuff so will accept your info on the M3. But almost all the M4A2 went to the British until about August 1943 when the M4A4 was cancelled. Then the Soviets got the M4A2 priority and the British the M4 and M4A1 until the end of the year. The US Army started getting the M4A3 at the same time. In 1944 the British only got a few M4A1 76w and M4 105mm. As Britain's production problems were over by that stage of the war.
the intro music and the shot of the lee rolling away made me feel... like, really upset... The Lee seems to be forever sealed inside the worlds of World of Tanks and War Thunder as a novelty or a super shitty "medium" tank respectively... but in real life it's super overshadowed, like a few of my other favorite tanks. It hurts to see it in this situation, kinda... there's just something about the entire tank design as well as the situation it's in that just exudes melancholy. thanks for listening to my insane ramblings about a goofy ass tank lmao
awesome video! a perfect companion piece to both the aussies m3 restoration videos and the chieftans videos on the m4. the spool up of american war during ww2 production is fascinating and somewhat awe inspiring. it was hinted at during ww1 but never really realized. but it really shined during ww2. seems like the humble m3 was the epitome of that. they shouldve just called it "the arsenal of democracy tank" lol.
Well first time on this channel. I like the Springfield 1903 on the gun rack on the back wall. Can’t tell yet what’s in the corner. Looks like a pump shotgun and it looks like I can see an Enfield type magazine. Probably shouldn’t comment 4:28 into a 1 hour video but it’s what I do. I think I’ll enjoy this. (Edit)16:50 Ok I’m going two Enfields, an SMLE and a No4 MK1 and the pump shotgun gun (Winchester 1897?). Fun fact: Between 1929-32 Albert Kahn consulted on the building of over 500 factories in the Soviet Union. Kahn, along with American engineers and labourers built the Stalingrad Tractor Factory commencing in 1929. The factory was built of American steel and was equipped with American machining technology. It was, of course, converted to the iconic Stalingrad Tank Factory.
Welcome to the channel! Hope you find stuff you like here (assuming you like tanks). You’re spot on! Winchester 1897 is the shotgun, although you’ve missed one of my most prized possessions, which happens to be the C96 Mauser Broomhandle with the stock on the chair. It does blend it quite easily unfortunately. Also I’ve got a Yugoslavian M56/66 SKS that I hid because it didn’t fit the WWII theme of the video. I’ve got a video on my channel going over all those guns besides the 1903 as I hadn’t gotten it quite yet. Since the recording of this video I’ve also acquired both an M91/30 Mosin from Finland dated 1944, and an original Tula Arsenal M91 Mosin dated 1917. Yes, Albert Kahn played a significant role in establishing the industry of the Soviet Union, I had a little yellow text pop up mentioning it in the video when I talked about him but the topic definitely deserves its own video!
I had to do a double take as I watched your intro. I live in Newark, DE and just two days ago I was right next door to the VFW Post where No. 2 resides.
The Australian Army Tank Museum in Victoria, Australia has two M3 Mediums next to each other, one Lee pattern and one Grant pattern, supplied to Australia during 1942. In all 255 Petrol M3 Lees, 266 Petrol M3 Grants, and 232 Diesel Grants came in 1942, as the British were switching over the M4 Shermans. They were never employed by Australian forces in combat in the Pacific. They were used extensively for training purposes (crews, units, and mechanics) and the more compact and lighter Matilda II was preferred for use in the jungle. The British did use the M3 in the Burma campaign against the Japanese. Lots of Grants and Lees still banging around here in Australia in museums and private collections. The Tank Museum in Victoria is currently building a new enclosed facility to house these vehicles. Lee: th-cam.com/video/UxsfzvmhGag/w-d-xo.html Grant: th-cam.com/video/lN8dQQ-aLNE/w-d-xo.html
I don't remember my smoke alarms chirping during the making of this, but just to make sure, I double checked the raw footage and no chirp was there. I rewatched the Aus Armor video and the "chirp" is 100% the squeak of the tanks tracks, it sounds exactly like what you've found. I appreciate you looking out for my safety though! But my smoke alarms aren't chirping.
I have always wondered why M3 Grant/Lee had the turret with the 37mm gun. Had they deleted the turret with just a machine gun mount could have made tank much better, like the Stugs used by Germans in WW2 (and Stugs were used in fall of France).
Stuka's exist... US: Let's put a M2 Browning on the back, outside of the armor, out in the open to deal with dive bombers.... Tankers:WTF? Infantry: Dibbs
The restoration of the M3 Grant in Australia was fascinating for me also. I don't know why, but the other tank restorations they did were not nearly as interesting.
a watcher of the australian armor and artillery museum? i see you are also a man of culture and taste. ill greet you in the usual fashion; weelcome to workshop wweeeeeeeddddddnnneeeesssssdaay!"
Hey all! Thank you so much for watching this video. I know I say it every time but this has truly blossomed into my largest project yet, and I hope you all enjoy watching the final product as much as I did making it. Most importantly, I also hope you learn a thing or two!
My goal with this 2 part series is to bring to light all of the intricacies and logistics of the M3, and to tell the story of how important this tank was to the establishment of American tank forces and the American tank industry.
In part 2 we'll cover all the individual variants of the M3 that existed and how to identify them, as well as it's use in combat and who all got to use them! So stay tuned!
If you enjoyed, please leave a like and subscribe, it helps much more than you think! A little comment for the algorithm couldn't hurt either right? What is something from this video that you didn't know? What was your favorite part? Let me know!
👍
This is movie quality, don’t know how you do this
Before this I thought the M3 was a stop-gap full of issues and unreliability. This video really showed me how the Lee brought American industry too the point it needed to be at for the Sherman. Thank you for making this and blessing me with this info using high quality script writing and editing.
An hour and 17 minute video about my favorite tank? And it’s a PART 1? Thank you tank Jesus.
lol
Tank Jesus cooked
"Man, the M3 Lee is so cool, I wish it was real.
Actually, wait, Let me make it real." -Eta320
Lee: Was I a good stop-gap...?
Eta: You were the *best* stop-gap.
Ever since I saw the Humphrey Bogart film "Sahara" (1943) as a wee lad in the 1970's the Lee has remained my favorite tank.
Same here
It is a good movie.
Lulubelle ❤
you just unlocked a core memory of them gunning down that Bf-109 with the .50. I had forgotten that film was a thing
14:10 The "phase" prototype naming scheme came back again during the T37 light tank program. There, they were used to denote the incrementally more advanced stages of development of T37. Phase 1 was testing the basic tank, phase 2 added a british two-stage stabilisation system and phase 3 was meant to add an autoloader.
I absolutely love this. I feel like I'm listening to one person passionately talk about tanks and it's fun and easy to listen to and I felt engaged and interested the entire time.
11/10 Eta320 best youtuber
I love the brief era of tanks with an absurd number of machine guns and other secondary armament. It gives more unique and versatile jobs to the crew, and I find that interesting to think about when most modern tanks have phased out those extra crew members in favor of automated systems and specialized crewmen with specific jobs.
... Not watched the video yet. However, M3 Lee and many of this early tanks where built with WW1 trench wars in mind. A big moving bunker of going into no-mans-land. Filled with bomb craters and such things. Making a mechanized machine to face the entrenched machine guns.
Taking as many of the crew out of the tank and instead walk along with the tank? That is simply a far better use of resources. A tank without people on the ground in boots is asking for trouble. And if the situation calls for it, might it still be better to have tank crews instead work in the back line, or in any more numerous ways more useful then simply a machine gunner taking valuable space in the hull or turret. If you have 10 tank-crew members? A solid 10 people to operate a machine of battle importance? Why would you stuff 10 of them into a overweight box (enough armor to protect all 10) and do rather pointless tasks like only being able to work a light machine gun? It can be a 50cal far firing gun or whatever. It still is useless for 99.99999% of the time. Ok so 5 crew in one tank? And 5 crew in a other tank? No.. 3 crew + 3 crew + 3 crew + 1 driving a support tracked vehicle with foot soldier friends.
Ending up with 3 tanks and a extra machine to simply move about the infantry group that can protect the 3 tanks. The extra foot soldiers are happily going to support 3 tanks. The alternative is to marsh alone into the line of fire of the enemy. Tanks are friends. Foot soldiers only have to be mindful that tank eats body parts rather without thought or care.
3-tanks is better then 1. 3-tanks is better then 2. A tank with 3 or at most 4 crew is what makes sense. A tank is doing it wrong when being alone left fighting surrounded. You do not need to keep your sides and rear clear... If you simply do not get into that being a chance to begin with. At any point that a machine gun makes sense on a tank? You would be better of making sure that your supporting allies are there to do it for you instead. From inside a tank you hardly have the view to even see or take effective action with a machine gun to begin with. Better off sticking your head out with a personal sub machine-gun.
Harder to train crewmen than to build tanks.
Going from a five man crew with a relatively useless bow gunner to a four man crew allowed us to man 25% more tanks
@@dougjones9698 And the team became more effective, to boot
The M2 and M3 Lee are my favorite early war tanks ever made, thank you for all the time and effort you went through to bring the true story of the M3 Lee to light 😊.
it's 12am and i have to get up at 5 but eta just dropped this banger guess imma go to school while being tired
As someone who has a physiological problem and can't sleep at night, go to sleep, or you might end up like me, hating school, joining the army as a tanker and deploying as a TWAT (tanker without a tank) It's not worth it man, if you go to a stupid war make sure you bring your tank. See how it all makes perfect sense? Get some sleep.
Finally, the elusive M3 Grant/Lee meta-documentary
40:00 the shear energy of using a whole locomotive as a space heater is insane
Nope. It is far worse to derail a hole diesel engine (modern train) to power a hole town or at least part of a village. It was not that long ago in the news in USA. Emergency measure due to winter hitting Texas or something? Not to talk about electric cars straining the power-grid and then spend most of the battery to keep the car from braking down the battery cells in the cold following the complete electric grid network failure. Could you imagine the logic of producing battery cells that needs to heat itself to not ruin a expensive luxury car? Instead of the energy going to heating the occupant freezing? A petrol or diesel engine would happily stay outside the hole winter and not be a strain on the gird...
A steam locomotive is a giant firebox on steel wheels. Taking hours of time to heat up before safely being capable to move and pull a train of wagons. A diesel train is a giant electric generator on steel wheels. A electric train do not carry batteries for majority of the energy, but takes the power from power-lines/network. Or a diesel engine producing electricity.
A steam locomotive has a efficiency of about 10% when doing the intended job of a train. Meaning that 90% of the coal or liquid fossil fuel (oil) is in the end turned into heat. A space heater out in the open air. Or at best a 1% of light and electricity to power lights. So 90% of the energy completely wasted. It should not be forgotten that steam locomotives turned from coal to oil before diesel engines took over. So in that regard nothing has really changed over the years. Same source of energy and pollution.
To pull in a steam locomotive as a space heater is pretty much a 100% return on input. The little bit of metal contact with the rail or ground is almost completely irrelevant loss. Since otherwise 100% of the energy (heat) would go into heating the place. Compare that to pulling in a electric car as a space heater. That do not lose 80-90% of the energy into mechanical loss. And in need of power generation to replenishing those batteries... Making it a rather useless contradiction. When in the end your left with the same problem of energy having to come from somewhere. Even if only to be a space heater. It is funny how we still have giant glass windowed buildings that hold heat really badly. With a giant waster of oil being airplanes and airports. Giant glass buildings of luxury, burning so much oil for no good reason. The reason factories have giant windows is to bring in natural lights for workers. Those that are taking a airplane ride do not need natural light. A factory worker spends most of their lives at that place. A air passenger do not want to be at a airport for more then 10min.
The real issue of pulling in a locomotive into a building, would be more to do with the smoke produced from the fire. And if the locomotive would have to suspend some freight service to be stationed as a space heater. Imagine how many fancy glass buildings are wasting energy to the point of needing a big locomotive inside to keep the place heated. Most of this buildings are now airports. Since airports can afford the heating bill. Fossil fuel is cheap for oil giants. It is the ones paying green laws that it actually ramps up the prices.
As an Auto Engineer who's worked in Detroit for vendors and OEMs, I can confirm that a full sized Loco would struggle to heat a full sized assembly plant in a typical Michigan February. 🐧
This is one of the videos of all time W ETA
open the flood gates
We eating good
43:19 Aye it’s the Chrylser built M4A3(76)HVSS “Field expedient Jumbo” from 4th armored division now on display at Rock Island Arsenal.
Like some other shermans in 4th armored they up armoured it by taking the front plate from a knocked out sherman and welding that onto the tank, along with a piece of armour plate bolted onto the differential housing, a few pieces of armour plate on the cheeks of the turret, and some plate over the sponsons, the tank was hit 4 times in its front plate by a 7.5cm and finally knocked out by one round hitting the upper right of the turret which penetrated.
A blessing from the lord! Im glad to see you back on my homescreen Eta. Currently Just started watching
I built my first "good" model with my uncle when I was 10 in 1980. We used glue you could sniff and restored spray paint without masks. I still have it.
So much Vangelis inspired music, So much M3 Medium Tank.
I skipped the first 5 minutes, not sure what that was. Aside from that, terrific video. Subscribed!
As a kid who grew up loving the bogart move Sahara i have always loved the M3
Don’t forget Spielberg including an M3 Lee in 1941! I recall a movie magazine that showed it was a mockup made from an M7 Priest!
Thanks for this. The Lee is an extremely underrated tank. It's wasn't the greatest tank ever, but it pioneered so many technologies and paved the way for one of the greatest tanks ever built the M4.
I so like the production video spots. Here is a thought. Many men from young to probably mid 40's were totally involved with items concerning the M3 Lee light tank. Now so many years later we have another young man keeping the history of that involvement alive. There is a somewhat old saying concerning aircraft. The saying involves how a plane must look right and look fast to be accepted into mass production. We can't apply that test to the M3 Lee. It looks clumsy and it does not look like it fits but. A enemy tank hit with a round from that 75mm gun placed so clumsily off to the side did not know it was hit by an awkwardly aimed round. It simply burned.
I usually don't watch videos this long, much less one that comes in multiple long parts. However well within the first 15 mins I was super glad I committed myself to it! Great job!
Hi there! First time viewer here... just saw the first five minutes and am already sold... love the tone and music selection... (over the garden wall theme fits like a glove)
This is a very informative video. I'm from Flint, MI, where a lot of WWII war production took place. That sparked an interest in how America became the arsenal of democracy, so I've spent a good deal of time studying this subject on my own.
I can say that I didn't spot a single error in this video. The research is solid and since so few creators discuss the production/logistical aspects of WWII, this video is a welcome addition in discussions of WWII history.
Well done.
The tank that got me into tanks is finally getting an eta320 video. I have never been so grateful to be alive!
M3 Lee vs Tiger 2? M3 Lee wins? Hooray!!
Eta please we need a T35/general soviet heavy tanks video
The M3 has always had a special place in my heart, there’s a few hulks on the side of the road that my family would drive down on the way to the Victorian mountains for a holiday. We’d stop by and take pictures with them and the turretless Matilda’s as they’d been used out there as tractors after the war. As I’ve grown older going through the “tiger best tank ever” to now I still love the look of it. Just the other day I got to see an actually complete one at the armour and artillery museum in Cairns (both grant and lee) and it was an experience. I fucking love this thing, and now I get a video essay (more like a thesis) on it? Phenomenal. Thank you so much
Very very glad to see a fellow appreciator of the Medium Tank M3. I'd say it's fair to say the M3 walked so the Sherman could run, prior to the M3 American tank development was, like most interwar tank programs, heavily dominated by World War 1 thinking. The M2 Medium was designed around trench warfare, and then almost immediately after it was finished the Battle of France happened and we realized trench warfare wasn't happening, while simultaneously realizing that mass producing tanks was a lot harder and more important than we'd thought. The US and the Allies as a whole needed to rapidly rethink their tank development and production, and it's impressive just how good the M3 is for how quickly it was put together. It still has the awkwardness of an early-war machine, but that was more than made up for by how gamechanging it was to be fielding massed amounts of tanks with 75mm guns and powerful engines. I think a lot about how Afrika Korps officers described the introduction of the M3 as the moment Germany lost armored superiority, at the time it was hitting the field people on both sides realized that the M3 was a turning point, even if later on it got overshadowed by its superior sibling the M4 Sherman. The way American industry was converted over to wartime production also remains one of my favorite parts of World War 2 history just because it shows what a massive industrial and logistical effort mobilization was, and how well the US government at the time understood that. The way some countries mobilized for war resembled something of a comedy of errors (I recall the Brits and the russians both cracked jokes about how little some tanks as built resembled their design specifications), the way the US mobilized was refreshingly the polar opposite of that.
The most interesting bit is how the M4 concept predated the M3 concept, and M3 was just pulled out of the hat until M4 was ready
4:35 love that you're still using tredegar iron works as a backdrop. cool location, and RVA rep
Thanks for this Video about a often unheeded Tank.
Awesome work.
A really great video, in a very personal style.
Great job!
Last thing eta did was the intro as redwrench harriers vs mirage tells me and the fact he looks more homeless
Love your Bonple High School "Senshado" poster and "Saunders" mug too! (yeah one of the few who "gets it" LOL)
Loving this so far. Thank you Eta.
My birthday was yesterday and man, what a gift from eta
The Lee also played a starring role in the Bogart film “Sahara”.
The stripping of components from one item to another still goes on. We were building and doing flight testing on the MC-130H Combat Talon II aircraft when Desert Shield/Storm kicked off. The USAF sent all the C-130H aircraft they had which came from the Guard and Reserves. Since they normally didn't fly very much there were no spares to support a war. We stripped all the birds we did not need for testing and sent those parts to the war. We had one set of parts that we used to accept a plane, fly it to storage and then shipped the parts back to the factory for the next delivery. At one time I think we had nine aircraft stored around the US. We were worried that the last plane would have to be trucked to a storage site as replacement parts were sent back to the US on a slow freighter and took 9 months to get back to us.
You're doing the lords work big guy. I love the video. I really wish I lived near a decent tank museum so I could see it for myself, but this is a close second.
Retired now but, I was a contractor for Rock Island for many years as a gunsmith.
Eta coming out here with a slam dunk. Love your videos!
I think this is the tank Humphrey Bogart's character commands in the 1943 movie: "Sahara".
bro out here rocking the Oddball fit.
26:20
I've played helldivers so much i immidiently recognized the song
i was thinking,wait a minute, that sounds familliar
Wow awesome video dude. So much effort
Everybody who saw the photos of M3 Lee you posted figured that you are doing M3 Lee but I didn't expect that it would be over hour long video that's just part 1 😂. I'm super excited though, can't wait to find time to watch it
Eta320 never misses when he uploads a video.
Unless the video is over 2 years old.
Very cool to see you branch out I to longform content. Would love to see more in the future
I’ve always enjoyed your videos. But I need to comment on your wonderfully tasteful use of BF1 music. One of my favorites of all time
Australian Armour and Artillery Museums channel is so good
Yummers the Lee video :3
Today the story of the father of the Sherman shall be told :D
Large numbers of Lees were given to the British in North Africa. They helped stem the tide until the Sherman arrived. It was part of Roosevelt's "Arsenal of Democracy" philosophy. By the time the US entered the war, it was already outproducing Germany and Japan combined in arms manufacturing.
I just got my Tamiya 1/35 scale M3 lee when this video came out 🔥
So, so good. Worth being an hour & a half late to work!
I’ve been to the Australia armor and artillery museum in Carnes, Australia. Great museum!
Dude you watch AusArmor? YES dude, us aussies getting some love ❤!!!
Interesting. Thanks for posting.
The M3 Lee drunkly stumbled so the M4 Sherman could sprint
The M3 Grant was the first US Medium tank supplied to the British in WW2. It was used in the North Africa campaign throughout 1942, but was replaced by M4 Sherman in early 1943. The British M3 Lee/Grant was then shipped to Australia who receiver 777 tanks, mostly Grant, but these were not used in combat. Another 900 were shipped to India, 520 Lee and 380 Grant, and these were used against the Japanese in the Liberation of Burma 1944-45. The Soviet Union also recieved the diesel powered Lee.
In my research I did not come across any mention of the Soviets getting Diesel Lee's in fact a source I have specifically mentions that they didn't. May I ask where you got the information that they did? I'd be very curious to cross reference what I've got. Thanks!
@@eta320 I read it years ago I think in a MAFVA (Tankette) publication. I know withthe British its said all models were used. But never seen M3A1 & A2, in British Commonwealth service. But never say never lol. The M3A5 Grant II was used for 8th Army Command tanks in Italy 1943-45. in India the Grant was used by 50th Indian Tank Brigade and the Lee by the 254th. Despite the name the Lee/Grant regiments were all British
My 2nd part of this M3 documentary covers all of this, but, from the book I have by David Doyle written in 2020 (as well as all the other sources I've listed in the description of both videos) it was said that the Soviets didn't purchase any diesel powered M3's. Instead they opted to wait for the Sherman to be ready, and purchase diesel powered tanks of that kind. The only model of the M3 that saw service in the Soviet Union was the standard M3 Lee. Riveted hull, radial engine, American style turret.
As for the British, I can confirm that they didn't use the M3A1 or M3A2. The M3A1 never saw combat with anybody. ALCO built 300 tanks but they all stayed in the US for training. The casted hull was favored by the US and they wanted to save the M3A1's for themselves, but then the Sherman came out and the M3A1 was not needed in combat. The M3A2 was built in incredibly small numbers, 12 tanks total to be specific. 10 Grants and 2 Lee's. It was the first M3 to use the welded hull, but it also used the in short supply radial R975 gas engine. The welded hull Diesel tank, the M3A3, came around at the same time and Baldwin Locomotive Works was told in November of 1941 to switch over to diesel engines for all M3's going forward.
The M3A4 also never saw combat with the British or anybody. Only 135 were built in the final months of the M3's production life, and with the Sherman coming out, the M3 was immediately obsolete. As a result all M3A4's stayed in the US and were issued to the 6th Armored Division and sent to Camp Chaffee, Arkansas where they took part in training maneuvers.
@@eta320 I am not into WW2 Soviet stuff so will accept your info on the M3. But almost all the M4A2 went to the British until about August 1943 when the M4A4 was cancelled. Then the Soviets got the M4A2 priority and the British the M4 and M4A1 until the end of the year. The US Army started getting the M4A3 at the same time. In 1944 the British only got a few M4A1 76w and M4 105mm. As Britain's production problems were over by that stage of the war.
@@billballbuster7186 Im a little confused, are we talking about the M3 or the M4? My response was all in regards to the M3 Lee/Grant. Not the Sherman
*It's an hour long*
😯
*It's part one*
😱
THE FACT THAT HE KNEW BOUT THE WATER THOW IS CRAZEY
the intro music and the shot of the lee rolling away made me feel... like, really upset... The Lee seems to be forever sealed inside the worlds of World of Tanks and War Thunder as a novelty or a super shitty "medium" tank respectively... but in real life it's super overshadowed, like a few of my other favorite tanks. It hurts to see it in this situation, kinda... there's just something about the entire tank design as well as the situation it's in that just exudes melancholy.
thanks for listening to my insane ramblings about a goofy ass tank lmao
Christmas came early boys!
awesome video! a perfect companion piece to both the aussies m3 restoration videos and the chieftans videos on the m4. the spool up of american war during ww2 production is fascinating and somewhat awe inspiring. it was hinted at during ww1 but never really realized. but it really shined during ww2. seems like the humble m3 was the epitome of that. they shouldve just called it "the arsenal of democracy tank" lol.
Well first time on this channel. I like the Springfield 1903 on the gun rack on the back wall. Can’t tell yet what’s in the corner. Looks like a pump shotgun and it looks like I can see an Enfield type magazine. Probably shouldn’t comment 4:28 into a 1 hour video but it’s what I do. I think I’ll enjoy this. (Edit)16:50 Ok I’m going two Enfields, an SMLE and a No4 MK1 and the pump shotgun gun (Winchester 1897?). Fun fact: Between 1929-32 Albert Kahn consulted on the building of over 500 factories in the Soviet Union. Kahn, along with American engineers and labourers built the Stalingrad Tractor Factory commencing in 1929. The factory was built of American steel and was equipped with American machining technology. It was, of course, converted to the iconic Stalingrad Tank Factory.
Welcome to the channel! Hope you find stuff you like here (assuming you like tanks).
You’re spot on! Winchester 1897 is the shotgun, although you’ve missed one of my most prized possessions, which happens to be the C96 Mauser Broomhandle with the stock on the chair. It does blend it quite easily unfortunately. Also I’ve got a Yugoslavian M56/66 SKS that I hid because it didn’t fit the WWII theme of the video. I’ve got a video on my channel going over all those guns besides the 1903 as I hadn’t gotten it quite yet.
Since the recording of this video I’ve also acquired both an M91/30 Mosin from Finland dated 1944, and an original Tula Arsenal M91 Mosin dated 1917.
Yes, Albert Kahn played a significant role in establishing the industry of the Soviet Union, I had a little yellow text pop up mentioning it in the video when I talked about him but the topic definitely deserves its own video!
I had to do a double take as I watched your intro. I live in Newark, DE and just two days ago I was right next door to the VFW Post where No. 2 resides.
It’s 100% worth visiting, such an important tank so close by!
Bro's been cooking up a storm.
The Australian Army Tank Museum in Victoria, Australia has two M3 Mediums next to each other, one Lee pattern and one Grant pattern, supplied to Australia during 1942. In all 255 Petrol M3 Lees, 266 Petrol M3 Grants, and 232 Diesel Grants came in 1942, as the British were switching over the M4 Shermans. They were never employed by Australian forces in combat in the Pacific. They were used extensively for training purposes (crews, units, and mechanics) and the more compact and lighter Matilda II was preferred for use in the jungle. The British did use the M3 in the Burma campaign against the Japanese. Lots of Grants and Lees still banging around here in Australia in museums and private collections. The Tank Museum in Victoria is currently building a new enclosed facility to house these vehicles.
Lee: th-cam.com/video/UxsfzvmhGag/w-d-xo.html
Grant: th-cam.com/video/lN8dQQ-aLNE/w-d-xo.html
HERE IT COMES
love the video
4:40 is that in Richmond va? Near the ironworks?
6:13 is that mountain on the left Massanutten?
Well shucks; now I have to take a road trip to Delaware to see ol’ 002.
Opens with Aus Armor? This is going to be a good video.
We love the bf1 background music
Peak video
0:28 Smoke Alarm chirp, change your batteries
I don't remember my smoke alarms chirping during the making of this, but just to make sure, I double checked the raw footage and no chirp was there. I rewatched the Aus Armor video and the "chirp" is 100% the squeak of the tanks tracks, it sounds exactly like what you've found.
I appreciate you looking out for my safety though! But my smoke alarms aren't chirping.
Next vid
Sooo hi to part 2 out of 3 yes yes i needed a other part after all!
I have always wondered why M3 Grant/Lee had the turret with the 37mm gun. Had they deleted the turret with just a machine gun mount could have made tank much better, like the Stugs used by Germans in WW2 (and Stugs were used in fall of France).
one of my favorites
If you think the production of the M3 got messed up - you should look into what happened to the M7 and factory for the M7.
26:57 is that the god damn Helldiver theme? I think I heard it a bit earlier.
Great vidéo !! Made me learn many things about a tank I had sub par knowledge.
Could you to a vidéo about the Valentine ?
Stuka's exist...
US: Let's put a M2 Browning on the back, outside of the armor, out in the open to deal with dive bombers....
Tankers:WTF?
Infantry: Dibbs
Absolute cinema.
Ngl I find the fact you have a war thunder screenshot of the Centurion on the wall, right above your middle monitor way too funny
18:54 so what I'm getting is that the Arsenal system is basically just an old-fashioned STC
We are so back
54:38 "Sound familiar?" Lol
No way that chieftain video was made at MAGI, Museum of the American GI, I got there every year and my group plans to reenact there lol
I didn't even know you made the vid but as you got in the pic i, Eta
The restoration of the M3 Grant in Australia was fascinating for me also. I don't know why, but the other tank restorations they did were not nearly as interesting.
And then you realise Australian Armor and Artillery Museum has a half dozen M3’s in various states of repair…
Ain't no way the M3 Lee is the one getting 2 videos.
I like the Helldivers bgm.
What, I never hear anyone saying this tank is bad. Where is that idea even from? This tank was almost a gamer changer in North Africa for the British.
a watcher of the australian armor and artillery museum? i see you are also a man of culture and taste. ill greet you in the usual fashion; weelcome to workshop wweeeeeeeddddddnnneeeesssssdaay!"
We’re so back
Me when Eta makes m3Lee video: 🤤
Knudsen was part of the development of I think the 71-73 mustangs?