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37mm Canister in?


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Nothing came up on the search, so here goes:

After seeing the heroic Stuart in TGN's Heroes' Corner, I was wondering if the 37mm canister round is available in CM. I don't know how common these rounds were in the ETO, but I used to have great fun with them in Squad Leader. You didn't *really* want to assault that poor little Stuart, did you?

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Brad "Supertanker" Wohlenberg

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Guest Big Time Software

Charles and I got to see an M3 Stuart shoot up some cars this past summer. I also had a chance to climb up on another one (no time to climb in, even though I could have). Cool tank, but I would rather have an M5 Stuart. Better looker smile.gif

As for the canister shot. We had a discussion about this a while ago. From what I recall it was not common at all in the ETO. Seems it was used, and used effectively, in the PTO to a much greater degree. So no, I don't think it will be in CM.

Steve

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Time for someone to chime in with a quote from a book that shows that 37mm cannister was not strictly a pacific thing.

From Iron Knights The United States 66th Armor Regiment.

PP.224

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>

Lt. Jim Burl, a platoon leader in C Company, used an effective technique to fight through the hedgerows with the paratroopers of the 101st. When a passage through the hedgerow was found or created, the Americans were faced with the problem of dealing with the German troops waiting in ambush on the other side of the hedgerow. Working closely with the men of thc 101st, the tankers found an effective way of countering the ambush. With the paratroopers mounted on its back deck, the Stuart tank would crash through the hedgerow opening with all guns blazing. The 37mm gun of the Stuart would fire canister rounds to the left, the bow machine gun fire to the front and the paratroopers fire to the right. The massive fire-power directed in three directions simultaneously proved to be very effective. Amongst the hedgerows the Stuart light tanks made up for their light

armor and gun by having the only tank canister rounds.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'm not using this to argue for the inclusion of canister for the Stuart. I just wanted to point out that it was used in Europe by at least one unit. Also, it shows that cannister had uses beyond mowing down human wave attacks. Plus darn it it's time to start establishing my grognard credentials.

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If something cannot be fixed by hitting it or by swearing at it, it wasn't worth saving anyway.

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Guest Big Time Software

Yup, it certainly was around to *some* degree in the ETO. When this conversation cropped up the last time I think there were some accounts out of Italy to back up the fact that canister rounds were used in the ETO to some degree. Lack of info and the strong suspicion that use of it was rare made us leave it out. It is amazing how UNDER documented WWII is from our perspective smile.gif

Steve

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Oh, well, it would have been fun, but not like I won't play the game to death anyway.

Now, The Haunted Tank, there was a fun comic. I had a stack of those and Sgt. Rock about a mile high. I think that Stuart was responsible for knocking out about half of Germany's Tiger production, and they were always catastrophic penetrations, with turrets blowing off in a huge ball of fire. I remember one issue where they referred to using a special AP round. I had assumed it was APCR or something (did such a thing even exist?), but maybe they have some magic AP round that is the key to their 37's easy penetration of Tigers. Since I play the Americans a lot, can BTS put some of those in? Pretty please? As the HT's gunner always said to the loader, "Feed me, Gus, feed me!"

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Brad "Supertanker" Wohlenberg

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