M3 Stuart Light Tank

The M3 "Stuart" was the only American tank design to see combat from opening days of the war right up through the end. The Stuart was intended to be a fast, lightly armored tank, armed with numerous machine guns and a turret-mounted 37mm gun powerful enough to defeat the armor of all but the heaviest Axis tanks at the outbreak of the war. Early M3s Stuarts had riveted hulls and turret armor and many were supplied by Lend-Lease to Great Britain. Many were sent to troops fighting in North Africa, where they were nicknamed "Honeys" by their new British owners in homage to their reliability and speed. Operation Torch brought American troops and their M3A1 Stuarts with cast armor turrets and welded-hulls to North Africa in 1942. The US Marines used the Stuart in their Pacific campaigns including the legendary Guadalcanal and Tarawa campaigns. The Stuart saw continued refinements throughout its production cycle and would eventually be standardized as the M5 Stuart to avoid confusion with the M3 Medium Tank. While in many ways the Stuart was substandard to its Axis counterparts, especially in the area of firepower, the lack of a suitable replacement meant it would serve with US and Allied armies until the end of the war.