IT6485 17 Pdr.SP M10 "Achilles"

The United States M10 Tank Destroyer was supplied to British forces through Lend-Lease, a program of aid to nations at war against Germany and its allies. Its main armament was considered under-performing by the British, who replaced the 3'' gun with the AT 17-pounder that was already installed on the “Firefly” Sherman tanks. The M10 had its baptism of fire during the Battle of Normandy, and from the following autumn it was sent to Italy and assigned to Antitank Regiments. Polish, Neo-zealand and South African forces employed it.
The 17-pounder gun was feared by the German tank crews because it could compete with and destroy the majority of their tanks. Spotters (infantrymen that were deployed with the tanks to defend them from personal anti-tank weapons, and acted as observers thanks to their better field of vision) were ordered to alert at once when they spotted such tanks, and to send forward the tank-killers to deal with them.

About 1100 tanks were converted and right after the war the British supplied them to various European armies being reconstituted.

Vier verschillende uitvoeringen;

• 1st Battalion, 7th AT Regiment, 2nd Polish Armoured Division, Italy, May 1945.
• 1st battalion, 1st AT Regiment, 1st Polish Armoured Division, Netherlands, October 1944.
• 1st battalion, 75th AT Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery, 11th Armoured Division, Belgium, winter 1944 - 1945.
• 21st AT Regiment, Royal Artillery, Guards Armoured Division, Operation Market Garden Nertherlands, 1944.

Afmeting:

• Lengte; 195 mm.