GHQ Models Forums

How many chaffees where in a platoon, company if they were put into tank groups by themselves.

Off the top of my head, the Chaffees replaced the M3/M5 series light tanks beginning in very late 1944. They were organized into light tank companies with 1 company per tank battalion similar to the M5s. The battalion had 3 companies of Shermans and 1 light tank company. The companies were standard 17 tank companies with 3 platoons of 5 and 2 tanks in the company HQ. I recall that there were also 1 or 2 'pure' light tank battalions that had 4 companies of 17 M24s in 1945, at least in the ETO. I read this in Osprey's US Tank and Tank Destoyer Battalions in the ETO 1944-1945.

The 1945 formation of the Light Tank company was similar to earlier Light Tank companies except for the use of the Chaffee in place of the M5 Stuart.

http://154.20.242.180:8088/C/Schwere%20 ... 201945.doc

Troy

CORRECTION of my earlier post: The tank battalions organized as pure light battalions only had THREE 17 tank companies of M3/M5/M24 tanks plus 2 more tanks in the battalion HQ.

One more comment to add ...

I believe that the US light tank units were not of "mixed" composition. In all the unit descriptions and photos that I've seen, there was never an instance of a light tank formation (company or battalion) that has both Stuarts and Chaffees.

For the sake of logistical and operational simplicity, light tank units equipped with one or the other. Most Chaffee-equipped units in ETO were new units from the states that had trained in Chaffees. Stuart-equipped units stayed with Stuarts and continued to receive replacement Stuarts as needed until they were wholly re-equipped with Chaffees, which was not too often done to my understanding, or until they stood down at war's end, which was more common.

I think the re-equipping with Chaffees process was more common in independant light tank formations than in the light tank companies within the medium tank battalions. But this is a vague impression I have, and I can't back it up with any explicit source citings.

Would be pleased to be confirmed or corrected on this by anyone who has useful source information.

I know this thread is really about the Chaffee, but since the Stuart was mentioned I wonder if any of you other Olde Pharts out there (like me) remember this;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Haunted_Tank

Tanker

Man did they smoke a lot of tigers in that Stuart!!

Remember the comics well. And Sgt Rock, and Wierd War, ...etc

Good one!

Troy

Troy wrote:

Man did they smoke a lot of tigers in that Stuart!!

Yeah, when I got older and began to know more about the various tanks I was always amazed at how powerful that little haunted Stuart was. No wonder the Nazis lost the war.

Hey, maybe you could add a special rule for a haunted Stuart in your game system. Or an instance of a Tyranasaurus Rex or a straffing run by a Pteradactyl a la Weird War comics.

Tanker

tanker told us:
I know this thread is really about the Chaffee, but since the Stuart was mentioned ...

Gunner, co-ax, trashcans in the open.

Mark,

Is that you commanding that Stuart? Sweeeet.

And just to put us back on Chaffees I've been looking for a picture of the main gate of Fort A.P Hill which has a Chaffee parked right off to one side overlooking the Rt. 301, Virginia. No luck though.

Tanker

tanker talking:
Is that you commanding that Stuart? Sweeeet.

Indeed it is. Well, not really commanding, but that's me in the TC's seat at least, as we drive down a suburban road near Louisville, Kentucky. Got a friend who restores tanks for fun and profit (well, more for fun and charity -- no real profit in it). He's driving, and in truth is the guy running the "mission" (it is his tank, after all).

He went over to France with a team and two or three tanks last June, and drove from one end of Normandy to another, camping in fields as they went, as part of this year's D-Day commemorations. Seems he likes to play wargames at 1-to-1 model scale, not just unit scale...