How 'bout some T30 SPGs?
This pair is painted up for my US Army in Tunisia.
The "75mm Howitzer, Motor Carriage, T30" served as the "assault gun" of US mech and armored formations from the entry of forces into French North Africa through about the end of 1943. Assault Gun batteries were found in the TOEs of Tank and Armored Rec / Mech Cavalry battalions. So these guys can serve the Mech Cav platoon I have shown recently in this thread, as well as my M3 Medium Tank (Lee) and M3 Light Tank (Stuart) companies.
Whereas these T30s, with white stars, are now available to support my M4A1 Medium Tank (Sherman) company as shown recently in this thread.
I never really understood the value of adding a different type of vehicle optimized to throw 75mm HE to a unit equipped with tanks with 75mm guns, but hey that's the way the US Army rocked for the first half of its involvement in the war.
I can see adding 75mm SPGs to a light tank formation with only 37mm guns. The HE firepower was quite a boost to the units' abilities against any sort of dug-in defenses, I'm sure.
For an interesting read on T30s supporting M3A1 Stuart tanks, try this article I researched, drafted and illustrated for the Chieftain some years back:
http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php ... s/#topmost
Later in the war the US Sherman tank formations got the Sherman 105mm SPGs to fill this role, and the M5 Stuart tank formations got M8 75mm SPGs (in the thread a ways back).
The figures are either GHQ standing artillery crew or seated armored infantry.
A small enough project that it didn't take me forever to complete…
-Mark
