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i think its not a good upgrade at the wrong time, because you just say it, the war ended too fast, but i think it would had be a great armored vehicul for the time (1945-46) probably the best of his type, great mobility great fire power (capable of penetrating a tiger II (P) at front even (H) varient if not angle, cable of shut down plane with the .50 cal ma duce top monted like the precedent version, also capable to do anti infantry with .50 cal and HE because its a 90mm largy cabable of splash destruction! :D
Honestly I think the Super part is just the way they talked about upgrade versions at the time. You have the Pershing - Super Pershing, Bazooka - Super Bazooka and Flying Fortress - Superfortress. Even others followed this trend like the Israeli Super Sherman. Then the modelers probably went "Oh, it is an upgrade Hellcat.... Super Hellcat!"
I believe I read somewhere that later on, far past testing, as they began to scrap these old projects. They ended up finding that the recoil of the 90mm gun had cracked a lot of welds in recoil bearing joints in the hull its self, as the Thin armor of the M18 couldn't bear the strength of the 90mm gun. meaning it wasn't a useable upgrade.
@Caleb Lee Which though logical is all starting to sound like turning it into an actual Tank , as ConeofArc mentioned re' the Army requests for TD improvements in the vid. Wartime US Army doctrine re' seperate 'tank' and 'tank destroyer' equipment does not always seem that logical given hindsight does it.
The Army called it the M18. Buick called it the Hellcat. As a finishing touch for publicity shots, the Early design studio penned a logo for its creation that ended up becoming the emblem of America's tank destroyer force; it featured a black cat biting down on tank tracks with the TD motto of "Seek, Strike, Destroy!"
That sounds a lot like the insignia for the overall Tank Destroyer Force, "Approved on September 22, 1942, the authorized shoulder sleeve insignia (SSI) for the Tank Destroyer Force was created by the staff of General Andrew Bruce, its first commanding officer. The colors of the force were black and orange. Hence, the TD patch featured a powerful black panther crushing a tank in its jaws, all on an orange disk. The tank, which in the original version of the patch had eight bogie wheels, typified an American tank, not a German version. Insignia manufacturers had problems breaking numerous needles while completing all the bogie wheels, necessitating the four-wheel variation of the SSI, most common version."
Imagine getting to cruise around in a turretless Hellcat convertible while everyone else has to walk. That shit sounds awesome. It’s an interesting concept to think that the US might have had the Sherman replaced with the hellcat entirely, with a turret roof and medium tank armor up front.
The M10 was well liked by it's users so the M36 was a larger turret with a bigger gun on a M10 chassis. Armor commanders wanted it's big gun in action faster so Ordnance shipped over a number of M36 turrets w/90mm guns and had those installed on refurbished M4 chassis. Fisher Body was having labor woes producing new M10 chassis for the M36 so Ordnance instructed Ford to use the M36 turret on 167 new M4's with the addition of roof armor after seeing how M10 users had been adding that for overhead protection when engaged in urban fighting. The new M36's ended up being produced by using refurbished M10's that were being used at the tank training schools. The M10 was liked because it's dual GM 6046 2-stroke Diesel engines provided plenty of torque at low rpm's to get it moving a lot faster from a dead stop than the R-975 gasoline radial engine could.
After a bit of fruitless searching I can only assume the 'Super' part is a post war nickname, similar to 'Hetzer' for the Jagdpanzer 38t, that simply cottoned on with soldiers and eventually into the civilian and later games industry.
@@FirstDagger Just because an officer called the vehicle it was based in, the romanian Mareşal, ‘ein grosser hetzer’ (an impressive hunter) to take as base for future vehicles. As that's the ONLY official document which actually names the whole concept as it. In fact, based on documents, the Jagdpanzer 38 had about 33 different names or designations. The name Hetzer for the Jagdpanzer 38 came unoficially after being developed and the vehicle that was about to be named like that was the project that served as basis for the planned Entwicklung program's E10 due to their extreme ambushing/hunting capabilities, considering it's projected design and specs. Deal with it.
My best guess for the etymology of "super hellcat" is that "super" is the prefix American engineers like to give to any upgraded design. The modern meaning of "super" is different now but it's origin would be close to the German "uber"
The Hellcat nickname was from the way the engine heat was vented. Though most online games correctly show a rear, top panel exhaust, a large portion of the waste heat was directed around the engine and up into the turret, creating what was viewed as an effective heating system without ducting for the tank with a massive updraft. This was not thoroughly tested, and though yes, it was effective when the tank was operating in the winters of the European campaign, it was too effective. The turret was unbearably hot in most operating situations (the tank was nearly always operating at a high speed), and the turret would become as hot as 'the pits of hell'. Combined with the nimble aspects and high speed/firepower of the TD, and some tankers started using Hellcat as their unofficial name. As for the black cat sometimes associated with the TD and its name, red (as for fire/hot/hell) was an enemy color (former Soviet Union), and was avoided for most symbols of the era, but I am not directly sure through my family of the correct, direct association any more than you.
It's a Bosnian Army tank from the 90s (just look at the coat of arms at the front plate). Since at there was a shortage in heavy weapons during the war(due to the UN arms embargo), people got creative. We also had M47 Pattons with 320hp truck engines and even WW2 T-34s and regular M-18 Hellcats also saw service with the ARBiH(Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina). There obsolete tanks were retired in 2000., but nevertheless served their purpose(mostly infantry support). Edit: Also fun fact, some M18 Hellcats were used to destroy an armored train(ww1 tactics are useful if your opponent has no heavy weaponry to counter it or is expected not to have) near Gradačac. It gives a whole new meaning to the TD acronym.
It doesn't seem natural-the lightest alltrack chassis (excepting the M29) mated to the heaviest gun (the 90mm M3). Then I remembered the Soviet era ASU85 and gave the whole idea a rethink.
Another design that would fit perfectly in here would be the centurion with a 32pdr, the gun from the Tortoise because in firing trials it defeated the 20pdr of the cent mk.3
if the Super Hellcat came into production, this would've been good in the Korean War as an M36 Alternative, I can see the Super Hellcat being used as a Mobility Focused Assault and Long Range Defensive Unit with the M36s being second line and the M26s being frontline
This is where they would have shined. While the 76mm was great for WWII when we got to Korea the E8 Shermans found that it really wasn't ideal for dealing with T34-85s from the front. The M4E8s had better sights and rudimentary gun stabilization so they usually came out on top, but it is always better to just be able to blap the other guy from any angle. The other place a fast 90mm gun armed vehicle would have been useful was for vehicles supplied to allies. I could see the Israelis having a fun time with Super Hellcats in the 50's and 60s Middle East wars.
In Korea the M4's and M36's were used to tow the M26 Pershing up hills and steep road grades since it's great weight was too much for it's automatic tranny to do that alone without assistance. The M18 used the same automatic yet had no problems due to it's lighter weight. The M36's 90mm gun had no problems with taking out any Soviet armor that was encountered. In Europe M36 gunners were taking out Panthers at 4,200 and 4,600 yards, which was the maximum limits of their sights so were already being used for long range defense.
At the VFW in the town I live in there's an M24 anti aircraft tank with 40mm boffers. I've never have seen a T77.I live 17.7 miles from Aberdeen proving grounds, before 911 you could look at various tanks. I've never seen the T77. I loved that place and I got a chance to meet Professor Atwater. He knows a great deal about tanks and armored warfare. It's heaven on earth.
OMG, THANK YOU for changing the cursed by design intro. This sorter and much "cleaner" version is somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 trillion x better.
Mine would be the British Matilda. She's my favourite seal clubber. At the loading speed of 1.7 second, she's deadly for any tanks same tier with her and even above.
One other way of looking at this is standardization, it's easier to repair and replace stuff if both vehicles used the same thing that and supplying them through said supply chain.
The US War Department had that figured out before the war started. Let's use what we already have in production since their replacement parts are available and will be easy to produce more.
Cone: repeats what crew wanted for the hellcat Me: hmm, are they talking about the m36 Jackson? That thing had the option of a canvas roof (if I'm not mistaken) better armor than the hellcat 🤷🏻♂️
Obviously the more armor something has the less speed it can have. Being slower would allow it to be taller more safely too, since it can have a canvas roof it does need to be decently high
@@jvandermijde bit of a mood point when you are considering powering your units with widely available power units instead of basically handcrafted engines. And I think this train of thought is the actual consideration the original author was going for, the one not based on fantasy.
The M10 users started having armored roofs installed by welders so they'd have overhead protection when fighting in villages, towns and cities. Ordnance took note of that so had armor roofs installed at the factories for the new M36, which was a M10 hull with a different turret and gun.
My father was the supervisor at Milford proving grounds, and worked in the engineering department at Buick. I believe the name super is related to the Buick named super. (Dale Upper)
My grandpa fought in the Battle of the Bulge. His name was Robert Byrd and his brother Hobart bird fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Back in the 1980s when I was a kid I would hear them talk about the Hellcat I thought they were talkin about airplanes. And when I asked Grandpa he said no he was talkin about tank destroyer he said it looks like a tank only it's not a tank so they use the name during the war the gi's did
Great video!!! Have been studying armored vehicles and building models for over 50+ years and the M18 Tank Destroyer has always been called HELLCAT to best of my knowledge.
Son of a WW2 vet here with interest in topic. We've been calling it "Hellcat" since the '60s. You can find the Buick promotional ad (in printed form) where it's called "Hellcat" from about 1943.
An interesting concept that would have had (IMO) one real application...the 'Cold War' going hot in 1947-48. _THAT_ would turn into a major "think piece" all on it's own.
The Soviets wouldn't of stood a chance since their supply lines were now stretched to their limits and the USAAF would've had full control of the skies so wouldn't of had any problems dropping bridges into rivers and sinking shipping bringing supplies by sea.
The Hellcat is my favorite Tank in WotB! It was interesting to learn that the 90mm Gun I like to much wasn't the actual Hellcat gun. The upgraded Turret mounting the 90mm gun is clearly the M36 turret, even though it is just called Turret M18 M1 in the game.
Most German Tank nicknames have been traced to the Model Companies as a marketing tool, and because nicknames are easier to remember than some of the official names. I've gotten that from lectures by Steven Zaloga and Tom Jentz, as well as Colonel Moran. So, I think it's just a away for companies to tell the M18 and the M18 w/90mm apart, probably using the T26E1 Pershing with the long 90mm as an example.
Uh...NO? He's just getting a proper growth content and channel wise. But of course, i run like hell from any over-promoted trendy "creator" that only spews bull through the facial orifice it uses to, what i guess, eat.
I think this design is one of those, "It was a good idea at the time and would have worked for the war it was built to fight in". It's a bit like the Iowa class Battleships that were perfect for the role they were intended to fill... it's just time, technology and doctrine caught up with them. Though should the U.S decide to go back to the drawing board for a new light tank to support the MARINES, I think this machine would be worth a look at as it would meet the mobility and endurance requirements. Likely it would have to be upgraded with the same 105mm the Stryker is able to use so it can fire HE, I don't see the point in up-armoring the thing, though having a reactive armor package (like the M2 Bradly) as an option wouldn't hurt. The MARINES are suppose to be fast & Mobile so a light tank built to these design specifications with the "Super Hellcat" in mind would be perfect for them, maybe even give it some amphibious capability same as most modern MBT's do. The best part is, you could simplify the engine to use a radial air-cooled just like the original so air-conditioning wouldn't be a problem for keeping the electronics and crew from overheating. Just my thoughts though.
Considering what you said and what happened in the Balkan Wars, i'm more than sure that even this 90mm Super Hellcat may could have worked WAY better than the 90mm's Patton's in the same frame time, specially in Vietnam. But we'll never know if that could have been true.
With the USMC thing I think it would be reasonable to revive and modify the M60-2000 program for them. They can have a lighter tank upgraded with a modern powerplant but still keep the modern targeting and weapon systems of their now retired M1's. The base M60 was in the ballpark of 15 tons lighter than a modern M1A2 with all it's modern upgrades. That or the Raytheon package.
The M36 had a particular complaint that applies to the M10 and M18, the lack of a bow gun. The AA .50cal mount couldn’t be swung to meet infantry from the front. Some field modifications that put .30 cal mgs on pintle mounts on the front edge of the turret helped. The best result was when modified M4 hulls were used for the M36 with the bow mg still intact. Interesting that these are the types with the modified M4 hulls were the ones recovered from the fighting in the former Yugoslavia as well as Iraq.
1) The M18 program was halted at 2507 vehicles. With the M4 now mounting the same 76mm gun and having a roof, thicker armor and a coaxial and bow machine gun, it clearly out classed the M18. 2) As far as the M18's vaunted speed, it was found to not be especially useful in combat - no one was charging about the battlefield like that. The Army changed the gear ratios in the transmission to cut the top speed and to improve torque, better enabling it to operate through mud and up hills (Think Italy) 3) Demand from the front was so low, that 600 M18's sitting in storage in the US were recalled to Buick, had their turrets removed and converted to M39 prime movers for the M5 3 inch AT gun. 4) n terms of the 90mm M18, it clearly wasn't going to be ready in time for the ETO and the TD battalions in the Pacific were equipped with M10's - there were only eight M18's in theater - and it was clearly easier to ship up gun kits complete with turret and gun to the ordnance depots in the Pacific and change the M10's to M36's. "M18s served on Okinawa, but curiously not part of any tank destroyer battalions. General Andrew D. Bruce, the original commander of the Tank Destroyer Tactical and Firing Center, ended up in command of the 77th Infantry Division, and managed to secure eight M18s to re-equip the anti-tank company of the 306th Infantry Regiment." He was obviously desperate to find a use for the TD he had fought so long for. 5) The M26 was a much better weapon and the US chose to put its industrial effort there. The TOE for tank battalions in OLYMPIC (Nov 45) was a company of M26's and two companies of 76mm armed M4's - obviously the Army saw a lot of bunker busting on the horizon. The ratio of M26's to M4's would have just gotten larger by the time of CORONET (Mar 46) 6) Post-war the Army found no use for the M18 - not even with the Reserve or Guard and either scrapped them or foisted them off on other nations as military aid.
This would be awesome. Though its fate was much better than the super hellcat. It ended up being the prototype for the most produced tank of all time. As such it's historical significance is huge. Also considering it had thicker armor than a king tiger with a gun having armor penetration on par with the panther but a much larger HE warhead, on a
Using the turret from the M-36 Jackson (90 mm Gun Motor Carriage, M36) on the 76 mm Gun Motor Carriage M18 or M18 GMC would have been a great option had the war lasted. What I'm surprised at is that it wasn't thought of during the M-18's original design concept. The 90mm gun wasn't exactly a new gun. It was originally used as both a towed AA and AT gun. The Brits had proven that they could effectively mount a much bigger gun on their Lend Lease Sherman's, so I would be very surprised if the designers had not thought of doing the same. They did it with the M36 GMC.
I love it!! Actually when i started to play WoT allmoust 10 years ago Hellcat was the 1st tank that i was grinding to get, and was my 1st Mid tier tank. That was the 1st tech tree line that i grinded to tier 10.. My 1st tier 6, 7, 8 and 1st tier 9 tanks ever were the ones on that tech tree line. And back then all of them were great. Hellcat today even being worst then the one i started to play os pretty good!! Back to WWII the Hellcat was so much more then a tank destroyer.. it would be One of the best scouting platforms of the War and i believe that was one of the most loved vehicles by their crews.
I think the adjective of super came into use on plastic scale models back in the 50's and 60's since it sounded better to us kids than Modified Up-gunned. It seems to me that Ordnance also had the M18 hull designed so it could hold any turret that was used on the M4 hulls since that allowed the repair depots to quickly replace damaged M4 turrets with any good M4 turret they had in the salvage yard or recently repaired to return to service. All were drop-in replacements unless the turret basket had to be removed or added first. Ordnance also had those designed so the 75mm gun could be replaced with the 105mm howitzer if desired. I doubt if they would've bothered to trim the crew hatches since that was never done on the M10 since they only had to rotate the turret to the side to get it out of the way and if hit, had no basket in the way to exit out from the top or could use the floor escape hatch if under small arms fire.
Just imagine if it did enter service a year earlier maybe in late 1944 or early 1945, it wouldn't change the tide of tank battles but it surely a sight to see seeing an already fast tank with a bigger gun
I think the first time I've seen the "Super Hellcat" name is from Peter Chamberlain's book British and American Tanks of World War 2 published in 1969. There was a picture of it in the book and I think the author coined the term.
The M18 Hellcat successful? Debatable. It was received well by operators, but at the same time there were major complaints about: - Inefficiency of the guns vs German armour and frequent lack of a muzzle brake - An open turret, where operators rather had some armour over their heads - An unnecessary assistant driver position where they would have rather had a hull machinegun(ner) In addition there were 216/540 losses of M18 Tanks in WW2. I don't know if the losses also included earlier losses that were repaired, but for a tank destroyer that mostly entered it later in the war those are some pretty heavy losses. Meanwhile they have been credited directly for only a few major battle victories. I think it was primarily well-received due to two factors: 1. It was at least a much faster/more mobile option over existing TD/anti-tank options, which fit the US doctrine at the time much better. 2. On account of that tank doctrine (of 3 tanks plus 1 tank destroyer engaging enemy vehicles/tanks), the US had advantages in numbers to begin with. That may have made it much easier for them to get some tanks/tank destroyers into positions where they could open fire effectively. That said, would you be willing to enter a one-on-one situation with a typical german tank (Pz IV, Pz V Panther or Pz VI Tiger)? Sure, you are very mobile and would rather use an M18 over an M10, but... your armour is like paper. To this day it's still debatable if a heavier tank doctrine would have been more efficient for US forces (at least in terms of survivability for tanks and crew). If the US wasn't dealing with an advantage in numbers to begin with, I think it would have been a lot worse to drive one of these things into battle.
I just wanna say there are a lot of youtubers that put out videos with great ideas but the videos are horrible. They have the editing of the footage down, but the monotone rambling speaker in the background makes me feel like I'm in a college history class and should be taking notes. To each their own, but you sir have a great balance of explaining verbally the story and the historic footage to go along with it. Well done, keep them coming
@@NareasPL It is cursed by design though. It's literally useless and waste of resources, and most crewmans operating it would abandon the tank when they're out of ammunition, since the 380mm Mörser gun is exclusive to the Sturmtiger and the ammunition for it is very scarce.
The Super Hellcat is actually one of my favorite tanks, so it’s nice to see a video about it. As for my thoughts on the tank, I would have liked to see it pursued further, despite the end of the war. There may have been a rise in heavily-armored vehicles near the end of the war, but I think it may have still been useful in its intended role, even past the war. And although I admit it is indeed lacking several aspects of what makes a tank a tank, I think I agree with the response to soldiers that upgrading the Hellcat too much makes it no longer a Hellcat. Perhaps the only suggestion I can think of would have been to reduce turret armor to as close to the original Hellcat as possible, in order to maintain the most speed possible. But, I understand that the whole point of the project was to make it a simple conversion during service, so perhaps the regular turret swap turret was good as a stopgap where necessary.
The Army reduced the speed on the M18 by changing the gear ratios in order to lower the speed and increase torque. Nobody with any sense was charging around the battlefield the way you see in the propaganda films and the Army wanted something that could plow through mud and climb hills - like Italy
@@colbeausabre8842 Huh, very interesting. That makes sense, since (as far as I know) doctrine dictated that Hellcats were to create a flexible defense line behind Allies and flank enemy breakthroughs when the need arised. And, logically, if they were behind the main force, the only two requirements for the vehicle would have been that (A) it was able to keep up with Allied advances and (B) that it was able to outpace Axis breakthroughs. Thus, very high speed was likely not needed. In any case, I didn't know they added speed limiters. Thanks for informing me! :3
In 1944, reports came out about an improved version of the Navy's F6F Hellcat fighter plane. In late October a few newspapers headlined that with an apparently unofficial moniker of "Super Hellcat", for what it's worth. Perhaps that nickname was "borrowed"?
The Super Hellcat simply no longer had a job to do by the time it was ready. By then, the M26 had the same 90mm tank gun, and though it was under-powered (and five years later, in Korea in late summer, would prove prone to overheating) it could take on just about anything potential adversaries could throw at it. Also, it was the dedicated tank destroyer command structure and these specialized vehicles that were seen as not needed anymore; that the tanks themselves should perform the various roles of infantry support or duking it out with enemy tanks.
Would love to see an episode on the Valentine DD, the predecessor of the Sherman DD. Very interesting but tragic history that I haven't heard many talk about.
I could have sworn that either Chieftain, Challenger, or David Fletcher in one of the early world of tanks videos said that the name "Hellcat" came from designer/manufacturer and was adopted as it's name one of the very few armored vehicles to have been allowed this. While I think the following is fairly common knowledge the US army didn't adopt the 'names' given to their vehicles by the British. e.g. A Sherman to an American unit would simply be referred to as an M4 (followed by whatever letters and numbers assigned to it). So try the Bovington tank museum folks if the brits really were the ones naming armored vehicles after US generals then this would be the exception to the rule. But my memory could also just be hazy.
Honestly, Super is applied to a lot of 'upgrade' versions of vehicles. So it would seem to make sense that during testing and what not, it could've been nicknamed super, or the modelers just... 'gave it a super'.
I love this game I been playing it for the last 5months. Keep up the good work man the videos are great and help others find out about tanks and there history with out the bias and fake documents that others may provide and Once again thank you!
The first time I saw it called the Super Hellcat was on a model similar to the one you showed. I believe it was a smaller model set that pretty much came complete, less tracks and turret, etc
Although the M36 Jackson (Gun Motor Carrier) or GMC didn't saw much action in the hands of US Army but it actually saw a considerable amount of action in hands of Pakistan Army during 1965 indo-pak war , by french army in first indochina war , by Yogulsavian army in Croatian independence war and in kosovo war too.
When American tanks were upgraded to have the same anti-tank capable gun and armor piercing ammo as the TD’s carried, the TD branch was considered redundant
The “Super Hellcat” may be a product of that model box art. There have been times where a model that borders on pure fiction (the BF-109 K-14 with a four bladed protection being a prime example) is released, and makes its way to the popular canon. The Super Hellcat appellation is much more appealing than some numerical designation and so the model company may have just tacked that name on and called it a day
A M18 with an armored roof and coaxial machinegun would be very similar to a M41. They even had very similar power to weight ratio. It almost like the hellcat becoming a bulldog.
If they had been available, it would have been better option to rush into Korea than the Pershing. One thing I like most about it is that since the TDs seldom got to do their intended job of containing breakthroughs during WW2, a 90mm gun would have given more capability as artillery.
Id be willing to bet the name came from the scale model community, either the manufacturers wanting a flashy name (ala Super Sherman, Super Pershing, etc) or the community wanting a shorthand to differentiate the two hellcats
Had the war lasted longer the M26, maybe up-engined, would have taken over all the jobs starting with the TD ones. Because for the war to drag on the changes on the german side would have to happen earlier (fixing Panthers drivetrain by using the OLVAR from Tiger) and going up against what is essentially an early model Leopard 1 requires M26 or better
The 90mm gun would have also been a lot more useful in the M18's (actual) primary role of fire support since the Germans only had one major offensive in the west that it could be used in its intended role against. My ideal super-hellcat would have more armor focused on the front of the turret to create a turret that is like the T29 on the front but basically unarmored anywhere else. That much armor focused on such a small area wouldn't weigh all that much, relatively speaking, and it would excel at hull down defense - since defense was the role U.S. TDs were intended for. Naturally that was like my second design on Sprocket. ;)
If I recall, it wasn't standard practice for the U.S. military to assign a "name" to weapons. The British are responsible for "monikers" such as "Mustang" for the P-51 and "Lee" for the M3 medium tank, etc. I believe "Pershing" may have been official ( the first time) but I could be mistaken. I would welcome any information others may possess.
I think people forget that superman was extremely popular around the time alot of these "super" tanks, so it's very likely that the super is just like Superman, a "alien" tank if you will.
M 18 Hellcat is my favorite piece of American armor from ww2 . Big gun and goes very fasy compared to the tigers and pnazers it was supposed to destroy . Shoot and run away ! I know that the guys are exposed to the elements and enemy fire but, I think I would prefer being outside and on top if I saw a tiger's 88 aimed at me , It gives me a better chance of jumping off :-) Thanks for posting CoA
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No, I don't think I will
It’s not even a game, it’s a money-drainer with no adherence to or passion for real history.
@@Mr_Bunk Yeah, like most mobile "games"
Okay, the line about "for those of you who are back in school" was pretty fucking disgusting. Directly marketing predatory shit like that to minors.
i think its not a good upgrade at the wrong time, because you just say it, the war ended too fast, but i think it would had be a great armored vehicul for the time (1945-46) probably the best of his type, great mobility great fire power (capable of penetrating a tiger II (P) at front even (H) varient if not angle, cable of shut down plane with the .50 cal ma duce top monted like the precedent version, also capable to do anti infantry with .50 cal and HE because its a 90mm largy cabable of splash destruction! :D
Honestly I think the Super part is just the way they talked about upgrade versions at the time. You have the Pershing - Super Pershing, Bazooka - Super Bazooka and Flying Fortress - Superfortress. Even others followed this trend like the Israeli Super Sherman. Then the modelers probably went "Oh, it is an upgrade Hellcat.... Super Hellcat!"
Yeah probably
M14 would be Super Garand
@@arya31ful M4 should be Super M16
There was also Man, then Superman.
This is what I was thinking too.
I love how the community can create a name and make it so common it’s obscure where it started
But they didn't, he said they didn't name it
@@r.m.5548 he was talking about other tanks not just the super hellcat
Case in point....the Doomturtle. I'm fairly certain that came from a forum somewhere, but dammit if that's not what I exclusively call the T95.
@@andrewhendrix2297more like nickname
NgL this 90mm version is a banger on aesthetic
The M36 turret definitely has the *A E S T H E T I C* that the original M18 lacked.
@@nercksrule Dont know what you're talking about, both turrets look good.
Just the idea that you could reach out to The Chieftain and get an answer is simply mind boggling.
The chieftain is just a guy lol
So why wouldn't he respond?
Where tho
Why? He responds to my questions if I ask him.
Oh for crying out loud.
Mine too... And I'm just a guy without a real channel, yet.
I believe I read somewhere that later on, far past testing, as they began to scrap these old projects. They ended up finding that the recoil of the 90mm gun had cracked a lot of welds in recoil bearing joints in the hull its self, as the Thin armor of the M18 couldn't bear the strength of the 90mm gun. meaning it wasn't a useable upgrade.
Yeah, I've heard the same thing. The 90mm was just too big a gun for the M18.
Possibly from the shots taken with an unmodified 90. Getting pushed back 22 inches no doubt did a number on the chassis as well
They also had a small production run of this turret on a Sherman chassis, as M36B1 I believe.
@Caleb Lee Which though logical is all starting to sound like turning it into an actual Tank , as ConeofArc mentioned re' the Army requests for TD improvements in the vid. Wartime US Army doctrine re' seperate 'tank' and 'tank destroyer' equipment does not always seem that logical given hindsight does it.
@Caleb Lee At that point, why bother modifying the M18 instead of just ramping up production on the M36?
The Army called it the M18. Buick called it the Hellcat. As a finishing touch for publicity shots, the Early design studio penned a logo for its creation that ended up becoming the emblem of America's tank destroyer force; it featured a black cat biting down on tank tracks with the TD motto of "Seek, Strike, Destroy!"
That sounds a lot like the insignia for the overall Tank Destroyer Force, "Approved on September 22, 1942, the authorized shoulder sleeve insignia (SSI) for the Tank Destroyer Force was created by the staff of General Andrew Bruce, its first commanding officer. The colors of the force were black and orange. Hence, the TD patch featured a powerful black panther crushing a tank in its jaws, all on an orange disk. The tank, which in the original version of the patch had eight bogie wheels, typified an American tank, not a German version. Insignia manufacturers had problems breaking numerous needles while completing all the bogie wheels, necessitating the four-wheel variation of the SSI, most common version."
Imagine getting to cruise around in a turretless Hellcat convertible while everyone else has to walk. That shit sounds awesome.
It’s an interesting concept to think that the US might have had the Sherman replaced with the hellcat entirely, with a turret roof and medium tank armor up front.
Same vulnerability to grenades/mortars as M36.
@@SvenTviking see: turret roof
The M10 was well liked by it's users so the M36 was a larger turret with a bigger gun on a M10 chassis. Armor commanders wanted it's big gun in action faster so Ordnance shipped over a number of M36 turrets w/90mm guns and had those installed on refurbished M4 chassis. Fisher Body was having labor woes producing new M10 chassis for the M36 so Ordnance instructed Ford to use the M36 turret on 167 new M4's with the addition of roof armor after seeing how M10 users had been adding that for overhead protection when engaged in urban fighting. The new M36's ended up being produced by using refurbished M10's that were being used at the tank training schools.
The M10 was liked because it's dual GM 6046 2-stroke Diesel engines provided plenty of torque at low rpm's to get it moving a lot faster from a dead stop than the R-975 gasoline radial engine could.
@@billwilson3609 that’s cool to know! I don’t wanna be picky, but do you know the designation for these roofed M36 Shermans?
@@darkninjacorporation M36B1
"No armour is best armour" - Phly
lol
Hitler must be laughing in his ass now!
Speed is the best thing to have in Warthunder
Just give me speed !
Worked great for Japan.
After a bit of fruitless searching I can only assume the 'Super' part is a post war nickname, similar to 'Hetzer' for the Jagdpanzer 38t, that simply cottoned on with soldiers and eventually into the civilian and later games industry.
Hetzers gonna hetz.
also similar with the super pershing
@@nocount7517 Hetzer’s an adorable little Murder Turtle
@@TypeZeta2 lol Murder Turtle. I used to like popping hetzers in WoT with my VK30.01h before I stopped playing it. Good memories 👍
@@FirstDagger Just because an officer called the vehicle it was based in, the romanian Mareşal, ‘ein grosser hetzer’ (an impressive hunter) to take as base for future vehicles. As that's the ONLY official document which actually names the whole concept as it. In fact, based on documents, the Jagdpanzer 38 had about 33 different names or designations.
The name Hetzer for the Jagdpanzer 38 came unoficially after being developed and the vehicle that was about to be named like that was the project that served as basis for the planned Entwicklung program's E10 due to their extreme ambushing/hunting capabilities, considering it's projected design and specs. Deal with it.
My best guess for the etymology of "super hellcat" is that "super" is the prefix American engineers like to give to any upgraded design. The modern meaning of "super" is different now but it's origin would be close to the German "uber"
Lady and Gentlemen, please welcome:
*The SUPEEEEEEEEEEEEEER..... HELLCAT!*
*AEG noises intensifies*
Edvin and Zwhatsh start shouting SUPEEEEEER HELLCAAAAAT!
loool i was searching this comment
So, they slammed it for a better stance, bored it out and added muzzle bling.
Amit it, they just wanted it to look cooler.
The Hellcat nickname was from the way the engine heat was vented. Though most online games correctly show a rear, top panel exhaust, a large portion of the waste heat was directed around the engine and up into the turret, creating what was viewed as an effective heating system without ducting for the tank with a massive updraft. This was not thoroughly tested, and though yes, it was effective when the tank was operating in the winters of the European campaign, it was too effective. The turret was unbearably hot in most operating situations (the tank was nearly always operating at a high speed), and the turret would become as hot as 'the pits of hell'. Combined with the nimble aspects and high speed/firepower of the TD, and some tankers started using Hellcat as their unofficial name. As for the black cat sometimes associated with the TD and its name, red (as for fire/hot/hell) was an enemy color (former Soviet Union), and was avoided for most symbols of the era, but I am not directly sure through my family of the correct, direct association any more than you.
WG: M18/T55 hybrid? Looks interesting
WoT player's wallet: Please WG, no more.
it would be likely on tier 7 as Light tank, i can imagine how cancer that thing is...
@@winkelvonhutten2033 You have actually guessed the tier right. It allready exists on the console as the "Jammer" and is a tier 7 medium.
don't give WG anymore money
It's a Bosnian Army tank from the 90s (just look at the coat of arms at the front plate). Since at there was a shortage in heavy weapons during the war(due to the UN arms embargo), people got creative. We also had M47 Pattons with 320hp truck engines and even WW2 T-34s and regular M-18 Hellcats also saw service with the ARBiH(Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina). There obsolete tanks were retired in 2000., but nevertheless served their purpose(mostly infantry support).
Edit: Also fun fact, some M18 Hellcats were used to destroy an armored train(ww1 tactics are useful if your opponent has no heavy weaponry to counter it or is expected not to have) near Gradačac. It gives a whole new meaning to the TD acronym.
Type 64 (cough
It doesn't seem natural-the lightest alltrack chassis (excepting the M29) mated to the heaviest gun (the 90mm M3). Then I remembered the Soviet era ASU85 and gave the whole idea a rethink.
that thing is like a shopping cart
Another design that would fit perfectly in here would be the centurion with a 32pdr, the gun from the Tortoise because in firing trials it defeated the 20pdr of the cent mk.3
I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it was unofficially called a super Hellcat from the very beginning, considering that's exactly what it looks like.
The super hellcat is one of the most beautiful tanks of all time. Also a very good TD in wot, at least long ago it was.
if the Super Hellcat came into production, this would've been good in the Korean War as an M36 Alternative, I can see the Super Hellcat being used as a Mobility Focused Assault and Long Range Defensive Unit with the M36s being second line and the M26s being frontline
This is where they would have shined. While the 76mm was great for WWII when we got to Korea the E8 Shermans found that it really wasn't ideal for dealing with T34-85s from the front. The M4E8s had better sights and rudimentary gun stabilization so they usually came out on top, but it is always better to just be able to blap the other guy from any angle. The other place a fast 90mm gun armed vehicle would have been useful was for vehicles supplied to allies. I could see the Israelis having a fun time with Super Hellcats in the 50's and 60s Middle East wars.
In Korea the M4's and M36's were used to tow the M26 Pershing up hills and steep road grades since it's great weight was too much for it's automatic tranny to do that alone without assistance. The M18 used the same automatic yet had no problems due to it's lighter weight. The M36's 90mm gun had no problems with taking out any Soviet armor that was encountered. In Europe M36 gunners were taking out Panthers at 4,200 and 4,600 yards, which was the maximum limits of their sights so were already being used for long range defense.
@@billwilson3609
That would make them highly effective against the massed T-34-85 charges of the Korean War for sure.
Could you talk about the T77 anti-air tank? An M24 Chaffee with a new turret containing six .50cal M2's
Wirbelwind: Finally! A worthy opponent! Our battle will be legendary!
@@santaboy4818
The T77 AA wouldn't be much of a challenge to the Wirbelwind. He could just load the guns with PzGr. 40 mags and rip it to shreds
The Machinegun Cult strikes back. Some habits die hard I guess.
@@TR33ZY_CRTM and so would the 50 cals shred the wirbelwind's turret
At the VFW in the town I live in there's an M24 anti aircraft tank with 40mm boffers. I've never have seen a T77.I live 17.7 miles from Aberdeen proving grounds, before 911 you could look at various tanks. I've never seen the T77. I loved that place and I got a chance to meet Professor Atwater. He knows a great deal about tanks and armored warfare. It's heaven on earth.
OMG, THANK YOU for changing the cursed by design intro. This sorter and much "cleaner" version is somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 trillion x better.
I dunno i mean there was a trend of naming beefed up versions of weapons and vehicles "super " at the time like super bazooka or super pershing
Some random: "which was your favorite tank in WoT?"
Me: "oh, you dont know?"
I don't even play wot, but I've got an account from 2012 so I login every year for the rewards
Same but im in wotb and i used a setup to become a super helicat didnt know until i watched this vid
Mine would be the British Matilda. She's my favourite seal clubber. At the loading speed of 1.7 second, she's deadly for any tanks same tier with her and even above.
I’ve got mine in categories
Thank you for sticking metric into the captions! It’s a great and unobtrusive way to help metric users out
One other way of looking at this is standardization, it's easier to repair and replace stuff if both vehicles used the same thing that and supplying them through said supply chain.
The US War Department had that figured out before the war started. Let's use what we already have in production since their replacement parts are available and will be easy to produce more.
Cone: repeats what crew wanted for the hellcat
Me: hmm, are they talking about the m36 Jackson? That thing had the option of a canvas roof (if I'm not mistaken) better armor than the hellcat 🤷🏻♂️
Much taller and slower though
Nowhere near the speed of the Hellkitty
Obviously the more armor something has the less speed it can have. Being slower would allow it to be taller more safely too, since it can have a canvas roof it does need to be decently high
@@jvandermijde bit of a mood point when you are considering powering your units with widely available power units instead of basically handcrafted engines. And I think this train of thought is the actual consideration the original author was going for, the one not based on fantasy.
The M10 users started having armored roofs installed by welders so they'd have overhead protection when fighting in villages, towns and cities. Ordnance took note of that so had armor roofs installed at the factories for the new M36, which was a M10 hull with a different turret and gun.
My father was the supervisor at Milford proving grounds, and worked in the engineering department at Buick. I believe the name super is related to the Buick named super. (Dale Upper)
That’s pretty cool history your family has!
My grandpa fought in the Battle of the Bulge. His name was Robert Byrd and his brother Hobart bird fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Back in the 1980s when I was a kid I would hear them talk about the Hellcat I thought they were talkin about airplanes. And when I asked Grandpa he said no he was talkin about tank destroyer he said it looks like a tank only it's not a tank so they use the name during the war the gi's did
Great video!!! Have been studying armored vehicles and building models for over 50+ years and the M18 Tank Destroyer has always been called HELLCAT to best of my knowledge.
Son of a WW2 vet here with interest in topic. We've been calling it "Hellcat" since the '60s. You can find the Buick promotional ad (in printed form) where it's called "Hellcat" from about 1943.
Meaning the M18GMC, not the upgun variant.
An interesting concept that would have had (IMO) one real application...the 'Cold War' going hot in 1947-48.
_THAT_ would turn into a major "think piece" all on it's own.
The Soviets wouldn't of stood a chance since their supply lines were now stretched to their limits and the USAAF would've had full control of the skies so wouldn't of had any problems dropping bridges into rivers and sinking shipping bringing supplies by sea.
The Hellcat is my favorite Tank in WotB!
It was interesting to learn that the 90mm Gun I like to much wasn't the actual Hellcat gun. The upgraded Turret mounting the 90mm gun is clearly the M36 turret, even though it is just called Turret M18 M1 in the game.
Most German Tank nicknames have been traced to the Model Companies as a marketing tool, and because nicknames are easier to remember than some of the official names. I've gotten that from lectures by Steven Zaloga and Tom Jentz, as well as Colonel Moran. So, I think it's just a away for companies to tell the M18 and the M18 w/90mm apart, probably using the T26E1 Pershing with the long 90mm as an example.
This guy is so underrated
Uh...NO? He's just getting a proper growth content and channel wise. But of course, i run like hell from any over-promoted trendy "creator" that only spews bull through the facial orifice it uses to, what i guess, eat.
@@Sammael66685 I'm just saying that his content needs more views
@@borger9105 don't worry, it'll happen with time, with the proper followers indeed. All good things are curated, not rushed.
@@Sammael66685 facts
He seems to be doing well enough. He's going to overtake me in subscribers soon.
I think this design is one of those, "It was a good idea at the time and would have worked for the war it was built to fight in". It's a bit like the Iowa class Battleships that were perfect for the role they were intended to fill... it's just time, technology and doctrine caught up with them.
Though should the U.S decide to go back to the drawing board for a new light tank to support the MARINES, I think this machine would be worth a look at as it would meet the mobility and endurance requirements. Likely it would have to be upgraded with the same 105mm the Stryker is able to use so it can fire HE, I don't see the point in up-armoring the thing, though having a reactive armor package (like the M2 Bradly) as an option wouldn't hurt.
The MARINES are suppose to be fast & Mobile so a light tank built to these design specifications with the "Super Hellcat" in mind would be perfect for them, maybe even give it some amphibious capability same as most modern MBT's do. The best part is, you could simplify the engine to use a radial air-cooled just like the original so air-conditioning wouldn't be a problem for keeping the electronics and crew from overheating.
Just my thoughts though.
Considering what you said and what happened in the Balkan Wars, i'm more than sure that even this 90mm Super Hellcat may could have worked WAY better than the 90mm's Patton's in the same frame time, specially in Vietnam. But we'll never know if that could have been true.
With the USMC thing I think it would be reasonable to revive and modify the M60-2000 program for them. They can have a lighter tank upgraded with a modern powerplant but still keep the modern targeting and weapon systems of their now retired M1's. The base M60 was in the ballpark of 15 tons lighter than a modern M1A2 with all it's modern upgrades.
That or the Raytheon package.
@@sgtmyers88 Or even buying Ossorios from Brazil after the U.S. trashed them badly after seeing it was WAY better than the "Abrhums", ha!
"Sir! Even 76 millimetres isn't enough to kill Germany's biggest tanks."
"So...get...MOAR."
The M36 had a particular complaint that applies to the M10 and M18, the lack of a bow gun. The AA .50cal mount couldn’t be swung to meet infantry from the front. Some field modifications that put .30 cal mgs on pintle mounts on the front edge of the turret helped. The best result was when modified M4 hulls were used for the M36 with the bow mg still intact. Interesting that these are the types with the modified M4 hulls were the ones recovered from the fighting in the former Yugoslavia as well as Iraq.
1) The M18 program was halted at 2507 vehicles. With the M4 now mounting the same 76mm gun and having a roof, thicker armor and a coaxial and bow machine gun, it clearly out classed the M18. 2) As far as the M18's vaunted speed, it was found to not be especially useful in combat - no one was charging about the battlefield like that. The Army changed the gear ratios in the transmission to cut the top speed and to improve torque, better enabling it to operate through mud and up hills (Think Italy) 3) Demand from the front was so low, that 600 M18's sitting in storage in the US were recalled to Buick, had their turrets removed and converted to M39 prime movers for the M5 3 inch AT gun. 4) n terms of the 90mm M18, it clearly wasn't going to be ready in time for the ETO and the TD battalions in the Pacific were equipped with M10's - there were only eight M18's in theater - and it was clearly easier to ship up gun kits complete with turret and gun to the ordnance depots in the Pacific and change the M10's to M36's. "M18s served on Okinawa, but curiously not part of any tank destroyer battalions. General Andrew D. Bruce, the original commander of the Tank Destroyer Tactical and Firing Center, ended up in command of the 77th Infantry Division, and managed to secure eight M18s to re-equip the anti-tank company of the 306th Infantry Regiment." He was obviously desperate to find a use for the TD he had fought so long for. 5) The M26 was a much better weapon and the US chose to put its industrial effort there. The TOE for tank battalions in OLYMPIC (Nov 45) was a company of M26's and two companies of 76mm armed M4's - obviously the Army saw a lot of bunker busting on the horizon. The ratio of M26's to M4's would have just gotten larger by the time of CORONET (Mar 46) 6) Post-war the Army found no use for the M18 - not even with the Reserve or Guard and either scrapped them or foisted them off on other nations as military aid.
Love the video if you can find information on it could you do a curse by design on the T-44-100 a vehicles that had the same fate as the super hellcat
@@chost-059 yes but it never made it to combat and not many got made
@@jakejohnson2921 yea
There's two versions of the T-44-100 the D-10 and LB-1
This would be awesome. Though its fate was much better than the super hellcat. It ended up being the prototype for the most produced tank of all time. As such it's historical significance is huge.
Also considering it had thicker armor than a king tiger with a gun having armor penetration on par with the panther but a much larger HE warhead, on a
Using the turret from the M-36 Jackson (90 mm Gun Motor Carriage, M36) on the 76 mm Gun Motor Carriage M18 or M18 GMC would have been a great option had the war lasted. What I'm surprised at is that it wasn't thought of during the M-18's original design concept. The 90mm gun wasn't exactly a new gun. It was originally used as both a towed AA and AT gun. The Brits had proven that they could effectively mount a much bigger gun on their Lend Lease Sherman's, so I would be very surprised if the designers had not thought of doing the same. They did it with the M36 GMC.
I love it!! Actually when i started to play WoT allmoust 10 years ago Hellcat was the 1st tank that i was grinding to get, and was my 1st Mid tier tank. That was the 1st tech tree line that i grinded to tier 10..
My 1st tier 6, 7, 8 and 1st tier 9 tanks ever were the ones on that tech tree line. And back then all of them were great. Hellcat today even being worst then the one i started to play os pretty good!!
Back to WWII the Hellcat was so much more then a tank destroyer.. it would be One of the best scouting platforms of the War and i believe that was one of the most loved vehicles by their crews.
I think the adjective of super came into use on plastic scale models back in the 50's and 60's since it sounded better to us kids than Modified Up-gunned. It seems to me that Ordnance also had the M18 hull designed so it could hold any turret that was used on the M4 hulls since that allowed the repair depots to quickly replace damaged M4 turrets with any good M4 turret they had in the salvage yard or recently repaired to return to service. All were drop-in replacements unless the turret basket had to be removed or added first. Ordnance also had those designed so the 75mm gun could be replaced with the 105mm howitzer if desired. I doubt if they would've bothered to trim the crew hatches since that was never done on the M10 since they only had to rotate the turret to the side to get it out of the way and if hit, had no basket in the way to exit out from the top or could use the floor escape hatch if under small arms fire.
Just imagine if it did enter service a year earlier maybe in late 1944 or early 1945, it wouldn't change the tide of tank battles but it surely a sight to see seeing an already fast tank with a bigger gun
Superb video as always!
I think the first time I've seen the "Super Hellcat" name is from Peter Chamberlain's book British and American Tanks of World War 2 published in 1969. There was a picture of it in the book and I think the author coined the term.
This tank makes me think of Tim Allen from "Home Improvement" yelling:
This needs more poweeeer!
1:57/4:48
I wonder who did the 3D designs because that's quite a feat for your videos to date.
Link in the description
@@ConeOfArc
I see it thanks. ☺️
The M18 Hellcat successful? Debatable. It was received well by operators, but at the same time there were major complaints about:
- Inefficiency of the guns vs German armour and frequent lack of a muzzle brake
- An open turret, where operators rather had some armour over their heads
- An unnecessary assistant driver position where they would have rather had a hull machinegun(ner)
In addition there were 216/540 losses of M18 Tanks in WW2. I don't know if the losses also included earlier losses that were repaired, but for a tank destroyer that mostly entered it later in the war those are some pretty heavy losses. Meanwhile they have been credited directly for only a few major battle victories.
I think it was primarily well-received due to two factors:
1. It was at least a much faster/more mobile option over existing TD/anti-tank options, which fit the US doctrine at the time much better.
2. On account of that tank doctrine (of 3 tanks plus 1 tank destroyer engaging enemy vehicles/tanks), the US had advantages in numbers to begin with. That may have made it much easier for them to get some tanks/tank destroyers into positions where they could open fire effectively.
That said, would you be willing to enter a one-on-one situation with a typical german tank (Pz IV, Pz V Panther or Pz VI Tiger)? Sure, you are very mobile and would rather use an M18 over an M10, but... your armour is like paper. To this day it's still debatable if a heavier tank doctrine would have been more efficient for US forces (at least in terms of survivability for tanks and crew). If the US wasn't dealing with an advantage in numbers to begin with, I think it would have been a lot worse to drive one of these things into battle.
I just wanna say there are a lot of youtubers that put out videos with great ideas but the videos are horrible. They have the editing of the footage down, but the monotone rambling speaker in the background makes me feel like I'm in a college history class and should be taking notes.
To each their own, but you sir have a great balance of explaining verbally the story and the historic footage to go along with it. Well done, keep them coming
I assume the "super" is just another nickname for remastered, just like in superpershing being a remastered version of the regular pershing
I would had laughed REALLY hard if they used that same for any remastered U.S. developed game/movie!
One of the few things I enjoy about War Thunder; Having a line up with 3 Hellcats; The M18, Black Cat and Super Hellcat.
I bet you love the taste of germam tears.
@@naamadossantossilva4736 I do when things work out ideally, yes. And the Russians when the Bias Coding fails them.
Thank you for changing your intro, much smoother honestly.
you should do the Sturmtiger
Sturmtiger was in service, and performed decently at what it was supposed to do, don't think its cursed
@@NareasPL ConeOfArc made a cursed by design about Kv-2 so Sturmtiger can made it to the series
@@NareasPL It is cursed by design though. It's literally useless and waste of resources, and most crewmans operating it would abandon the tank when they're out of ammunition, since the 380mm Mörser gun is exclusive to the Sturmtiger and the ammunition for it is very scarce.
The Super Hellcat is actually one of my favorite tanks, so it’s nice to see a video about it. As for my thoughts on the tank, I would have liked to see it pursued further, despite the end of the war. There may have been a rise in heavily-armored vehicles near the end of the war, but I think it may have still been useful in its intended role, even past the war. And although I admit it is indeed lacking several aspects of what makes a tank a tank, I think I agree with the response to soldiers that upgrading the Hellcat too much makes it no longer a Hellcat. Perhaps the only suggestion I can think of would have been to reduce turret armor to as close to the original Hellcat as possible, in order to maintain the most speed possible. But, I understand that the whole point of the project was to make it a simple conversion during service, so perhaps the regular turret swap turret was good as a stopgap where necessary.
The Army reduced the speed on the M18 by changing the gear ratios in order to lower the speed and increase torque. Nobody with any sense was charging around the battlefield the way you see in the propaganda films and the Army wanted something that could plow through mud and climb hills - like Italy
@@colbeausabre8842 Huh, very interesting. That makes sense, since (as far as I know) doctrine dictated that Hellcats were to create a flexible defense line behind Allies and flank enemy breakthroughs when the need arised. And, logically, if they were behind the main force, the only two requirements for the vehicle would have been that (A) it was able to keep up with Allied advances and (B) that it was able to outpace Axis breakthroughs. Thus, very high speed was likely not needed. In any case, I didn't know they added speed limiters. Thanks for informing me! :3
Airborne Warfare
by James M. Gavin published June 1980 mentions the M18 Super Hellcat light tanks on page 132
In 1944, reports came out about an improved version of the Navy's F6F Hellcat fighter plane. In late October a few newspapers headlined that with an apparently unofficial moniker of "Super Hellcat", for what it's worth. Perhaps that nickname was "borrowed"?
Nicely done! The M36 was truly too much, too late. Had it arrived a few months earlier, it may have had a real effect on the western front.
6:50 .. there was a jackson turret & gun on a sherman 😍😍😍😍😍!!!
As a former 19K I have to say my favorite armored vehicle is the Abrams and its variants but the Hellcat trails just behind as number 2.
I gotta say, I really prefer the old intro than the new one. It was done so well and very iconic.
A full video on the Hellcat? You spoil us sir!
The Super Hellcat simply no longer had a job to do by the time it was ready. By then, the M26 had the same 90mm tank gun, and though it was under-powered (and five years later, in Korea in late summer, would prove prone to overheating) it could take on just about anything potential adversaries could throw at it. Also, it was the dedicated tank destroyer command structure and these specialized vehicles that were seen as not needed anymore; that the tanks themselves should perform the various roles of infantry support or duking it out with enemy tanks.
Would love to see an episode on the Valentine DD, the predecessor of the Sherman DD. Very interesting but tragic history that I haven't heard many talk about.
The footage of the m18 next to the t92 is amazing
I could have sworn that either Chieftain, Challenger, or David Fletcher in one of the early world of tanks videos said that the name "Hellcat" came from designer/manufacturer and was adopted as it's name one of the very few armored vehicles to have been allowed this. While I think the following is fairly common knowledge the US army didn't adopt the 'names' given to their vehicles by the British. e.g. A Sherman to an American unit would simply be referred to as an M4 (followed by whatever letters and numbers assigned to it). So try the Bovington tank museum folks if the brits really were the ones naming armored vehicles after US generals then this would be the exception to the rule. But my memory could also just be hazy.
I'm not talking about the nickname hellcat I'm talking about the name "super hellcat"
Glad you're doing good. You seem more happy compared to the WT videos you've done in the past
Honestly, Super is applied to a lot of 'upgrade' versions of vehicles. So it would seem to make sense that during testing and what not, it could've been nicknamed super, or the modelers just... 'gave it a super'.
I love this game I been playing it for the last 5months. Keep up the good work man the videos are great and help others find out about tanks and there history with out the bias and fake documents that others may provide and Once again thank you!
6:53 i like to call that thing the Sherman 90
the sherman hull with the m36 turret was known as an m36b1 GMC and was started to be produced when m10/m36 hulls dried up
M18 being able to destroy anything tiger 2 am I a joke to you
Can Openers by Nicholas Moran is an excellent book. Nice episode. Keep up the good work.
That would have been totally unfair....like giving Bruce Lee a gun. 😱🤣✌🏻
The first time I saw it called the Super Hellcat was on a model similar to the one you showed. I believe it was a smaller model set that pretty much came complete, less tracks and turret, etc
My first introduction to the hellcat is CoH1 back in 2006
I would have loved if you could have squeezed in a clip of R. Lee Ermy's face when he fired the gun on the Hellcat.
Claim your *I was here in 10 minutes* and if you win YOU ARE POG CHAMP no more claims only 7 got it
*claim*
*claim*
Although the M36 Jackson (Gun Motor Carrier) or GMC didn't saw much action in the hands of US Army but it actually saw a considerable amount of action in hands of Pakistan Army during 1965 indo-pak war , by french army in first indochina war , by Yogulsavian army in Croatian independence war and in kosovo war too.
When American tanks were upgraded to have the same anti-tank capable gun and armor piercing ammo as the TD’s carried, the TD branch was considered redundant
The “Super Hellcat” may be a product of that model box art. There have been times where a model that borders on pure fiction (the BF-109 K-14 with a four bladed protection being a prime example) is released, and makes its way to the popular canon.
The Super Hellcat appellation is much more appealing than some numerical designation and so the model company may have just tacked that name on and called it a day
A M18 with an armored roof and coaxial machinegun would be very similar to a M41. They even had very similar power to weight ratio. It almost like the hellcat becoming a bulldog.
When i see the name of super hellcat i cant stop thinking about the two dudes playing wot screaming "the supppppeeeerrrrr hellcat!"
If they had been available, it would have been better option to rush into Korea than the Pershing. One thing I like most about it is that since the TDs seldom got to do their intended job of containing breakthroughs during WW2, a 90mm gun would have given more capability as artillery.
I remember reading a booklet in the 70s with that name. So that name is being around for some time
Id be willing to bet the name came from the scale model community, either the manufacturers wanting a flashy name (ala Super Sherman, Super Pershing, etc) or the community wanting a shorthand to differentiate the two hellcats
Had the war lasted longer the M26, maybe up-engined, would have taken over all the jobs starting with the TD ones. Because for the war to drag on the changes on the german side would have to happen earlier (fixing Panthers drivetrain by using the OLVAR from Tiger) and going up against what is essentially an early model Leopard 1 requires M26 or better
The 90mm gun would have also been a lot more useful in the M18's (actual) primary role of fire support since the Germans only had one major offensive in the west that it could be used in its intended role against.
My ideal super-hellcat would have more armor focused on the front of the turret to create a turret that is like the T29 on the front but basically unarmored anywhere else. That much armor focused on such a small area wouldn't weigh all that much, relatively speaking, and it would excel at hull down defense - since defense was the role U.S. TDs were intended for. Naturally that was like my second design on Sprocket. ;)
One of these things were actually used in that Netflix series about David koresh
0:16 look at that cute tank
If I recall, it wasn't standard practice for the U.S. military to assign a "name" to weapons. The British are responsible for "monikers" such as "Mustang" for the P-51 and "Lee" for the M3 medium tank, etc. I believe "Pershing" may have been official ( the first time) but I could be mistaken. I would welcome any information others may possess.
Suuuuper Hellcat !
Adding Super to a name of tank is how Wg Sells Premiums Super Pershing, Super Hellcat. See A patton?
Sorry for the pun : )
Good video. I really like the streamlined look of this TD.
Thanks! The M18 Hellcat is my favourite tank destroyer, and I'd watch ur video abaut it. ;)
It is very interesting to know about the Sherman with a 122mm cannon from the IS-2!
I think people forget that superman was extremely popular around the time alot of these "super" tanks, so it's very likely that the super is just like Superman, a "alien" tank if you will.
M 18 Hellcat is my favorite piece of American armor from ww2 . Big gun and goes very fasy compared to the tigers and pnazers it was supposed to destroy . Shoot and run away ! I know that the guys are exposed to the elements and enemy fire but, I think I would prefer being outside and on top if I saw a tiger's 88 aimed at me , It gives me a better chance of jumping off :-) Thanks for posting CoA
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Hellcat name from what I've read came from Buick as a promotional nickname, sort of out the Pontiac GTO was called Tiger, but goat stuck.