The 203 mm Howitzer Motor Carriage M43 was an American self-propelled artillery vehicle built on a widened and lengthened Medium Tank M4A3 chassis, but with a Continental engine and HVSS that was introduced at the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The M43 shared the same chassis as the more widely produced

M40 Gun Motor Carriage The 155 mm Gun Motor Carriage M40 was an American self-propelled artillery vehicle built on a widened and lengthened Medium Tank M4A3 chassis, but with a Continental engine and with HVSS (Horizontal Volute Spring Suspension), which was intro ...

, which instead mounted a 155 mm gun, and were designed by the

Pressed Steel Car Company The Pressed Steel Car Company was a builder of railroad cars and equipment based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that was founded in 1899, and had facilities in Pittsburgh and Chicago. It operated until 1956. Early history The Pressed Steel Car C ...

. A production run of 576 was planned originally, but in the end only 24 were produced and another 24 were converted from M40 hulls. The M43 went on to serve in the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

, and was retired after its conclusion.

History

Equipped with a M115 203 mm (8")

Howitzer A howitzer () is a long- ranged weapon, falling between a cannon (also known as an artillery gun in the United States), which fires shells at flat trajectories, and a mortar, which fires at high angles of ascent and descent. Howitzers, like ot ...

, it was designed to replace the earlier

M12 Gun Motor Carriage The 155 mm Gun Motor Carriage M12 was a U.S. self-propelled gun developed during the Second World War. It mounted a 155 mm gun derived from the French Canon de 155mm GPF field gun. Development The idea for the M12 was first proposed i ...

. Its prototype designation was the T89, but this was changed to the M43 in March 1945. The 41.5 ton vehicles struggled to keep up with mechanized formations, but were successful when employed in more stationary roles.

Operational Service

A single pilot vehicle was deployed in Europe before the end of World War II and was used in action by the 991st Field Artillery Regiment, first seeing action as part of Zebra Force in February 1945 in the capture of

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

. M43s were used in action in the

, where they were well suited to the static fighting there, their high angle of fire permitting them to hit the rear slopes of hills.

Variants

* 8 inch Howitzer Motor Carriage M43 - HMC, standardized August 1945; 48 were built. * The Army planned to use the same T38 chassis for a family of SP artillery. * Cargo Carrier T30 - a few built before cancellation in December 1944 to make more chassis' available for GMCs.

Surviving vehicles

http://the.shadock.free.fr/Surviving_Tank-based_GMC.pdf * one at the Fort Sill museum, OK * one in Wyoming, MI * one in American Society of Military History Museum, South El Monte, CA

Popular Culture

Despite its small production run, the M43s is featured in the computer games

World of Tanks ''World of Tanks'' (''WoT'') is a massively multiplayer online game developed by Belarusian company Wargaming, featuring 20th century (1910s–1970s) era combat vehicles. It is built upon a freemium business model where the game is free-to- ...

and

R.U.S.E. ''R.U.S.E.'' is a real-time strategy video game developed by Eugen Systems and published by Ubisoft which was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, in September 2010. The game was subsequently released for macOS through Ste ...

Notes

References

Tech Manual TM9-747Surviving M40 and M43
* SNL G232 {{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 Self-propelled howitzers of the United States Self-propelled artillery of the United States World War II self-propelled artillery World War II armored fighting vehicles of the United States Cold War armored fighting vehicles of the United States Tracked self-propelled howitzers 203 mm artillery Military vehicles introduced from 1940 to 1944