The M74 tank recovery vehicle (M74) was an engineer vehicle used by the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

in the 1950s. It was designed to cope with the heavier weights of the

M26 Pershing The M26 Pershing was a heavy tank/ medium tank of the United States Army. It was used in the last months of World War II during the Invasion of Germany and extensively during the Korean War. The tank was named after General of the Armies John J ...

and

M47 Patton The M47 Patton was an American main battle tank, a development of the M46 Patton mounting an updated turret, and was in turn further developed as the M48 Patton. It was the second American tank to be named after General George S. Patton, command ...

. It could also be suitable for light dozing, since it had a hydraulic, front-mounted spade. More than 1000 were produced by Bowen-McLaughlin-York by converting M4A3 Sherman tanks starting in 1954. Later, some were converted from M32B1 ARVs by

Rock Island Arsenal The Rock Island Arsenal comprises , located on Arsenal Island, originally known as Rock Island, on the Mississippi River between the cities of Davenport, Iowa, and Rock Island, Illinois. It lies within the state of Illinois. Rock Island ...

until 1958.

Development

After the Korean War the M74 was designed to cope with the heavier weights of the new vehicles that were being introduced. Designed in 1953, it was based on the M4A3 HVSS medium tank and it was developed to cope with the heavier

and

tanks which were entering service, which the M32 Armored Recovery Vehicle (ARV) was unable to retrieve. Using the standard

Ford GAA The Ford GAA engine is an American all-aluminum 32-valve DOHC 60-degree liquid-cooled V8 internal combustion engine with a flat plane crankshaft designed and produced by the Ford Motor Company before and during World War II. It features twin Stro ...

and wide tracks, the chassis would be rebuilt. It was replaced in service with the U.S. Army by the

M88 Hercules The M88 Recovery Vehicle is one of the largest armored recovery vehicles (ARV) in use by United States Armed Forces. There are three variants, the ''M88'', ''M88A1'' and ''M88A2'' HERCULES (Heavy Equipment Recovery Combat Utility Lifting Extract ...

Design

The M74 was fitted with a main Skaarup, Harold (2011), p. 172. hydraulic winch, a lighter-duty general purpose secondary winch, a hydraulic A-frame, and a hydraulic front-mounted spade, which was suitable for light dozing, as well as serving as an anchor for heavy winching operations.Berndt, Thomas. ''Standard Catalog of U.S. Military Vehicles, 1940–1965'' (Krause Publications, 1993), p. 193.Chant (2014), p. 21. It had a .50-caliber M2 machine gun atop the hull and a .30-cal M1919A4 machine gun in the right bow.

Production

Over 1000 M74 ARVs were produced between 1953 to 1955 by Bowen-McLaughlin-York. The conversion of M4A3 Sherman tanks into M74 recovery vehicles was started by Bowen in 1954. Some were also converted from obsolete M32B1 ARVs by Rock Island Arsenal until 1958.

Operators

* – Used in post-World War II Germany. It was the standard recovery vehicle of the U.S. Army in the 1950s. * - Used in 1954-198x, 56 in 1976 * * * – Used in the

Yom-Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egy ...

Dunstan, Simon (2007), p. 92. * – Lent by the United States from 1953 to 1968. * – Operated 13 units, probably from the United States, were replaced in the 1980s by 8 M88A1/A2G. * - some received during the

Informbiro period The Informbiro period was an era of Yugoslavia's history following the Tito–Stalin split in mid-1948 that lasted until the country's partial rapprochement with the Soviet Union in 1955 with the signing of the Belgrade declaration. After Wor ...

Notes

References

* TM 9-7402 M74 Recovery Vehicle (1956) * TM 9-7403-2 M74 Recovery Vehicle Misc. Components (1956) * * * * * *

External links

{{commons category, M74 Tank Recovery Vehicle
M74 Tank Recovery Vehicle – Primeportal.net
Armoured recovery vehicles of the United States Tracked armoured recovery vehicles M4 Sherman tanks Military vehicles introduced in the 1950s ja:M32 戦車回収車#M74 戦車回収車