90 mm Gun M1/M2/M3

For the French 90mm field gun of 1877 used in World War I, see De Bange 90 mm cannon.
90 mm M1A1

A 90 mm M1 at CFB Borden
Type Anti-Aircraft gun
Place of origin United States
Service history
In service 1940–1950s
Used by United States,
Canada,
Republic of China,
Brazil
Wars World War II,
Korean War
Specifications
Weight Total: 8,618 kg (18,999 lb)
Barrel: 1,109 kg (2,445 lb)
Length 4.73 m (15 ft 6 in)
Barrel length 4.60 m (15 ft) L/53
Width 4.16 m (13 ft 9 in)
Height 3.07 m (10 ft)
Shell 90×600 mm R
Shell weight 10.61 kg (23 lb 6 oz)
Caliber 90 mm (3.5 in)
Carriage mobile
Elevation −5° to +80°
Traverse 360 degrees
Rate of fire 25 rounds per minute (maximum)
Muzzle velocity 823 m/s (2,700 ft/s)
Maximum firing range Maximum horizontal: 17,823 m (58,474 ft)
Maximum ceiling: 10,380 m (34,060 ft) (limited by 30 second fuse)

The 90 mm Gun M1/M2/M3 served as a primary heavy American anti-aircraft and anti-tank gun, playing a role similar to the renowned German 88 mm gun. It was 90 mm (3.5 in) in caliber, and had a 4.60 m (15 ft) barrel, 53 calibers in length. It was capable of firing a 90×600 mm R shell 17,823 m (58,474 ft) horizontally, or a maximum altitude of 10,380 m (34,060 ft).

The 90 mm Gun was the US's primary anti-aircraft gun from just prior to the opening of World War II into the 1950s, when most anti-aircraft artillery was replaced by guided missile systems. As a tank gun, it was the main weapon of the M36 tank destroyer and M26 Pershing tank, as well as a number of post-war tanks. It was briefly deployed 1943-46 as a coast defense weapon with the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps.

History

Prior to World War II, the primary US anti-aircraft gun was the 3-inch M1918 gun (76.2 mm L/40), a widely used caliber for this class of weapon. Similar weapons were in British, Soviet and other arsenals. There had been several upgrades to the weapon over its history, including the experimental T8 and T9 versions developed in the early 1930s that were intended to enter service later in the decade.

However the US Army became interested in a much more capable weapon instead, and on June 9, 1938 it issued a development contract calling for two new guns, one of 90 mm which it felt was the largest possible size that was still capable of being manually loaded at high elevations, and another, using assisted loading, of 120 mm caliber. The new design seemed so much better than developments of the older 3-inch that work on the 3-inch T9 was canceled in 1938 just as it became production-ready. By 1940 the second development of the 90 mm design, the T2, was standardized as the 90 mm M1, while its larger cousin became the 120 mm M1 gun.

A few hundred M1s were completed when several improvements were added to produce the 90 mm M1A1, which entered production in late 1940 and was accepted as the standard on May 22, 1941. The M1A1 included an improved mount and spring-rammer on the breech, with the result that firing rates went up to 20 rounds per minute. Several thousand were available when the US entered the war, and the M1A1 was their standard anti-aircraft gun for the rest of the conflict. Production rates continued to improve, topping out in the low thousands per month.

Like the German 88 and the British QF 3.7 inch AA gun, the M1A1 found itself facing tanks in combat, but unlike the others it could not be depressed to fire against them. On September 11, 1942 the Army issued specifications for a new mount to allow it to be used in this role, which resulted in the 90 mm M2, introducing yet another new mount that could be depressed to 10 degrees below the horizontal and featured a new electrically-assisted rammer. It became the standard weapon from May 13, 1943.

View of a 90 mm anti-aircraft gun emplacement, Okinawa, 1945

Anti-aircraft operation

M7 gun director, 1944

In anti-aircraft use the guns were normally operated in groups of four, controlled by the M7 or M9 Director or Kerrison Predictors. Radar direction was common, starting with the SCR-268 in 1941, which was not accurate enough to directly lay the guns, but provided accurate ranging throughout the engagement. For night-time use, a searchlight was slaved to the radar with a beam width set so that the target would be somewhere in the beam when it was turned on, at which point the engagement continued as in the day. In 1944 the system was upgraded with the addition of the SCR-584 microwave radar, which was accurate to about 0.06 degrees (1 mil) and also provided automatic tracking. With the SCR-584, direction and range information was sent directly to the Bell Labs M3 Gun Data Computer, and M9 Director, which could direct and lay the guns automatically, all the crews had to do was load the guns.

Main Gun/Anti-tank developments

An experimental 90 mm anti-tank gun

The M3 was also adapted as the main gun for various armored vehicles, starting with the experimental T7 which was accepted as the 90 mm M3. The test firing of the M3 took place on an M10 tank destroyer in early 1943. The M3 gun was used on the M36 tank destroyer, and the T26 (later, M26) Pershing tank.[1] The M3 fired a M82 APC shot with a muzzle velocity of 2,650 feet per second.[1] However, both the muzzle velocity of the standard M3 gun and the quality of the steel used in the M82 APC shot were inferior to the KwK 43 L/71 88 mm main gun firing its standard APCBC shot used by German forces, with the result that the former's penetration fell far short of the standard projectile fired by the KwK 43 German 88 mm used on the Tiger II/King Tiger tank.[1] As a result, U.S. ordnance provided some T26/M26 tank crews with the 90 mm HVAP (high-velocity, armor-piercing) tungsten penetrator sub-caliber projectile with a muzzle velocity of 3,350 feet per second, or the T33 AP with a re-heat-treated projectile with ballistic windshield and a muzzle velocity of 2,800 feet per second.[1][2] The HVAP could compete with the KwK 43's penetration performance when firing std. APCBC, but tungsten ammunition was always in short supply, and the T33 which only just made it in service a month before the end of the war still fell far short of the KwK 43's performance.

An unsuccessful anti-tank variant was the T8 gun on the T5 carriage. The gun was an M1 with the recoil mechanism from the M2A1 105 mm howitzer. Eventually a version of the T8 with the T20E1 gun and T15 carriage was tested; this led to the 105 mm anti-tank gun T8.[3]

Because the standard fifteen-and-a-half foot long M3 90 mm main tank gun proved incapable of penetrating the heaviest frontal armor of the heaviest German tanks such as the Tiger II/King Tiger tanks and their seldom-seen Jagdtiger tank destroyer variant, a number of improved versions of the M3 were developed, including the T14 which included a standard muzzle brake and the T15 series.[1] The 21-foot long T15E1 90 mm main gun fired AP T43 shot with an initial muzzle velocity of about 975 m (3,199 ft) per second, later increased to 1,143 m (3,750 ft) per second.[1] Two M26A1E2 "Super Pershing" tanks were equipped with T15-series 90 mm main guns in March 1945. One of these tanks, equipped with a 90 mm caliber T15E1 high-velocity gun firing an AP shot at 1,143 m (3,750 ft) per second made it to the European Theater of Operations and was assigned to the 3rd Armored Division for the testing purposes. Firing HVAP this gun could penetrate 8.5 in (220 mm) of rolled homogeneous armor (RHA) at a range of 1,000 yd (914 m).

Near the end of World War II, more experimental versions of the 90 mm gun were tested, including the T15E2 and the even higher velocity T18 and T19 main guns. The T19 was a T18 modified in an attempt to reduce barrel wear. Other versions included the T21, which was intended for wheeled vehicles, and the T22, which used the breech from the standard 105 mm M2 howitzer. The T21 and T22 were designed to use larger powder charges. None of these versions entered service.

In the post-World War II era, development of the T15 continued, now redesignated the T54, which included the ability to fire 90 mm HVAP APCR-T projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 3,750 feet per second.[4] The T54 served as the main gun main armament of the M26A1 Pershing, M47 and M48 Patton tanks used in the Korea War, as well as the M56 Scorpion anti-tank vehicle.[4]

Coast Artillery

90 mm M1 gun on T3/M3 seacoast mount at Battery Parrott, Fort Monroe, VA

During World War II the Coast Artillery Corps adopted the 90 mm M1 to supplement or replace aging 3-inch (76 mm) weapons in harbor defense commands in CONUS and US territories. The guns were organized in Anti Motor Torpedo Boat (AMTB) batteries, typically with four 90 mm guns and two 37 mm or 40 mm AA guns each. Typically two of the 90 mm guns were on T3/M3 fixed mounts and two were on towed M1A1 mounts, with the 37 mm or 40 mm weapons on single towed mounts. The T3/M3 mount was designed for anti-surface or anti-aircraft fire. Some of the seacoast 90 mm guns were the M2 version. Emplacements for at least 90 batteries of two fixed guns each, plus mobile weapons, were constructed in CONUS, Panama, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and elsewhere in 1943.[5]

Variants

90 mm guns M2, Korea

M1

M1A1

Towed anti-aircraft gun. Production began in 1940. It featured the M8A1 spring rammer. Its rate of fire was 20 rounds per minute.

M2 in the United States Army Ordnance Museum

M2

A complete redesign to make the gun dual role, functioning as an anti-tank gun as well as an anti-aircraft gun. The ammunition feed was upgraded and an automatic fuze setter/rammer, the M20, was added. This enabled the rate of fire to reach up to 24 rounds per minute. Elevation was improved with the gun able to depress to −10 degrees. To protect the crew, a large metal shield was added. The M2 was the standard weapon by May 13, 1943. From the march it could fire from its wheels in three minutes, and from a fully emplaced position in seven minutes. In 1944 the weapon was enhanced with the addition of proximity fused shells.

M3

A tank/anti-tank version of the gun. It was used to equip the M36 tank destroyer and the M26 Pershing tank. It is also known as the 90 mm L/53.

An M36 tank destroyer with the 90 mm gun

M3A1

M3 gun with muzzle brake, used on M46 Patton tanks.

M3 Ammunition

Surviving examples

See also

Weapons of comparable role, performance and era

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Green, Michael, Tiger Tanks At War, Zenith Press, ISBN 9780760331125, 076033112X (2008), pp. 118-122
  2. ↑ Armor-Piercing Ammunition for Gun, 90-mm, M3, Washington, D.C., U.S. Army: Office of the Chief of Ordnance (January 1945)
  3. ↑ Hogg, Ian V. (2002). British and American Artillery of World War II. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books. pp. 90–92. ISBN 1-85367-478-8.
  4. 1 2 Hunnicutt, R.P. Pershing: A History Of The Medium Tank T20 Series, Presidio Press, ISBN 0891416935, 9780891416937 (1999)
  5. ↑ Berhow, Mark A., Ed. (2004). American Seacoast Defenses, A Reference Guide, Second Edition. CDSG Press. pp. 80–81, 200–223, 233, 249–251. ISBN 0-9748167-0-1.
  6. ↑ "United States War Department TM 9-374 Technical Manual 90-MM Gun M3 Mounted in Combat Vehicles." (PDF). 11 September 1944. pp. 90–91. Retrieved 6 November 2014.

External links

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