I am detailing the Academy M10 ( the later release!) and want to detail the turret interior. My references include 'US Tank Destroyers' by Zaloga/Concord; 'M10 and M36' by Zaloga/Osprey; 'Walkaround US Tank Destroyers' by Mesko/Squadron-Signal, as well as photos of Achilles on Toadman's Tank Pictures. My concern is the turret intercom in the M10. In the text it is stated that each member had an intercom, but in the photos of either museum restorations or in-service vehicles (except for maybe the Achilles) no evidence of either cabling or connector boxes is visible. How did the commander communicate with the crew - by signal flag? Should I assume this detail should be present and go ahead and add cabling and boxes near each crew seat? Does anyone have a definitive and authoritative answer to this? HELP!!!

Heres a pic I found In my collection, its the driver and co-drivers area of an M10 and shows the placement of the cable boxes and the cables.

the photo is from an old site called afv interiers that has been gone for a while



"In this photo you can also see the radio control boxes centered up front on the roof with cables for throat mikes and headphones."

laters

This is a photo of a page from FM18-15 Tank Destroyer Drill 3 inch gun motor carrage M10, 76mm gun motor carrage 1943.

drawing is kind of rough but maybe it will help you out..



also using this as an excuse to figure out photo bucket.. lol

another drawing from the same manual

Biggles2:

Here're a couple more photos that might help you with colors and cable types.

US Tank Interphone control boxes and cables underwent a change in about '42-'43 from a system using black boxes and armored cables configured at the factory for each specific vehicle to one that was "universal" and delivered with "bulk" cable that was installed by measuring and cutting at the time of installation.

Here is a picture of the RC-61 type system using the black boxes and armored cables:



In this picture, you can see the interphone control box and short sections of armored cable. You can also see the US Tanker helmet with the headset installed and the throat microphone and push-to-talk switch. Note that the headset earphones are wired together (across the rear of the helmet) and have a single lead to the control box. The throat mic. connectes to the push-to-talk switch which has another single cable to the control box. This control box has jacks for the commander and gunner, separate volumn controls for each, and a switch that changes from radio to interphone. The lanyard for the push-to-talk switch (SW-141) could be leather (as here) or a braded cord. Also, the throat mic. (T-30) could be replaced with a T-17 hand-held microphone (either in black plastic or silver-gray die-cast metal).

Here is a picture of the later system interphone control box:



You'll note that it is simpler (and OD green) and uses a rubber covered cable. This is the box shown in most of the drawings in the post above and is the most common used in US tanks after North Africa and the (early) Phillipines. The older system could have been delivered with some Lend-Lease tanks, but most of those surely had British radios and interphone systems. You'll also note that the tank helmet set-up is the same.

Here is a picture of the same "universal" interphone control box but connected to the end-of-war headset and microphone. The headset is the HS-30, the mic. is the T-45 lip-mic, and push-to-talk switch is the T-51 Chest Group. The HS-30 was certainly used during WWII (often installed in the Tank Helmet). There are several photos of its use even before D-Day. However, while the T-45 and T-51 were manufactured in time for the end of the war, I have never seen contemporary photos of their use in the field (there are some dated Field Manual photos). (The T-51 is seen in Korean War photos.)



Finally, here is a picture of the Commonwealth No. 19 Radio Set Interphone (Intercom) control box, cabling, and headsets (Canadian Tank Helmet, Strathconia's beret). The headset on the beret is the most common tank set-up with the canvas headstrap, spring loop behind the head, and black mic. The tank helmet is the Canadian type only used in training in Canada and Great Britain. The mic. is an early war type made of heavy die-cast metal and has a support neck strap.



You say that you're building a US M10, however, if it were an Achillie's varient, the British would have installed the No. 19 radio set and its associated control boxes in place of the US SCR-type radio.

HTH,
Mike