Did this vehicle see combat or was this a fluke vehicle

What do you mean? The M5A1 Stuart is a real vehicle and saw combat.

Are you referring to the M3A3s and M5A1s that had their turrets removed by some British units? They were real and used in action.

The British used turret less Stuarts as recon vehicles, including M5's, but the M3 Stuarts were more common.

A very small number of US Stuarts had the turret removed and used as recon or command tanks. Some M8 HMC's were also used as command tanks. Google it and follow the web.

I believe it was mostly Canadian unit in Italy that removed the turret. I had read that when they were shipped from Italy to NW Europe Montgomery ordered them to put the turrets back on, and would not allow them to ship tank without the turrets, so the Canadians listed them as different vehicles to get them shipped.

Turret-less Stuarts have been around for quite awhile in Commonwealth units using the M3A1/M3A3 Stuarts ,Stuart M5A1's were used asprime movers for ant-tank units, etc..., the US trialed a version called T8/T8E1 Reconnaissance Vehicle:

On 21 December 1943 the Army Ground Forces asked for the development of a fully tracked armoured reconnaissance vehicle. On 17 February 1944 the Ordnance department ordered that two M5A1 light tanks should be converted to fulfill this role.

Both machines had the turret removed and an open fighting compartment created, with a mount for a .50in machine gun. The T8 had the machine gun at the right-rear of the fighting compartment while the T8E1 had the gun nearer the turret ring. The T8 used the normal M5 tracks, while the T8E1 had new 16in metal tracks.

Cheers

Anthony

Thank you all for your responses this will be a fun project

Hi Frank

Accurate Armour did a conversion for this, which I built many moons ago. They do both an early and late version

My M3a3 Recce

a fun little build for sure

keith

I like it! That is really cool Commonwealth model. It's great to know there is always something new to learn in this hobby and in history! ! !