Hello,
I am looking for technical drawings of a 75 mm M3 cannon used in Lee / Grant tanks. I searched a lot on the internet, but nowhere I get information about the dimensions of this gun. I need the exact dimensions of this gun, i.e. the length and diameter of the barrel. Ideally, these would be the dimensions of the short and long version of the barrel and the version with counterweight. Maybe some of you have such datas or you can send a link to the page where I can find them. Thank you in advance for your help.
Best, Stefan

http://www.theshermantank.com/wp-content/uploads/M3-gun-data-image.png

H.P.

Thank you Frenchy for the link. I have already seen this table. Unfortunately, it did not help me much. The best, however, would be a technical drawing with the dimensions.

He, Stefan!

Which scale are you working in?

Hi Denins, 1/35 scale.

THX

You may be able to request whether or not the volunteers at, I think it was, the MVPA Military Vehicle Preservation Association have discovered the 75mm M2 and /or 75mm M3 gun drawings from the MVPA web site as I do believe the MVPA was gifted all of the old Tank Automotive Command drawings (the originals) form the DoD some 10-ish years ago.

They were trying to catalogue and organise these drawings fro preservation but I'm not sure if any of the weapon drawings were amongst the pile.

If the MVPA doesn't have them, then possibly the archives associated with the Ordnance Museum, now at Fort Benning, GA, might have them.

Lastly, a member here, Kurt Laughlin, may know where they are kept.

Understand, what you are asking for is not a common sort of drawing. You are looking for the gun manufacturer's drawings. The tank drawings would not include them as they would have been an item supplied to the tank maker and therefore none of their concern except at the interfaces between the gun and the mount and the tank.

The Ordnance Department would have been the place to have these drawings, so the Ordnance Museum would be the most likely spot, but I'm not sure they have kept the manufacturing drawings all these years whereas I do know that Tank Automotive did supply a lot of vehicle drawings and, I think, some ordnance drawing copies to the MVPA, which is why I recommend asking there.

But the actual dimensioned drawings of the tube, chamber, breech block, etc., may no longer exist at all. Even if an assembly drawing with overall reference dimensions exists, the details you appear to want may be buried down in lower level part drawings, of which almost none have survived.

Just trying to provide a realistic assessment of your probability of getting the extremely detailed info you seem to want.

Paul

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Hi Paul, Yes, I mean such drawings. Another, I think is a relatively simple solution is to measure the barrel on one of the preserved tanks in the museums. All you need is a simple measure and caliper. The Grant / Lee tank barrel is fortunately a very simple construction. Unfortunately, this type of tank does not exist in museums in Poland.

Hi, Stefan!

OK, let me check in my references- I have a A LOT of publications pertaining to US Military Equipment...

PS- Kurt Laughlin may even have the information that you are seeking at hand...

It also depends upon how much information you are really looking for and to what level of accuracy. If all you want is something like the readily accessible dimensions, to plus or minus 1 or 2mm, of the gun tube outside of the mantlet or rotor, that's an entirely different level of information than detail manufacturer's drawings. There are a number of people on this forum who live near an M3 who might be able to acquire that information.

Maybe just ask for that? Let us know exactly what info you are looking for and someone near an M3 might be able to nip out and get it for you.

Paul

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That's exactly what I mean. It does not have to be super accurate drawings from the factory documentation. For clarification, I put a drawing on which I have marked dimensions that interest me. Dimensions marked in red indicate the length. Dimensions marked with numbers in green indicate the diameters that are important to me. I know that the diameters, in this case it will be difficult to measure without specialized instruments. But you can do it differently. If you have a flexible measure, you can measure the circumference. Then it is easy to calculate the diameter.