Tanker's Tuesday : M48 Tank

A real departure from the M47.

Third in line to be named after US Army’s ardent promoter of tanks during ww1 and legendary commander during ww2, the M48 was a development of the M47 Patton (or “Patton II”). It was born soon after it, and pressed into service in 1953. The M47 has been largely a stopgap model, made from the marriage of the T42 tank prototype (the real successor of the M46) and the M46 chassis, itself an improvement over the ww2 M26 Pershing. Most were replaced in the US Army and Marine Corps when the M48 was made available and sold abroad. The M48 was instead a radical technical departure, adopting a brand new turret and chassis, revised suspensions, more powerful engine and many other improvements.

 

M 48 Tank