M10 (17pdr) Achilles Ic
The Achilles was a British conversion of the American M10 tank destroyer, fitted with a 17pounder gun. This is an ex-Belgian Army example.
On display at The Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset, UK.
26th July 2016
The following info is from the excellent Tank Museum website:-
“The M10 was one stage in the development of the American Tank Destroyer. It evolved from the prototype T35E1 in June 1942. and mounted the 3 inch gun M7 previously fitted to the heavy tank M6. This was mounted in an open topped turret, making the crew vulnerable to air-burst rounds, but in order to keep the weight down thickness of armour was reduced, to a maximum of 37mm at the front, compared with 50mm on the equivalent Sherman tank. In its favour it was pointed out that sloped armour on hull and turret compensated for this to some extent and bosses to hold panels of applique armour were attached to the sides of both turret and hull, but never used and discontinued after July 1943. The M10 was powered by a pair of General Motors diesel engines so that mechanically it was, in effect, based upon the M4A2 tank. It was later joined by the Ford powered M10A1, based upon the running gear of the M4A3 tank. All told 4,993 M10 and 1,413 M10A1 were produced between September 1942 and December 1943. They served with Tank Destroyer battalions of the Unied States Army
The British received some1,600 vehicles and they were issued to self-propelled anti - tank batteries of the Royal Artillery. However the British had a better gun, a 76.2mm weapon known in British service as the seventeen pounder. This had already been adapted with difficulty to fit the Sherman tank which became known as the Sherman Firefly and it was decided to extend this practice to the M10. In the event this proved to be a lot less traumatic than the Sherman conversion. The M10 had been designed with ease of maintenance in mind so it was fairly easy to remove the 3 inch gun and replace it with the seventeen pounder. The work was first given to the Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers (REME) Workshops at the Fighting Vehicle Proving Establishment (FVPE) of the Ministry of Supply. They converted 160 units, mostly adding extra ballast to balance the longer gun and modifying the stowage to take the new ammunition. After that the work switched to the Royal Ordnance Factory in Leeds. It is known that over 1,000 M10s and M10A1s were converted and they served with the Polish and Candian Armies as well as the Royal Artillery with the classification M10C or M10 17 pdr Some remained in service until at least 1952 by which time they had come under Royal Armoured Corps control, having been operated by the Royal Artillery up to 1949.
Subsequently many were disposed of abroad, notably to Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium. Our exhibit came to us from the Belgian Army and is painted to represent a vehicle in British 11th Armoured Division in the winter of 1944. For some odd reason that we cannot explain the sight aperture has been plated over and the only visible sight is the so-called Alidale sight on the commander's side. This is fine for acquiring the target but useless for hitting it.
The M10 never carried a co-axial machine-gun, a .50 calibre Browning was fitted at the rear of the turret and a .30 calibre gun, with tripod, was stowed on the vehicle for dismounted use.”