M10 "Wolverine" Tank Destroyer image

The M10 tank destroyer, formally 3-inch Gun Motor Carriage, M10 was a United States tank destroyer of World War II. US troops also called them TDs (a nickname for any tank destroyer). The M10 was christened the Wolverine by the British, although unlike other vehicle names such as the M4 Sherman, the name was not used by American soldiers.The M10 was numerically the most important U.S. tank destroyer of World War II. In its combat debut in Tunisia in 1943 during the North African campaign, the M10 was successful as its M7 3-inch gun could destroy most German tanks then in service. The M10's heavy chassis did not conform to the tank destroyer doctrine of employing very light high-speed vehicles, and starting in mid-1944 it began to be supplemented by the 76mm Gun Motor Carriage M18 "Hellcat". Later in the Battle of Normandy the M10's gun proved to be ineffective against the frontal armor of the newer German Tiger and Panther tanks, and although it remained in service until the end of the war, by the fall of 1944 it was beginning to be replaced in US service by the improved 90mm Gun Motor Carriage M36. In the Pacific war, US Army M10s were used for infantry support but were unpopular due to their open-topped turrets, which made them more vulnerable than a fully-enclosed tank to Japanese close-in infantry attacks.