This film is about American tank production and shows work at the Detroit Tank Arsenal in the 1941-1942 era. A shorter version of this film was released narrated by Orsen Welles.The film details the manufacture and use of M-3 medium tanks. Tanks are assembled and treads, motors, guns, and turrets are put in place at a factory. Shows stock of many parts required. At the end of the film, tanks stage an attack at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
Detroit Arsenal (DTA), formerly Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant (DATP) was the first manufacturing plant ever built for the mass production of tanks in the United States. Established in 1940 under Chrysler, this plant was owned and managed by the U.S. government until 1952 when management of the facility was turned over to the Chrysler Corporation. This plant was owned by the U.S. government until 1996 . It was designed by architect Albert Kahn. The building was designed originally as a “dual production facility, so that it could make armaments and be turned into peaceful production at war’s end. Notwithstanding its name, the 113-acre (0.46 km2) site was located in Warren, Michigan, Detroit’s largest suburb.
Chrysler’s construction effort at the plant in 1941 was one of the fastest on record. The first tanks rumbled out of the plant before its complete construction.During World War II, the Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant built a quarter of the 89,568 tanks produced in the U.S. overall. The Korean War boosted production for the first time since World War II had ended; the government would suspend tank production after each war. In May 1952, Chrysler resumed control from the army, which had been unable to ramp up production.
The M3 Lee, officially Medium Tank, M3, was an American medium tank used during World War II. In Britain, the tank was called by two names based on the turret configuration and crew size. Tanks employing US pattern turrets were called the “Lee”, named after Confederate general Robert E. Lee. Variants using British pattern turrets were known as “Grant”, named after Union general Ulysses S. Grant.
Design commenced in July 1940, and the first M3s were operational in late 1941.[2] The U.S. Army needed a medium tank armed with a 75mm gun and, coupled with the United Kingdom’s immediate demand for 3,650 medium tanks,[3] the Lee began production by late 1940. The design was a compromise meant to produce a tank as soon as possible. The M3 had considerable firepower and good armor, but had serious drawbacks in its general design and shape, including a high silhouette, an archaic sponson mounting of the main gun preventing the tank from taking a hull-down position, riveted construction, and poor off-road performance.
Its overall performance was not satisfactory and the tank was withdrawn from combat in most theaters as soon as the M4 Sherman tank became available in larger numbers. In spite of this, it was considered by Hans von Luck (an Oberst (Colonel) in the Wehrmacht Heer and the author of Panzer Commander) to be superior to the best German tank at the time of its introduction, the Panzer IV (at least until the F1 variant).
Despite being replaced elsewhere, the British continued to use M3s in combat against the Japanese in southeast Asia until 1945. Nearly a thousand M3s were supplied to the Soviet military under Lend-Lease between 1941–1943.
The M3 Lee was also the medium tank counterpart of the light tank M3 Stuart.
The M3 Stuart, officially Light Tank, M3, was an American light tank of World War II. It was supplied to British and other Commonwealth forces under lend-lease prior to the entry of the U.S. into the war. Thereafter, it was used by U.S. and Allied forces until the end of the war.
The British service name “Stuart” came from the American Civil War Confederate general J. E. B. Stuart and was used for both the M3 and the derivative M5 Light Tank. In U.S. use, the tanks were officially known as “Light Tank M3” and “Light Tank M5”.
Stuarts were the first American-crewed tanks in World War II to engage the enemy in tank versus tank combat.
The Stuart was also the light tank counterpart of the M3 Lee, which was a medium tank.
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