M41A3 (China)
| This page is about the light tank M41A3 (China). For other versions, see M41 Walker Bulldog (Family). |
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Contents
Description
The ␗M41A3, officially designated as M41A3戰車 or by its translated nickname 華克猛犬 (Walker Bulldog), was a light tank used by the ROCA and ROCMC from 1958 to 2022. The design concept of the M41 series was for improvements on close-quarter self-defense firepower while retaining mobility on the battlefield under the T41 program. While the tanks were produced during the Korean War, it was only until the Vietnam War when they were put in service. M41A3 was a modification of the older M41A1, equipped with a fuel-injected AOS 895-5 diesel engine which was received by the ROCA in 1958 as military aid to the heated Taiwan Strait frontline. They mostly served as the fire support vehicles for the outer islands and training vehicles for ROCA armored corps. Due to the aging and obsolete performance of Walker Bulldogs, ROCA upgraded 50 of these tanks with better hull condition to the M41D standard, while the remaining ones would serve until the 2020s when a fatal vehicle rollover accident accelerated the decommissioning of unconverted M41s, as well as replacing them with the CM32 series. The final vehicle was decommissioned at Armor Training Command, ROCA in Hsinchu on 25th February 2022.
Introduced in Update "Sons of Attila" as a GE premium light tank, the overall performance of the M41A3 is totally identical to its counterparts in different nations with pleasing mobility and sufficient firepower to take out most WWII tanks from the side. However, in the M41A3's case, it trades its advanced ammunitions (APDS and HEATFS) for a lower battle rating. Players can enjoy the Walker Bulldog now at lower tier, flanking enemies will be a piece of cake with caution.
General info
Survivability and armour
As a light tank, expecting the overall protection to be sufficient against enemies is rather unrealistic - the armour itself can stop .50 cal ammunition up front without issue; but once enemy vehicles with autocannons see M41A3, they can tear down the vehicle rather quickly, let alone full-calibre shells which have more than enough, sometimes overkill penetration to go through the armour. For maximum survivability, finding terrain and hiding the hull is a good option as the mantlet can sometimes bounce oncoming shots if they landed on extreme angles, it also make sure only the largest autocannons will have the chance to penetrate you in this case.
Armour type:
| Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 28.5 mm (49°) Front glacis 63.5 mm (33-37°) Lower glacis |
28.5 mm | 28.5 mm (46°) Top 25.4 mm (1°) Middle 25.4 mm (20°) Bottom |
12.7 mm |
| Turret | 44.4 mm (11-13°) Turret front 50.8 mm (2-43°) Gun mantlet |
31.75 mm (1°) | 31.75 mm (1°) | 12.7 mm |
Notes:
Mobility
Although M41A3 was stated to be upgraded by a new engine, the only change on the AOS 895-5 engine is fuel injection instead of carburettor on the previous 895-3 engines; thus the overall mobility is totally identical to other M41A series in game and enables the M41A3 to perform flanking operations while still being able to retreat quickly to safety.
| Game Mode | Max Speed (km/h) | Weight (tons) | Engine power (horsepower) | Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forward | Reverse | Stock | Upgraded | Stock | Upgraded | ||
| Arcade | 81 | 21 | 23.1 | 775 | 954 | 33.55 | 41.3 |
| Realistic | 73 | 19 | 442 | 500 | 19.13 | 21.65 | |
Modifications and economy
2 × 90 / 130 / 180 % 2 × 160 / 160 / 160 % | Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armaments
Main armament
All production M41As share the same 76 mm M32 cannon onboard. The ballistics of the gun is quite user-friendly and easy to get used to, the internal space and the calibre also make sure the gun can reload faster as enemies with larger guns need more time to reload - by the time they finished the reload (given an injured/knocked-out loader), an aced M41A3 could deliver up to 2 shots.
| 76 mm M32 | Turret rotation speed (°/s) | Reloading rate (seconds) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | Capacity | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Upgraded | Full | Expert | Aced | Stock | Full | Expert | Aced |
| Arcade | 65 | -10°/+20° | ±180° | - | 22.8 | 31.6 | 38.4 | 42.5 | 45.2 | 7.67 | 6.78 | 6.25 | 5.90 |
| Realistic | 14.3 | 16.8 | 20.4 | 22.6 | 24.0 | ||||||||
Ammunition
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | |||||
| 10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
| M339 shot | APBC | 177 | 173 | 159 | 143 | 129 | 116 |
| M352 shell | HE | 15 | 15 | 14 | 12 | 12 | 12 |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | |||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| M339 shot | APBC | 975 | 6.6 | - | - | - | 47° | 60° | 65° | |||
| M352 shell | HE | 732 | 6.8 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 867.22 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
| Smoke shell characteristics | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Screen radius (m) |
Screen deploy time (s) |
Screen hold time (s) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
| M361 | 713 | 7.1 | 13 | 5 | 20 | 50 |
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
3rd rack empty |
4th rack empty |
5th rack empty |
6th rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 65 | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ |
Machine guns
| 12.7 mm M2HB | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Pintle | 2,200 (200) | 575 | -10°/+70° | ±60° |
| 7.62 mm M1919A4 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Coaxial | 5,000 (250) | 500 | - | - |
Usage in battles
The M41 series are well known for their great mobility and great variety of shells at their tiers; in the case of the ROCA's M41A3, its battle rating is significantly lower than its US-allied counterparts. This might sound good to players as the gun can finally handle most targets even up front. All things come at a cost though - in this case, APDS and HEATFS are not available, so remembering where armour weakspots of enemy vehicles are is very essential for quick and clean victories, more shots fired means higher risk of being hunted down.
A rule of thumb for any light tank: never, ever be the first tank to appear on the horizon of the enemy. Although the M41A3 is designed to be a scout vehicle for armour divisions, the vehicle is not rated for heated battlefield with different calibres of shells flying everywhere; it does have the protection against .50 calibre HMGs though, which will be welcome news for players of the Object 211 or M18 GMC as these duo are not well-protected all-around. This also brings to an odd phenomena - for most light tanks, due to their rather unprotected hull, there are occasions that penetrated shots with explosive filler do little harm to the vehicle; the more-protected M41A3 is prone to trigger the delayed fuse of these shells and thus very likely lead to complete destruction of vehicle with a single shot. Having 65 shells on tank is a welcomed addition in case players need spare ammo for taking out multiple targets with multiple shots, which also means a nightmare for the 4 crews on M41A3 as they are literally sitting around ammunition (next to driver and below the turret); so taking less than half ammunition (at around 25 shells) should be more than enough to do extensive damage to enemy flanks.
Once players know the limits of M41A3, players will have to plan for a safe approach or a more efficient route to harass enemies; in urban maps that has many street corners, players can utilize them to perform sudden strikes on enemy tanks, better yet, shut down the engine once you are in position. It will usually take within 3 shots to finish off an enemy tank (given all hits do damage to internal compartments or crew) with the APBC shell; in case of having an armour column going to the frontline, it is not a good idea to hit the leading tanks, taking out those who are lagging behind is a better option as the column might not have the reaction time to send vehicles to hunt down M41A3. On an open-field map such as Kursk with very little building as cover, the terrain can be utilised for cover thanks to the sufficient gun depression; this also shrinks the overall profile of M41A3 from afar and could be further hidden with camouflage bushes installed (the barrel itself has camouflage net by default). This will be a good time to seek enemies who have exposed their sides or scouting for fellow enemy light tanks if they also attempt to flank the team, disable or destroy them according to their level of threat. But most of all, being a light tank and a scout, move from time to time after shots fired to minimize the risk of being found right away; if the battlefield allows for a more aggressive approach to enemy flanks, neutralizing any backup units going to the front is the key to secure victory for the team. The M41A3 still has a .50 cal HMG by the commander side hatch with abundance of ammo, use them for armoured cars or last ditch option to gun down strafing aircraft.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- High mobility to navigate around the battlefield
- Neutral steering transmission for tighter turns
- Up to 72 km/h forward (at certain terrain) and 19 km/h reverse speed
- Fast reload and gun traverse speed
- .50 cal for gunning down light vehicles or oncoming aircraft
- Commander override for last-ditch retaliation
- Sufficient penetration to take down Panther or IS-1 up-front
Cons:
- Large profile for a light tank
- While the armour is thin, it's more than enough to trigger the fuse of most shells
- Lacks HEATFS and APDS compared to other M41s; however, much lower battle rating negates this
- Very cramped combat compartment, all crews are sitting on/next to ammunition
History
The ROCA received the first batches of the M41 series (A1 to A3) as replacements for the obsolete M24 Chaffee and M18 GMC in service. Due to the need to replace the older light tank fleet, the ROCA and ROCMC received 792 M41 series in 1981 as the main combat vehicle for the armed forces alongside the M48A1 series in their service. The M41 series would become key equipment during island defense exercises and training of the armored corps, as well as the only viable option to defend the outer islands (Matsu and Kinmen) thanks to their mobility and light weight. The M41A3 with fuel-injected diesel engine also became the target of reverse-engineering efforts to manufacture a domestic light tank for ROCA (as the Type 65) in 1976, but this never went into production.
By the last decade of the 20th century, after the failure to acquire the M8 AGS due to the halt of development and the intensification of the risk to a full-on armed conflict with the PLAGF/PLANMC, the ROCA sought for solutions to upgrade the M41 fleet with upgraded FCS, domestic cannon with the ability to fire APFSDS, and a more economic engine as supplements to the M60A3 TTS and CM11 fleet, thus producing the M41D program. Only 50 of the existing M41 series were upgraded to this standard. Although the tank didn't take part in any combat actions, these tanks have been the icon of ROCA armored corps all the way until late 2010s when the MND announced the "Project Leopard" MGS as the replacement by the 2020s. After a fatal accident involving an M41A3 on Kinmen, the ROCA accelerated the decommissioning of the M41A series, and 22nd February 2022 became the very last day of the M41A3 in service, leaving the M41D as the only light tank/fire support platform for the outer islands until the "Project Leopard" MGS replaces them.
Media
- Skins
See also
- Related development
External links
Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:
- topic on the official game forum;
- other literature.
| China light tanks | |
|---|---|
| Type 63 | Object 211 · Type 63 · ZTS63 |
| Type 62 | Type 62 |
| WZ551 | ZSL92 · PTL02 · WMA301 |
| ZBL08 | ZLT11 |
| Type 86 | ZBD86 |
| WZ502 | ZBD04A |
| ROC | M41D · M64 |
| Type 59 | QN506 |
| USA | ␗M8 LAC · ␗M3A3 Stuart · ␗M3A3 (1st PTG) · ␗M5A1 · ␗M24 · ␗M18 GMC · ␗M41A3 |
| USSR | ␗T-26 · T-26 No.531 · ␗PT-76 |
| China premium ground vehicles | |
|---|---|
| Light tanks | T-26 No.531 · ␗M3A3 (1st PTG) · ␗M41A3 · M64 · WMA301 |
| Medium tanks | ␗M4A4 (1st PTG) · T-34-85 No.215 · Т-62 №545 · ZTZ59A · Type 69-IIa · T-69 II G · ZTZ96A (P) · Al-Khalid-I |
| Heavy tanks | IS-2 No.402 |
