Jump to content

M7 105mm Howitzer Motor Carriage


MT247
 Share

Recommended Posts

Hey thought I would show a couple pictures. This tank has been at our local fairground for a long time and I never really looked closely at it until now. Pictures aren't great but thought it was pretty interesting.

 

post-157549-14372834211997.jpgpost-157549-14372834298839.jpgpost-157549-14372834562988.jpg

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Meatcan

Is that Kalispell? I remember a Priest sitting outside on display there in the late 1980s. Very cool and quite accessible.

Terry

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cool pictures. Restored a 76mm anti tank gun years ago. The barrel had 60 years of garbage stuffed into it. Rocks, soda cans, bottles, you name it. I can see the Transmission area on this one is used the same way. :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is the M2A1 just the gun, sorry don't know a lot about them. It's in Helena and yes people don't respect stuff like they should. I think it's missing a lot of stuff but still cool. Thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

phantomfixer

I think it is great it is not locked up in a cage...nice for the locals to climb aboard...and learn and have fun!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's pretty neat to climb in but it does draw the vandals scratching names and throwing trash. Now just need to fire her up and take a spin.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Indeed, the M2A1 refers to its gun.

You can see the "105 MM" before it.

 

The vehicle itself is called M7 "Priest".

Among others, (armored) field artillery battalions used it.

 

Erwin

 

PS: Could someone correct the title of the topic, please? Thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The vehicle itself is called M7 "Priest".

 

That's actually a conflation of two different designations for it. The US designation is M7 105mm Howitzer Motor Carriage, and the British/Commonwealth designation is 105mm Self-Propelled Gun "Priest". The US never called them Priests and the Brits never used the term M7, at least during WWII.

 

This particular one is actually an M7B1, built on the chassis of the M4A3 Medium Tank with it's Ford GAA V-8 engine. The M7 was built on the M3/M4 Medium Tank chassis with the Continental R-975 radial engine. This is actually a rather rare vehicle since most of these were rebuilt as M7B2's in the 1950's with a raised gun mount and MG pulpit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow a lot great info. Thanks B229 for looking into this. I will have to look at this a little different when I go there again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I had it called "Priest" by American Veterans as well, one being the CO of the 3rd Armored Field Artillery Battalion.

This was in yearlong correspondence with them.

Maybe they took this designation over from the British.

 

I think they had some canvas cover for that pulpit.

Or at least some ingenious GI made one for it in the field.

 

Erwin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...