I am finally taking a break from soviets and revisiting some of my other forces for a while. First up was the first of 2 M18 Tank Destroyer units that will enable me to run both Task Force A from Turning Tide and the new Tank Destroyer Company from Blood Guts & Glory.
Americans were my first Flames of War army and it's been a really long time since I've added anything new. I did finally forego my heavy highlighting for a more muted drybrushing, only to save me some time.
M18 Hellcat. (2012, March 28). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 15:06, April 1, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=M18_Hellcat&oldid=483956078
In contrast to the M10 tank destroyer, which used the chassis of the M4 Sherman, the M18 Hellcat was designed from the start to be a fast tank destroyer. As a result it was smaller, lighter, and significantly faster, but carried the same gun as the Sherman 76 mm models. The M18 carried a five-man crew as well as 45 rounds of main gun ammunition, and an M2 Browning machine gun on a flexible ring mount for use against aircraft and infantry.
The main disadvantages of the M18 were its very light armor, and the inconsistent performance of its 76 mm gun against the frontal armor of later German designs such as the Tiger and Panther. The open-topped turret (a characteristic which it shared with the M10) left the crew exposed to snipers, grenades, and shell fragments. The doctrinal priority of high speed at the cost of armor protection thus led to an unbalanced design. The problem of the main gun performance was remedied with High Velocity Armor Piercing (HVAP) ammunition late in the war, which allowed the 76 mm gun to achieve greater frontal armor penetration, but this was never available in quantity.
