M6 Heavy Tank

Sherman's big brother

The M6 heavy tank is a unit available in Flames of War and an attempt by the Americans to create their own version of the Churchill/Infantry tank concept. It never saw combat and was primarily used for homefront propaganda purposes, and had an incredibly screwed prototyping phase.

Flames of War

the stats

IRL

In the 1930s and early 1940s, the vogue in Europe was the Land Battleship/Infantry Support tank concept. Save for Germany and Italy, every nation began developing Heavy, multi-turreted/gunned tanks that traveled slow enough to keep pace with Infantry, while resisting enemy fire.

The Americans had not been in on this era of tank development, with the closest thing they had to it being the M3 Lee. By 1940, the war in Europe could not be ignored, and the US began to rearm itself. Part of this effort included creating their own version of the Churchill concept. This is where the M6 comes in.

The M6 was armed with a 76mm gun and a 37mm gun. The original design called for a multi-turret design, but the final design removed this and instead made the 37mm coaxial, along with the traditional pile of Browning Machine Guns that any tank in the US arsenal came equipped with. One experimental version of the M6 even had a 90mm gun strapped to it.

However, the M6 was plagued by issues: It was extremely heavy, and the Army was concerned about the logistics of getting these to a foreign battlefield over the M4 Sherman. Furthermore, the trials at Aberdeen proving grounds were not promising, calling the 37mm cannon superfluous. The internal layout was also awkward, and the thing was massive, making it an easy target for AT guns. In spite of these concerns, the M6 was approved for production, though this was limited as the Army decided to go with the M4 Sherman as their standard tank.

The Army overall decided to produce them in very limited numbers, but none ever left US soil. The design was several times looked into as a possible fortification assault vehicle around the time that Europe was being invaded, but General Eisenhower rejected these suggestions, leaving the M6 to be declared obsolete later in 1944.