The Development of American Anti-Tank Gun Motor Carriages

By: Nicholas Moran

Discover the Fascinating Details Behind the Weapons that Killed Tanks

In the autumn of 1939, German chancellor Adolph Hitler ordered his armies to cross into sovereign Polish territory from the east and north. In lightning speed his armored divisions, spearheaded by seemingly unstoppable panzer tanks, rolled across the Polish countryside and any opposition. It was a full 26 months later that the American military began to develop an answer to slow the tanks—what became euphemistically known as “can openers.” When American troops began their first offensive operations in the European theater in November of 1942 they were accompanied by the first of these fast, maneuverable, lightly armored vehicles. Though development of these tank destroyers was ended after the war, due to the development of more effective tanks, their use during the war proved powerfully effective.
In Can Openers Nicholas Moran focuses on the technical development, rather than the deployment, of these often quirky war machines. Their purpose, much like the colonials first fighting the British armies in the nascent United States, was to ambush the enemy’s armored divisions. From virtually unprotected four-wheeled vehicles sporting 37-millimeter guns to self-propelled full-track vehicles using 105-millimeter canons, the U.S. Army developed and tested dozens of prototypes, deploying some with success while others proved deficient. In fascinating detail, Moran fully explores the design decisions that were made and why, including hundreds of detailed photographs from U.S. Army archives. Read Can Openers for an incomparable look into one microcosm of how the U.S. fighting force became the powerhouse it is today.

238 pages

ISBN: 9781635618594