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Yes
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No
History
After the fall of Paris in 1940 and the loss of most of the equipment of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) the British Army needed to replace their equipment if they wanted to successfully hold off the German invasion that seemed imminent. And so, they turned to America and Canada to produce vehicles, tanks, and weapons for them.
America had already considered the M3 Medium tank and decided that “The ability of Great Britain to repel a German invasion was not assured” and therefore would produce only American designs. Britian then was forced to place orders for the new M3 Medium but were thankfully able to have their own modified version. This would become the Grant I.
When Britain first obtained their Grant tanks from the States, they used them to great success in North Africa against relatively light German and Italian emplacements. By 1942 Sherman production had reached enough steam to start the replacement of the Grant in frontline service and by early 1943 the Sherman had completely superseded its predecessors. This gave Britain a significant stock of Grants left over, and many were sent to India and Burma where the Japanese armour was even less than the German or Italian analogues. One of them (WD No T-23673) was converted into a prototype Armoured Recovery Vehicle to see if it was a feasible spend of time, effort, and most importantly money.
The biggest change to T-23673 was the removal of all offensive armament. The turret was taken off and the hull cannon was removed, and the hole was covered up by a 2" steel plate.
The actual Recovery equipment consisted of the addition of a “wrecker type A frame” and a “Hollybone draw bar” used to hook immobilised vehicles and tow them away.
The prototype was also armed with a “pugh” mount carrying a pair of .303 BREN LMG’s for defence against any aircraft or infantry. This mount could also handle a pair of .303 lewis guns.
The prototype never went anywhere as the Army decided to use the superior M31 based on the Lee tank.
Perofmenace
Weight: Approx 29 tons. (29.5 tonnes)
Length: 19’-6" (5.95m)
Width: 8’-7" (2.61m)
Height: 6’-10.6” (2.1m)
Armour: Same as Grant I (2" on UFP & trans housing. 1.5" on LFP, sides and back.
Engine: Wright 975 Radial developing 340 hp.
Armament: Pugh mount in place of the turret with 2 .303 BREN machine guns with a 100 round pan magazine each. (Possibly another 18 pans in the hull)
Sources
British M3, M3A2, M3A3 and M3A5 Grants
Medium Tank M3 Lee/Grant - Tank Encyclopedia
Panzerserra Bunker- Military Scale Models in 1/35 scale: Grant ARV II (Armoured Recovery Vehicle)
While this may not be a very capable vehicle in the game I firmly believe it would be a great start to add in ARV mechanics in the game while adding a good 1.0 SPAA to the British tree alongside the Light AA Mk I.
