I’ve been having a lot of fun with the M3 Lee, and I’ve been researching it, but I haven’t found anything on a typical ammo load for this vehicle (number of ap vs he vs smoke shells, that kind of thing). What’s a good historical number for these shell types, and where can I find a source on topics like this in general?
Historical loads are bit different than what you’re going to want to take into battle, since WT matches are quite short. I would first try with 25-30 shells, and lower or raise depending on if it runs out or proves to be excessive.
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That will be tough. It varied by location and time, even in the same theatre. It was often based on expected threat, supply availability, mission, etc. The documentation would be in orders and in published unit SOPs. Some unit histories will have those preserved, but a lot of those aren’t digitized so that means looking at microfiche or even paper. Exercise your google-fu.
Generally, tanks would carry as close to as much ammo as they could/had. Battles could last for days, not 15 minutes, and many tanks spent a lot of their time shooting in general support of infantry. Basically just lobbing rounds to keep the enemy’s heads down.
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I go by how Gaijin fills the ammo rack hit boxes, since most of them are “all or nothing”.