M74 Armored Recovery Vehicle

The M74 tank recovery vehicle (M74)^[1] was an engineer vehicle used by the U.S. Army in the 1950s. It was designed to cope with the heavier weights of the M26 Pershing and M47 Patton. It could also be suitable for light dozing, since it had a hydraulic, front-mounted spade.^[2] It was produced in the thousands by Bowen-McLaughlin-York and were also converted from M4A3 Shermans by Bowen starting in 1954. Later, some were converted from M32B1s by Rock Island Arsenal until 1958.^[3]

Development

After the Korean War the M74 was designed to cope with the heavier weights of the new vehicles that were being introduced.^[4][5]

Designed in 1953,^[6] it based on the M4A3 HVSS medium tank, it was developed to cope with the heavier M26 Pershing and M47 Patton which were entering service, which the M32 Armored Recovery Vehicle (ARV) was unable to retrieve. Using the standard Ford GAA and wide tracks, the chassis would be rebuilt. It was replaced in service with the U.S. Army by the M88 Hercules.^[3][5]

Design

The M74 was fitted with a 60,000 lb (27,000 kg)^[3][5] hydraulic winch as well as a lighter-duty general purpose one, a hydraulic A-frame, and hydraulic front-mounted spade, which was suitable for light dozing, as well as serving as an anchor for heavy winching operations.^[2][7] It had a .50-caliber M2 machine gun atop the hull and a .30-cal M1919A4 machine gun in the right bow.

Production

A M74 near Ulm, Germany, in 1954

The M74 was produced from 1953 to 1955 by Bowen-McLaughlin-York in the thousands. The mass conversion of M4A3 Shermans into M74 recovery vehicles was started by Bowen in 1954.^[8] Some were also converted from old M32B1 ARVs by Rock Island Arsenal until 1958.^[3]

Operators

•  United States – Used in post-World War II Germany. It was the standard recovery vehicle of the U.S. Army in the 1950s.^[5]
•  Israel – Used in the Yom-Kippur War^[9]
•  Spain – Lent by the United States from 1953 to 1968.^[10]

See also

• List of U.S. military vehicles by model number
• List of U.S. military vehicles by supply catalog designation (SNL G281)
• M4 Sherman variants

References

• Berndt, Thomas. Standard Catalog of U.S. Military Vehicles. Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 1993.
• Brown, Jerold E. Historical Dictionary of the U.S. Army. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001.
• TM 9-7402 M74 Recovery Vehicle (1956)
• TM 9-7403-2 M74 Recovery Vehicle Misc. Components (1956)

Notes

Sources

• Berndt, Thomas (1993). Standard Catalog of U.S. Military Vehicles. Iola, WI: Krause Publications. ISBN 0-87341-223-0. 
• Brown, Jerold E. (2001). Historical Dictionary of the U.S. Army. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0-313-29322-8. 
• Chant, Christopher (2014). A Compendium of Armaments and Military Hardware (Routledge Revivals). London, UK: Routledge. p. 21. ISBN 1-134-64668-2. 
• Dunstan, Simon (2007). The Yom Kippur War: The Arab-Israeli War of 1973. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1-84603-288-1. 
• Manrique, José María; Lucas Molina. La Brunete: 1ª Parte (in Spanish). Valladolid, Spain: Quirón Ediciones. p. 80. ISBN 84-96016-27-7. 
• Skaarup, Harold (2011). Ironsides: Canadian Fighting Vehicles and monuments. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse. ISBN 1-4620-3465-9. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to M74 Tank Recovery Vehicle.

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