I have to bring up the interpretation of "Stabilized Gun". To me, a stabilized gun is one equipped with level sensors, dump valves, etc. to stabilize the barrel to keep it on target while the tank is still moving.
At least, that's what I was told by my instructors when I went to tank turret school at Fort Irwin in 1960 or 61 (some memory cells melted in the heat there).
The closest we had then was a dump valve to ELEVATE the 90mm gun on an M-48 while traversing across the rear "hump" of the engine compartment.
Full stabilizing systems were still being tested and redesigned and redesigned again to save space and improve accuracy. So, to my knowledge, no stabilizing system was installed as a standard piece of equipment to ANY tank until the 1960s.
It still ticks me off when some "bookworm" asks me how the stabilizing system and range finder worked in MY tank. Sorry, the M-41 Walker Bulldog (the general issued models) never, ever had any of these. Some modified Walkers in some foreign countries now have those welcome gizmos (including changing over from the 6-cylinder Cadillac Continental engine to a Cummings Diesel, changing the 76mm to a 90mm low pressure gun, etc).
But otherwise she was just 25 tons of high speed tank with a very high velocity 76mm gun where often the most sophisticated sighting system was the Mk-1 eyeball.
At least, that's what I was told by my instructors when I went to tank turret school at Fort Irwin in 1960 or 61 (some memory cells melted in the heat there).
The closest we had then was a dump valve to ELEVATE the 90mm gun on an M-48 while traversing across the rear "hump" of the engine compartment.
Full stabilizing systems were still being tested and redesigned and redesigned again to save space and improve accuracy. So, to my knowledge, no stabilizing system was installed as a standard piece of equipment to ANY tank until the 1960s.
It still ticks me off when some "bookworm" asks me how the stabilizing system and range finder worked in MY tank. Sorry, the M-41 Walker Bulldog (the general issued models) never, ever had any of these. Some modified Walkers in some foreign countries now have those welcome gizmos (including changing over from the 6-cylinder Cadillac Continental engine to a Cummings Diesel, changing the 76mm to a 90mm low pressure gun, etc).
But otherwise she was just 25 tons of high speed tank with a very high velocity 76mm gun where often the most sophisticated sighting system was the Mk-1 eyeball.
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