M7 Priest
With entry into World War II on the horizon, the US Army began the process of fully mechanizing their units. This included the artillery branch, which would partially equip with self-propelled artillery. At first, the US Army mounted its standard artillery piece, the 105mm howitzer, on a M3 halftrack, creating the T19. When used in combat for the first time in North Africa in 1942, the T19 was shown to be unstable when firing and vulnerable to small arms fire.
The T19 was always considered to be something of an interim design in any case, and after the United States entered the war in December 1941, the Army experimented with modifying the M3 Lee medium tank for the role. The turret was removed and replaced by an open-topped crew compartment on the hull, which mounted the 105mm. To give the crew some protection from infantry and aircraft, the former 75mm gun sponson was elevated and given a M2 .50 caliber machine gun in a pintle mount. The Army liked what it saw and ordered the experimental T32 into production as the M7.
Orders were placed by both the US Army and the British Army, which was in desperate need of self-propelled artillery vehicles. It would be the latter that took the M7 into combat for the first time at the Second Battle of El Alamein in October 1942. To the British, the machine gun mount looked like the pulpit in an Anglican church, so they nicknamed the M7 the "Priest." The name stuck, and even started a tradition in the British Army to name its self-propelled artillery pieces after clergy.
In the United States, production of the M7 switched to using the chassis of the M4 Sherman, as the M3 was obsolete and production was coming to an end. This gave the Priest commonality with the most common tank in the Western Allies' army. In British service, the 105mm howitzer did not use the same type of ammunition as the standard British artillery piece (the QF 25-pounder), so most of their Priests were "defrocked," with the 105mm removed; they were then turned into Kangaroo personnel carriers.
The M7 gave the US Army mobility and firepower where it was most needed: German veterans recalled just how devastating an American artillery strike could be. A battery of M7s could deliver punishing bombardments, and relocate quickly to where they were needed the most. Combined with American radiomen calling in "time on target" artillery strikes and proxmity-fused shells, and the Priest became one of the deadliest weapons in the US Army's arsenal. The M7 would see extensive service in Normandy, the Bulge, and in the Pacific, where it provided Army and Marine troops with the same firepower against the Japanese.
The M7 continued as the primary US Army self-propelled artillery piece through the Korean War; numbers of former US Army M7s were then provided to the Israeli Defense Force, which used them through the Yom Kippur War of 1973. The M109 series eventually replaced the M7 in both American and Israeli service.
This M7 is on display at the Rocky Mountain Museum of Military History at Fort Missoula, outside of Missoula, Montana. It used to be on display in front of the local National Guard armory, but was donated to the museum around 2010. It was also refurbished, as it looks a lot better than it did when I last saw it in 2005. M7s tend to be pretty plain; this one may have served in World War II, and its last duty assignment was probably with the 190th Field Artillery Regiment (Montana National Guard) at Billings.
M7 Priest
With entry into World War II on the horizon, the US Army began the process of fully mechanizing their units. This included the artillery branch, which would partially equip with self-propelled artillery. At first, the US Army mounted its standard artillery piece, the 105mm howitzer, on a M3 halftrack, creating the T19. When used in combat for the first time in North Africa in 1942, the T19 was shown to be unstable when firing and vulnerable to small arms fire.
The T19 was always considered to be something of an interim design in any case, and after the United States entered the war in December 1941, the Army experimented with modifying the M3 Lee medium tank for the role. The turret was removed and replaced by an open-topped crew compartment on the hull, which mounted the 105mm. To give the crew some protection from infantry and aircraft, the former 75mm gun sponson was elevated and given a M2 .50 caliber machine gun in a pintle mount. The Army liked what it saw and ordered the experimental T32 into production as the M7.
Orders were placed by both the US Army and the British Army, which was in desperate need of self-propelled artillery vehicles. It would be the latter that took the M7 into combat for the first time at the Second Battle of El Alamein in October 1942. To the British, the machine gun mount looked like the pulpit in an Anglican church, so they nicknamed the M7 the "Priest." The name stuck, and even started a tradition in the British Army to name its self-propelled artillery pieces after clergy.
In the United States, production of the M7 switched to using the chassis of the M4 Sherman, as the M3 was obsolete and production was coming to an end. This gave the Priest commonality with the most common tank in the Western Allies' army. In British service, the 105mm howitzer did not use the same type of ammunition as the standard British artillery piece (the QF 25-pounder), so most of their Priests were "defrocked," with the 105mm removed; they were then turned into Kangaroo personnel carriers.
The M7 gave the US Army mobility and firepower where it was most needed: German veterans recalled just how devastating an American artillery strike could be. A battery of M7s could deliver punishing bombardments, and relocate quickly to where they were needed the most. Combined with American radiomen calling in "time on target" artillery strikes and proxmity-fused shells, and the Priest became one of the deadliest weapons in the US Army's arsenal. The M7 would see extensive service in Normandy, the Bulge, and in the Pacific, where it provided Army and Marine troops with the same firepower against the Japanese.
The M7 continued as the primary US Army self-propelled artillery piece through the Korean War; numbers of former US Army M7s were then provided to the Israeli Defense Force, which used them through the Yom Kippur War of 1973. The M109 series eventually replaced the M7 in both American and Israeli service.
This M7 is on display at the Rocky Mountain Museum of Military History at Fort Missoula, outside of Missoula, Montana. It used to be on display in front of the local National Guard armory, but was donated to the museum around 2010. It was also refurbished, as it looks a lot better than it did when I last saw it in 2005. M7s tend to be pretty plain; this one may have served in World War II, and its last duty assignment was probably with the 190th Field Artillery Regiment (Montana National Guard) at Billings.