The M47 Patton Tank

Development, Production, and Deployment of the M47

The M47 Patton tank was born from a pressing need to counter the Soviet Union’s heavy armor superiority in the immediate post WWII years. The U.S. Army’s best and latest tank of WWII, the Pershing, was well armed and armored, but it was underpowered and it’s mobility was poor. Enter the Patton series of tanks, the M46, M47, M48 and finally the M60 Pattons, where beginning in 1948 the U.S. began a decades long effort to counter the Soviet armored capability.

The M47 was an 1951 improvement on the slightly earlier M46 Patton, sporting an updated turret providing improved protection and firepower. The M47 had a short career as the mainstay of American tank power, with production beginning in 1951 and concluding in 1954, after roughly 8,500 were built. The M47 entered service in 1951 and was already being phased out by subsequent tank designs in the mid to late 1950’s. The M47 was widely used by various NATO nations, as well as others world-wide.

This book’s debut was timed by the author to coincide with the 2025 AMPS International Show held in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.

Vital Statistics

Format - hardcover, portrait format

Page Count -  94 glossy pages

Size - 8.25” x 12”

Photos - black and white and full color images

Tables / drawings / diagrams - drawings of the M47 from four aspects

All text and photograph captions are in English.

What’s between the Covers?

Above - the book’s table of contents, the book is laid out in a methodical, logical manner.

The book is arranged such that the author’s text work blends seamlessly with the large number of photographs that included, mostly period images. The author is a master of presenting a great deal of information in a manner that remains “readable” and without it becoming too “dry”.

Above - as is the norm for any of author David Doyle’s in-depth examinations of a vehicle, he lavishes much space and effort on complete descriptions of development and production of these vehicles, including many excellent looks at the production lines that built them. I find these factory floor images fascinating personally.

Despite the M47 Patton having a rather short service career with the U.S. Army and Marines, it had a much lengthier career with nations allied with the United States, and this is well reflected by the images provided by the author.

A Note on the Images - the many photos provided in this volume are well chosen for interest, generally bright and clear, with details quite visible. The very occasional image may be just a bit dark, but bear in mind that many of the images present were taken three quarters of a century ago.

Above - the sad end to some M47’s was being used as range targets, seen above left.

The author’s complete and methodical manner of presenting great amounts of information is on full display in the above image. He makes it rather easy to locate information relating to your area of interest. 

This volume also includes five pages of in-detail style photographs taken by the author, and “Toadman” Chris Hughes, well known for his excellent vehicle photography. These images are well lit and composed, showing most areas of interest on the M47 Patton.

The volume closes with a useful three page appendix which covers technical specifications and includes four very clean drawings of the M47 from four different aspects. No scale is stated for these drawings, but they appear to be reasonably close to 1/35 scale in size.

Conclusions

This book is very well presented examination of the M47, which despite a short service career with the U.S. in front line service, soldiered on for decades in other nations armies.

The author presents a great deal of textual information on all aspects the M47 in his usual complete, comprehensive and concise manner. The photographs are well chosen to accompany the text work, with the vast majority being clear and sharp. The addition of the in-detail style images and the drawings in the appendix strikes me as nice bonuses, and making this volume a very solid single volume reference on the M47 Patton.

IF I were to register a tiny, single complaint with this great look at the M47, it would be that the photo caption text size seems unnecessarily small. There seems to be room in places for larger font size for some captions..but perhaps that’s just my aging eyes.

This book is well worthy of a place in your bookcase of Cold War tanks or tanks in U.S. service!

Highly Recommended! 

Thanks to David Doyle Books for the review copy

Reviewed by Chuck Aleshire, AMPS Chicagoland

AMPS 2nd Vice President, Midwest Region

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