American tanks user by Romanian forces???

[Dr_V]

Found on the net (http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/):

"Four M3A3 Lend/Lease units were captured following an abortive amphibious attack by Soviet forces in the Crimea in December 1943. Combat usage by the Romanians is unknown."

"Twenty one M3A1 Lend/Lease light tanks were captured following the collapse of Soviet forces in the Crimea in February 1943. More were obtained during an abortive amphibious landing by the Soviets in December 1943. The first batch captured was employed by Romanian forces until they were withdrawn from service due to a lack of spare parts. Of the second group and what became of the first batch is unknown"


Does anyone know how were these tanks used and what happened to them?

[Victor]

They were not used in combat, but mainly for training of AT and pioneer crews.

[SethG]

Strange that pretty decent tanks in running condition would be thrown away like that. They could have replaced the R-2's. I know the spares might have been a problem, but you could always try to throw a new engine in. After all, the Brazilians are still using them in a modified form, and not so many years ago, I saw a comical Paraguayan 'parade' with an original looking M3.
Seth

[Victor]

The working state of the captured tanks is questionable. I doubt they were in perfect working condition.

[SethG]

I just said running order. If you've ever bought a used car, you know what that can include. Besides, most of their other armor was very tired anyway.
Seth

[dragos]

The Soviets used to destroy or dismantle the engines of the vehicles they were abandoning.

[SethG]

The special circumstances under which these tanks were captured led me to doubt the had the time to do all they were supposed to, which I recall also included removing gunsights and burying the MG's. But if they were only used as training props... I was just hoping otherwise.
Seth

[luer]

you have to take into account that Romania lacked the capacities and the skilled technicians to maintain most foreign tanks for any prolonged duration in service (motorisation level in Romania before the war was much lower than in the Western European countries).
Exception seems to have been the T-60 whose Ford engine could be maintained locally. Even "just throwing in a new engine" must have been a problem for the Romanian Army. Additionally, US equipment must have been even harder to maintain than the more rugged Soviet designs. (?)

luer

[DevanG]

besides that the m3a1 was pretty high due to the bow mounted 76 mm cannon ...
and most likely the soviets would have not abandoned them without destroying the engine and somewhat disaybling the armament ...