The latest title by David Doyle in the AFVisual series covers the M3 Lee medium tank, the first American tank designed based on combat experience from the Second World War.  Although the Lee saw limited combat service with US forces, it was an essential step in the evolution of American armour and a fascinating vehicle in its own right.

Printed in landscape format, this book is almost twice the size of the first book in this series I saw, that on the M36 tank destroyer.  Aside from the beautiful colour photos on the front and rear covers showing Lees on manoeuvres at Fort Knox in 1944, the rest of the book is in black and white.  Two pages of text give a brief background of the development of the Lee and a good explanation of the differences between each member of the M3 Lee family.  It is worth noting here what the book does not cover.  The book does not discuss the M3 Grant at all, nor does it cover the M3 Lee’s service in Commonwealth or Soviet armies.  Nor does it cover the M7 Priest, CDL or most special purpose variants built on the M3 Lee chassis.  However, there are five pages on the T2/M31 recovery vehicle.

The book covers both the general characteristics of each of the gun tank variants and their service, either in combat or training.  There are some excellent assembly line photographs and beautifully clear period pictures of the interior of the vehicle.  Some of the photos of tanks on manoeuvres in particular provide great inspiration for diorama builders.  The shots of Lees in action in Tunisia, while nicely reproduced and quite clear, will not be new to anybody with a copy of Allied-Axis #14 or Concord’s US Tank Battles in North Africa and Italy.

Both the photos and the text do a great job of explaining the differences between the different types of Lee tanks, including the remarkably ugly cast-hulled M3A1, the welded-hulled M3A2, the diesel-powered M3A3 and M3A5, and the M3A4 with the gigantic Chrysler mutlibank engine.  The only photos of a museum vehicle in this book are of an M3A3 on display in the Patton Museum.

The section on the M31, while fairly brief, gives a good overview of the vehicle, with a general arrangement drawing, some tech manual images and some in action shots.  I am intrigued by one photo on p. 74, however, which shows a man wearing what appears to be a 1960s era CVC helmet emerging out of a rather bare M31 that has the auxiliary machine gun turret fitted to the turret roof!

A nice bonus is the inclusion of the original Ordnance Department drawings of each member of the M3 family, as well as front, side, and rear views of an M3 with a one-foot grid superimposed.  Combined, these resources should allow modelers to test the accuracy of any model kits of the Lee quite rigorously.  Finally, there are two pages of tech manual images showing various aspects of the interior of the Lee.

I highly recommend this book for anybody interested in the M3 Lee; it greatly increased my understanding of the tank.  It is an excellent reference for anybody tackling the Tamiya M3 series or awaiting the Academy kits.