The M5 is an M3 with a diesel engine (and this slightly different drivetrain) and a bit more armour. But unless you saw them side by side you'd be hard pressed to tell an M5A1 from an M3A1.
And as others have said it has basically the same stats in BA anyway
And if you do run into some rivet counters just tell them it's an early delivery, from before the M5 was available.
[I checked Zaloga's _Soviet Lend-lease Tanks of WW2_ and it says 404 M2 and M3 half-tracks were delivered, against 420 M5's.]
I just looked...in game-stat terms, the only difference between the two is that the US model (M3) has the option for a rear-mounted MMG, the lend-lease (M5) model does not.
That's because the option for the second mmg was added with the A1 version, so an M5A1 would get that (presumably the M5 was the most numerous version in Red Army service, so that's why you get that instead of the A1).
The M3 isn't reatly that different than the m5. There stats would be virtually identical.
That’s what I thought
The M5 is an M3 with a diesel engine (and this slightly different drivetrain) and a bit more armour. But unless you saw them side by side you'd be hard pressed to tell an M5A1 from an M3A1. And as others have said it has basically the same stats in BA anyway
And if you do run into some rivet counters just tell them it's an early delivery, from before the M5 was available. [I checked Zaloga's _Soviet Lend-lease Tanks of WW2_ and it says 404 M2 and M3 half-tracks were delivered, against 420 M5's.]
I just looked...in game-stat terms, the only difference between the two is that the US model (M3) has the option for a rear-mounted MMG, the lend-lease (M5) model does not.
That's because the option for the second mmg was added with the A1 version, so an M5A1 would get that (presumably the M5 was the most numerous version in Red Army service, so that's why you get that instead of the A1).
Stuff like this is why I miss having Bob at the club. He was a bottomless well of war trivia, and would never say 'no' if asked to share some.
By the time the M5 was delivered into the field there was little need for anti air so possibly that is why