SD:Honey Stuart

Honey Stuart is a British Tank unit. The American Stuart, nicknamed Honey by the British, is a light tank that saw use until the end of the war, fulfilling reconnaissance and other subsidiary duties. Relatively weakly armoured and using the 37mm gun, the Honey nevertheless provides flexible & useful fire support during phase A before more heavy-duty armour can be brought in.

Overview
Note: the M3 and M5 Stuart's main difference is their different engine.

The Stuart was a 1930s design and the first vehicles rolled off the production line in March 1941. Large numbers of Stuarts were exported to the Soviet Union, the British and its Commonwealth armies. It saw its first combat debut by the British in the desert, where it fared relatively poorly. The Afrikakorps, while not possessing better tanks than the British, employed good tactics and training and inflicted heavy losses on Stuarts amongst other tanks. The main disadvantages of the Stuart were its limited range, the two-man turret and the 37mm gun. On the other hand, the British troops praised it for its reliability and its high speed. The British stopped committing the Stuart to tank-to-tank combat and relegated it to other purposes, such as reconnaissance and APCs (the Stuart recce is a Stuart with the turret removed). The US also followed suit in relegating the Stuart to subsidiary duties after the Stuart's poor performance in the Tunisian campaign. The Stuart, however, fared better in the Pacific theatre, where heavier tanks were not used in the jungle terrain.

Production ceased in 1944, but the light tank saw continued use until the end of the war. Its intended replacement, the M24 Chaffee, never replaced all battalions equipped with the Stuart. Production figures for the M3 Stuart amounted to almost 14 000 tanks, wereas close to 9000 M5 Stuarts were manufactured. Several variants of the tank also saw service, the most famous of which is the M8 Scott, an M5 chassis mounting a 75mm M2 howitzer.

Honey Stuarts represent the Reconnaissance troops of 11 Stuarts of the 31st Armored Brigade's tank battalions.

Strategy
Phase A is where the Honey should be used, and it remains largely confined to this phase. Its armour is reasonable for a light tank, and its gun can take on most German vehicles and light tanks - its main phase A opponents. As it has no veterancy, the Honey will usually miss its first consecutive shots, hampered by a 4 accuracy gun. The Honey is also quite useful when acting as fire support against enemy infantry.

Anti-tank guns are its main weakness, as well as German medium tanks (such as the Panzer III and the Beute Firefly).