- For the Steel Division: Normandy 44 unit see SD:Honey Stuart
Honey Stuart is a British Tank unit in Steel Division II.
Background[ | ]
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 and 6th Guards Tank Brigade tank battalions. 7 RTR which supported C.I.A.B.G. had a recon troop equipped with Stuarts.