M47 Patton at Diekirch, Luxembourg. At the entrance of the National Military Museum there are two tanks. This is one of them.
The M47 Patton was an intermediate solution basically incorporating the M46 hull and a newly shaped turret originally designed for the T42 heavy tank that did not enter service at all. It was the last US tank with a five-man design. The tank was not fitted with any NBC, night fighting or computerized fire control systems. The M-47 was powered by a Continental AV-1790-5B, 12 cylinders, 820 HP, gasoline propelled engine. With a full tank of 882 liters, the M-47 could only run approximately 128km. The main gun was the M36 90mm gun with on M12 optical rangefinder fitted. Its secondary armament consisted of a .30cal Browning as bow machine gun and the .50cal Browning M2 on a pintle mount on the turret roof. The M47 has had only little improvements during its production run. A first batch shows the use of a “mushroom” muzzle brake, later versions a tubular version and the final versions a T-shape muzzle brake. The German and a few US M47 also show a different version of the turrets railings, too. 8676 M47 Pattons were produced, most of those where lent do NATO countries to arm against the Warschaupact.
