Inside the Chieftain's Hatch: M41 Walker Bulldog, Pt 2 

While serving on the M48s and 60s we were a little envious of the next door battalion who had a company of M41s. Lighter and we thought easier to take care of than our tanks, plus they got do do a lot of fun things to do like playing aggressor for war games, etc. We also thought it just looked cooler than our tanks.

"Don't tell Mere, but i just bought a tank...." 😂

This tank deserves some restoration work.

Tamiya makes a really nice 1/35 scale model which you can paint, weather and display.

Always thought M41 was one of the best looking and practical light vehicles ever made.

AN/GRC-106, I worked on those in the past as a radio mechanic. We called it the Angry 106 because they could be finicky to tune, and right inside the case when you had it open on the test bench, there is a large, unshielded power transistor that could give you a serious jolt...hence the name Angry 106.

Worked on the M41 supplied to New Zealand in the '70's Did the last rebuild of them before they were rep[laced by British Scorpions. Drove the tanks all over the Waiouru training area after rebuilds and before returning them to the tankers. If you ever make it to NZ, visit the Army Museum at Waiouru. They have a running M41 that they may let you play with!

As far as I know and recall: The Danish use of the Walker Bulldog was due to the cold war scenario of an invasion of the Island of Sjælland, where the capital is situated. The defence of the Island had a two brigade structure as they were supposed to cater for a WAPA (remember that abreviation ?) airborne invasion simultaneous with a seaborne - but not necessarily at the same place - as explained on television by LtGen ACB Vegger. The main issue with the Walker Bulldog was that it was able to cross the river (such as it is) Susåen swimming and thus able to fullfill a recon mission without engineering assistance. As neither a helicopter/airdrop invasion nor an amphibious landing was liable to be particularly heavily armoured the somewhat flimsy protection of the Bulldog was more than sufficient. The real damage was to be done by the Centurions of Sjælland defence - which became Leopard 1, when the Germans had a fire sale of said tanks. As Poland got integrated into Nato the threat of invasion from there receeded. Besides the Danish Army now send a brigade to fight alongside the Polish and the Germans in a Division with the 14 PzGre and the polish Pommerian. (The Danish expression of a lowgrade disaster is that things go to Pommeria). The obviously mentally impaired communist traitors were made schoolteachers to suffer a long and drawn out death struggle in the hands of 5 th graders - considered much more painfull than the proper way of expiditing such scum - i.e. hanging.

Very nice well designed little tank. Shame about the breach butchering.

I hated shooting hvap in that thing. Felt like the turret exploded and you always fired at least three shots in quick succession. Never saw a loader sit down while loading, by the way. It would be too clumsy and slow.

Now we know that mrs. Chieftain has vetoed his purchase of even a small tank which otherwise could have dealt splendidly with parking troubles at the local mall. Sic transit gloria mundi. We understand it was a close call if Chieftain considered a Walker Bulldog more of a necessity than a wife and family. Others might have made a different choise.

That headlight switch. I was in JROTC in high school around the turn of the century, and one time the local National Guard unit brought a HMMV and gave us a ride in it. Same switch.

I agree its probably one of the best looking tankettes. It looks like a tank, drives like a tank, but barely qualifies as a combat vehicle. In the early 1970's I was going a college,and working full time at a large paper mill. I worked with vets from WWII,Korea, and Vietnam. One of my co workers had served in Korea, in combat as an M41 driver. He said .50 cal rounds would easily penetrate the side hull of the Walker. Thats down right criminal negligence on the part of the designers.

“I think it’s small, but I guess if you’re well motivated you’ll get out”

Good timing for me just got back from work :D

In my country, Uruguay, we still have M41's modernized with 90mm Cokerill guns and Scania diesel engines.

Come on, we all know 50 calibers add class to any vehicle

Wow! That master power and light module are still used on Canadian vehicles to this day! I've seen the light on the roof on a LAV-25 Coyote, and the master power on a brand new modular shelter system. Cool!

Came back to learn about the tank I played on as a kid at the park near my grandparents. What a sporty little tank

I read that the South Vietnamese fought T-54s in the Walker bulldog. Surprisingly, the gun punched through the frontal armor of the T-54. It pretty much held its own

The .30 cal carbine, M1 & M2 were in service with the US until well into the 60s. I would imagine Guatemala kept them around somewhat longer.

Its a good thing you've covered it in more detail, it's a big help to my future self that will eventually have one!

Perfect timing! How did you know I’d just sat down with a mug of tea?

Great review, I am enjoying learning about these different tanks, and I don't mind learning about how to tighten the tracks.

His face when he says canister was just wonderful. Edit:grammar

Ha. The Chieftain playing with the light reminds me of that Louis de Funes scene in The Grand restaurant with the chandelier shadows. Also, unintended interesting camo patterns :))

Well done for getting through that hole into the driver's compartment.

Loved it! Geoff Who has always had a soft spot for the Walker Bulldog, along with every other child of the 50's and 60's.

Another really good video by Mr Tank. Thanks

As alway, your videos are very informative. I remember receiving a toy Walker Bulldog as a present for Christmas one year it was battery operated and made the most wonderful bang bang sound. Thanks for all your hard work and squeezing into those small spaces for our education and entertainment.

JB Weld and sheet rock screws would fix that breech real quick

I think the reason you like American tanks so much is it seems most of them were designed with the crew as an important part of the system. It seems most other countries built their tanks, and then tried to find a way to fix a crew into it. There is a special place in hell for the bastards that cut up such a nice gun. I shed a tear.

Thank you for another informative and entertaining review. It's a hell-of-a-job you got there : )

I could buy my own tank! OK, I don't have enough money to buy it, or to ship it, or to maintain it, but other than that....

The M41 tank in the Littlefield collection in which you did a snapshot episode was so much better condition inside. Too bad you can't go to Littlefield anymore.

Thanks for the highly informative videos!

My little hometown in West Virginia was the home of an armored cavalry troop which was equipped with at least one (never saw more than one) of these tanks. It was in a number of parades, which was exciting for a grade school boy to see. We would race down three blocks to another street to see the tank returning to the armory after the parade. The National Guard unit has long since been disbanded but one M41 tank remains in town, on a concrete platform outside next to the War Memorial Building and across the street from the county courthouse. First tank I ever saw in person. The next ones were at Fort Knox, and after that, in the 24th Division in Germany, either at Hohenfels or Grafenwoehr. My son became a tanker, too, first in Germany, then for 15 months in Iraq.

I love those outtakes :D

A perfect tank for my garden!

That pad behind the gun, seen also on the M47, M48, and M60s, is to keep the casing from bouncing around the turret. The case was ejected from the gun, would hit the pad and drop straight to the floor. Without the pad, watch out, there was no telling where that hot casing would go and how severe the injury.

I suspect that if the gunner wanted a power elevation for any reason that they could just grab the rod coming from the commander's override and push that in and out.

No music!!!!!!!!!!!! Now that is beautiful music to my ears!!!!! Just a guy that knows about tanks explaining and talking about tanks!!!

Please do a segment on the M41's intended replacement, the T92. It is so different than any other US tank, and I get the feeling that the designers of the Russian BMP ifv may have been influenced by it. By that i mean the placement of the engine, the extreme frontal slope, the shape of the turret (Discounting the t92's split turret and external mounting of the main gun. Imagine the t92 turret with no machine gun turrets and an internally mounted gun.) With some updating (a turbo diesel engine would be nice), I think it would have been much better than the Sheridan, and could have served as the basis for an American BMP, by extending the chassis and a few other mods.

My oldest godbrother was a tank commander back in the 60s to 70s- he was stationed in Germany and hated cobblestone streets over there because they were slick when wet or icy and the tanks had a bad time with sliding into a building when driving thru the little towns over there- he told of a tank sliding into a store and destroying the store and the floor gave way and the tank fell into the basement of the building- cost the Army a ton of $$$$$ to remove the tank and rebuild the building and store and pay the owner a pay off fir damages

Nice tank! Well thought though! If I would buy a tank, this would be it!

that shirt is scarier than the idea of fighting mbts with an inch of armour

I like the idea of a Light Tank packing Punch . Your heavies will take care of the main assault while the Battalion and Division wings need a good advance / defence equipment to strengthen the front and the overall campaign advance

The Army was still using the M1 carbine in the 1950s and even the 1960s. The M14 rifle did not enter the service until 1959 and it failed to replace all the WW2 small arms, namely the M1 Garand, the M1 carbine, and the Browning Automatic Rifle M1918A2. You may find a lot of US Army infantrymen were still using WW2 small arms in the Army TV series "Big Picture" in the 1950s and 1960s. So it is not strange to find a .30 carbine ammunition box in the tank.

Always have a .50 cal on the tank. It adds class. Plus, it will turn most cover into concealment and give guys on the receiving end something more to worry about.

I can imagine the logic for the Chaffee reversed turret positions may have been that doctrinally it was to be a 4-man tank where the assistant driver would climb up in the turret to act as loader, and it was easier to do if he was on the right.

My oldest God brother was a tank commander in the 60s station in Germany and the tank he commanded ( as told by him )was a 90mm main gun- i dont remember what kind of tank it was but he said he loved the roominess of the tank- altho the lack of rubber pads was a problem when they were driving thru the small towns in Germany because of the cobblestone roads there- the tanks had a tendency to slide sideways if the streets were wet from either snow or rain

Come to Denmark, and take a look at upgraded tank. They still have one working at the "Live tank museum". It still participates in live shootings.

What happened to "Oh Sh1t, the tank's on Fire!" ?

"What is that shadow?" THAT, sir, is the ghost of Belton Cooper, haunting you for all the nasty things you've said about his book.

Dad was the commander of the National Guard Calvary unit in Miles City Montana in the mid '60's so I got to play in and around the M-41 as a pre-teen. I'd manual track the run on cars driving into Miles City, manage to crawl from the drivers seat into the turret (and back) with some difficulty - not sure how you did it! I even managed to drop the drivers escape hatch on to the ground - way too heavy for skinny ol' me to put back. My bad. Perhaps it it was guys talking smack but I heard tales of drivers taking this tank well over the 45mph limit (70mph was mentioned) on one road in Montana. The transmission was not up to the task of steering at the speed and the corner was not made - the tank running off in the field. In many parts of eastern Montana this would not have been a serious problem. Then again, perhaps they were talking smack. The tanks I played in were well maintained, bright white paint on the inside, the usual OD on the outside. They also had Jeeps and trucks. But the M-41 was uber cool. Hence my favorite tank over the years.

There are, or at least were a few of these in the UK which were used in the filming of Full Metal Jacket.

I've always thought belly escape hatches would be the Godsend they were designed to be only IF you're escaping the tank on a hard surface

"and hope the wife doesn't get too upset." I've already been shot down from buying the antique fire engine I want, so I think a tank is out of the question!

Yey, more tonk!

Recon tanks are very interesting.

Depending on the "lucky bugger" the spouse might look up how to convert it to use black powder and how to get a new breach and permit for that. Some spouses like big guns. :)

I actually have the lower sight module for the gunner of one of these things, pretty neat :p

The tropical heat and humidity of Central America truly wreaked havoc with the interior of that M41 light tank. It's all rusted out. In order to prevent that the tank crew would have to spend extra time with brasso and other chemical rust removers and rust prevention and a lot of rags during tank maintenance. Obviously that didn't happen. The tank crews had other priorities with their time rather than become glued to the inside of their M41.

On the .30 Carbine thing, I'm sure you know that the M3 "grease gun" was still issued to tankers as late as the first Gulf War in the '90s. Personally, I'd rather have a .30 Carbine even as much as I love the way the M3 grease gun shoots, since it'll give you better reach and lower ammo weight per round.

As a tank gunner in a M-41 tank, I never had a loader having problems with a light.

Azimuth indicator(nvm, I’m wrong, but don’t feel like removing it.) can also be called a Inclinometer or clinometer. From you local neighborhood Civil engineer, XD.

I wish you would do modern tanks like the Abrams, leopards, Leclerc and Merkava. Maybe even some newer soviet tanks like the T72 and T80.

I don't know why but the bulldog is one of my favorite tanks.

I love tanks,wanted to be a tank commander in Vietnam. They gave these M 41's to the South Vietnamese Army. I was just 18, working in a paper mill in Oregon in 1970. I worked in the mill with many former World War II and Korean War and Vietnam vets. I recall one of the Hyster drivers telling me he had been a tank crewman on an M 41 Walker Bulldog. It being a light tank, he said the Communist soldiers would fire a heavy machine guns at them and he could see .50 call rounds come through the sides, at times. The side armor was pathetic at only 1.00" thick. Pretty hairy, I would think.

That's a lot of 30 carbine ammo.

The clip at the end made me think about something I've been wondering for some time. How much light is there in a tank normally? In all your videos, they're clearly being deliberately lit for filming, obviously. How dark are they in combat conditions?

1:16 Make the horn go beep?

awesome

One these seats in the yard of a home in my hometown with a sign says no photos and words "The answer is no!" on it.

I could have sworn the US fielded the M41 with a 90mm. Also, I'd take the coax fifty. Yeah, not as much ammo as the .30, but with the fifty you're shooting through their cover, the man you're shooting at, and the six men behind him.

Interesting on the info on the red button. Check out the walker bull dog on an episode of combat. A fillin for as a panzer COMBAT! s.3 ep.4: "The Duel" (1964)

Interesting. I thought US tanks were stocked with M3 grease guns, not M1 carbines. Learn something new every day.

Shame this example seems to need a little TLC. The Taiwanese ROCA examples remain in pretty good serviceable shape.

The speedo and other gauges and switches are the same as those that were in my M113A3. If it ain't broke...

love the shirt

Not the last one, I know I saw a couple of armored cars in the background you haven't gone through.

Chieftain if you can please do the T95! I know it's extremely hard to get access to it but it's worth it.

Considering this old girl spent more than a few years down in Guatemala she's not in too bad of shape.

I've always heard the American Tankers didn't like the M41 because it didn't have enough room inside. This video proves other wise. It sold for $230,000 5 years ago, I wonder what it would sell for today?

Well I mean, if you used a .50 for the coax, wouldn't that cut you down to 2 different ammos? 76mm (main cannon) and .50 (coax and commanders gun), or am I wrong?

Very interesting and entertaining video, as always. One question - what was the purpose of that elongated bustle ? Stowage space maybe ?

She is a little rusty inside.

hahahah Canister

So in this tank the TC is the big spoon and the gunner is the little spoon?

The thought of spending any length of time in a tank without some manner of head protection makes my teeth itch. Then again, I've worn hard toe shoes for so long that I don't think I could go into a weight room with sneakers ever again...

I didn't even know that you could also mount a .50 cal as a coaxial.

can you do a video on the Sheridan please

These videos are why there is patrion.

Where's the "Oh bugger! The tank is on fire!" test?

You did look rather comfortable inside, even given your height.

I just realised the picture on Chieftain's channel. Is that a reference to : DRIVE ME CLOSER I WANT TO HIT THEM WITH MY SWORD

8:20 Did the Chieftain just challenged the Gun Jesus?

Can you do an episode on the renault ft 17

what was done about the accumulated shell casings on the floor. how and when were they ejected from the vehicle?

Any chance we can get a look at an amx 30? Its my fav early/pre mbt of nato