M-41 Walker Bulldog Light Tank

The M-41 Walker Bulldog Light Tank was fielded in 1951, equipped with a long barrel 76mm main gun, an improvement on the M24 Chaffee tank. In development it was known as the Light Tank T37, designed to be air-transportable and highly mobile but with a powerful main gun as a counter to the massed armor of the Soviet Red Army. It was also intended to be a platform for other armored vehicles that would share the chassis and engine (see M42 Duster). As development concluded in 1949, the tank was redesignated the T41E1 and finally standardized as M41. Other variants were produced up to the M41A3.

1950s photo of an M41 Walker Bulldog Light Tank on a rail car, for shipment to the 705th Tank Battalion, 102d Infantry Division
1950s photo of an M41 Walker Bulldog Light Tank on a rail car, for shipment to the 705th Tank Battalion, 102d Infantry Division.

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M-41 Walker Bulldog Light Tank

The M41 Walker Bulldog Light Tank was named for Gen. Walton Harris Walker, commander of the 8th Army in Korea, who was killed in Korea in a jeep accident just before Christmas 1950. Walton had been nicknamed "Patton's Bulldog" for his service in Gen. Patton's Third Army during WW II, so the name was applied to the new tank.

ARVN M41 Walker Bulldog Light Tank advances on enemy position in Saigon, May 1960
ARVN M41 Walker Bulldog Light Tank advances on enemy position in Saigon, May 1960.

M-41 Walker Bulldog Light Tank. Photo: Courtesy of Frank Suha
M-41 Walker Bulldog Light Tank. Photo: Courtesy of Frank Suha.

M-41 Walker Bulldog Light Tank at Pate Museum of Transportation. Photo: Courtesy of Bob Pettit
M-41 Walker Bulldog Light Tank at Pate Museum of Transportation. Photo: Courtesy of Bob Pettit.

M-41 Walker Bulldog Light Tank at Pate Museum of Transportation, 8 June 2005. Photo: Courtesy of Bob Pettit
M-41 Walker Bulldog Light Tank at Pate Museum of Transportation, 8 June 2005. Photo: Courtesy of Bob Pettit.

M-41 Walker Bulldog Light Tank and M-42 Gun Motor Carriage. Photo: Courtesy of Paul Kopsick
M-41 Walker Bulldog Light Tank and M-42 Gun Motor Carriage. Photo: Courtesy of Paul Kopsick.

M41 Walker Bulldog Light Tank, 1st Armored Division Museum, Baumholder, Germany
M41 Walker Bulldog Light Tank, 1st Armored Division Museum, Baumholder, Germany.