17pdr SP Achilles

The 17 pounder, Self-Propelled (17pdr SP) Achilles was a British variant of the American M10 Tank destroyer. It was the second most armoured fighting vehicle to be used and armed with a 17 pounder gun, after the Sherman Firefly. A total of 1,100 M10s were converted by the Royal Arsenal of Woolwich.

During its time, the vehicle was more known as 17pdr M10 or 17pdr SP M10 but its official designation was “Achilles”. It was a name that was applied to both the 3” gun and 17 pounder versions (Achilles I/II and Achilles Ic/IIc).

The tank weighed 29.6 tonnes and measured 7.01 metres long (5.97 metres excluding the gun), 3.05 metres wide and 2.57 metres high. It had a crew of five people – a commander, three gunners and a driver. The armour was from 9 to 57.2 millimetres thick. The armaments consisted of an Ordnance QF 17 pounder (76.2 millimetres) with 50 rounds and a .50 calibre Browning M2HB machine gun with 420 rounds. The QF 17 pounder was a gun with superior anti-tank performance. It was able to penetrate about 140 millimetres of armour at 500 metres and 131 millimetres at 1000 metres, using the standard APCBC (Armour Piercing, Capped, Ballistic Capped) ammunition. The tank was powered by a General Motors 6046 Twin Diesel 6-71 engine that provided 375 horsepower. The suspension was a Vertical Volute Spring Suspension or VVSS. Its operational range was 300 kilometres with a maximum speed of 51 kilometres per hour.

The Achilles was used during D-Day by the Royal Artillery and Royal Canadian Artillery in anti-tank regiments against the Germans.