Hunnicutt's Firepower covers all US heavy tanks with a lot of nice pics of M-103s. I tried to transfer to the 33d, as I had a couple buddys there and my loader had some time in 103s, but my CO wouldn't let me go. It was an awesome tank and that long telephone pole sticking out of the turret demanded a lot of respect. In a stationary position, it could sit and take out enemy armor a couple miles out...like KTs and JTs in WW II, The 120mm was extremeley accurate, but slow due to seperate load ammo. But moving cross country the gun had to be locked down. It was not designed for tk vs tk combat but more as a long range tank killer and did OK under the severe restrictions placed on it.

We ran maneuvers against them in 1961 in our M-48A2s. It brought back stories of Shermans against Tigers with umpires telling us we had been taken out 3 grid squares away when we could not see them or get within engagement range with our 90mms. As with Shermans, we had to have a coupe platoons run miles out of the way to get behind or flank them. The 103s kicked our butts.

In the mid 60s, the JS-III was no longer deemed a threat and the 33d was downsized to medium and issued M-48A1s.