M24 Chaffee

The M24 “Chaffee” is a reconnaissance tank that the Army received in 1953-54 as a weapons aid from the USA, in the same way as the Army received the M4 Sherman, M10 Achilles, M41 Walker Bulldog and the Centurion tank.

The M24, as mentioned, is a reconnaissance tank, i.e. a tank designed to support reconnaissance units whose primary task is to try to find out where the enemy is located, how strong he is and what his intensions are. A reconnaissance tank is therefore relatively small, relatively fast, relatively lightly armoured and relatively lightly armed compared to a medium tank such as the Leopard 1.

These characteristics are more important than a powerful cannon and heavy armour, since the purpose of reconnaissance units is not to engage the enemy, but rather to find out where the enemy is, report this to their own units and then evade the enemy. Recon units will therefore normally only engage if they are fired upon by the enemy.

The M24 was only in service for a short number of years, being supplemented/replaced from 1962 by the M41 Walker Bulldog. Unlike other tanks in Danish service, the M24 was neither life-extended nor upgraded.
This was partly due to the technical condition of the vehicles, partly due to the fact that there was a prospect of receiving more modern equipment via the weapons aid and partly due to the fact that the potential for upgrading was not present in the same way as was the case for the M41 and Centurion.

However, the M24 Chaffee was a popular reconnaissance tank during WW2. World War II. It was used by the Danish military from 1953 to 1962 and completely phased out in 1975.

In the Norwegian defence, they chose to upgrade the M24 to a model similar to the process the Danish M41 underwent. The upgraded Norwegian M24 was designated NM-116.

Our exhibited M24 is not running, only static display. Some of the other vehicle collections in Denmark have running versions.

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