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= = = Song counteroffensive and the peace process = = =
Gaozong promoted Qin Hui in 1138 and put him in charge of deliberations with the Jin . Yue Fei , Han Shizhong , and a large number of officials at court criticized the peace overtures . Aided by his control of the Censorate , Qin purged his enemies and continued negotiations . In 1138 the Jin and Song agreed to a treaty that designated the Yellow River as border between the two states and recognized Gaozong as a " subject " of the Jin . But because there remained opposition to the treaty in both the courts of the Jin and Song , the treaty never came into effect . A Jurchen army led by Wuzhu invaded in early 1140 . The Song counteroffensive that followed achieved large territorial gains . Song general Liu Qi ( 劉錡 ) won a battle against Wuzhu at Shunchang ( modern Fuyang in Anhui ) . Yue Fei was assigned to head the Song forces defending the Huainan region . Instead of advancing to Huainan , however , Wuzhu retreated to Kaifeng and Yue 's army followed him into Jin territory , disobeying an order by Gaozong that forbade Yue from going on the offensive . Yue captured Zhengzhou and sent soldiers across the Yellow River to stir up a peasant rebellion against the Jin . On July 8 , 1140 , at the Battle of Yancheng , Wuzhu launched a surprise attack on Song forces with an army of 100 @,@ 000 infantry and 15 @,@ 000 horsemen . Yue Fei directed his cavalry to attack the Jurchen soldiers and won a decisive victory . He continued on to Henan , where he recaptured Zhengzhou and Luoyang . Later in 1140 , Yue was forced to withdraw after the emperor ordered him to return to the Song court .
Emperor Gaozong supported settling a peace treaty with the Jurchens and sought to rein in the assertiveness of the military . The military expeditions of Yue Fei and other generals were an obstacle to peace negotiations . The government weakened the military by rewarding Yue Fei , Han Shizhong , and Zhang Jun ( 1086 – 1154 ) with titles that relieved them of their command over the Song armies . Han Shizhong , a critic of the treaty , retired . Yue Fei also announced his resignation as an act of protest . In 1141 Qin Hui had him imprisoned for insubordination . Charged with treason , Yue Fei was poisoned in jail on Qin 's orders in early 1142 . Jurchen diplomatic pressure during the peace talks may have played a role , but Qin Hui 's alleged collusion with the Jin has never been proven .
After his execution , Yue Fei 's reputation for defending the Southern Song grew to that of a national folk hero . Qin Hui was denigrated by later historians , who accused him of betraying the Song . The real Yue Fei differed from the later myths based on his exploits . Contrary to traditional legends , Yue was only one of many generals who fought against the Jin in northern China . Traditional accounts have also blamed Gaozong for Yue Fei 's execution and submitting to the Jin . Qin Hui , in a reply to Gaozong 's gratitude for the success of the peace negotiations , told the emperor that " the decision to make peace was entirely Your Majesty 's . Your servant only carried it out ; what achievement was there in this for me ? "
= = = Treaty of Shaoxing = = =
On October 11 , 1142 , after about a year of negotiations , the Treaty of Shaoxing was ratified , ending the conflict between the Jin and the Song . By the terms of the treaty , the Huai River , north of the Yangtze , was designated as the boundary between the two empires . The Song agreed to pay a yearly tribute of 250 @,@ 000 taels of silver and 250 @,@ 000 packs of silk to the Jin .
The treaty reduced the Southern Song 's status to that of a Jin vassal . The document designated the Song as the " insignificant state " , while the Jin was recognized as the " superior state " . The text of the treaty has not survived in Chinese records , a sign of its humiliating reputation . The contents of the agreement were recovered from a Jurchen biography . Once the treaty had been settled , the Jurchens retreated north and trade resumed between the two empires . The peace ensured by the Shaoxing treaty lasted for the next seventy years , but was interrupted twice . One campaign was initiated by the Song and the other by the Jin .
= = = Further campaigns = = =
= = = = Prince of Hailing 's campaign = = = =
Wanyan Liang ( the Prince of Hailing ) led a coup against Emperor Xizong and became fourth emperor of the Jin dynasty in 1150 . Wanyan Liang presented himself as a Chinese emperor , and planned to unite China by conquering the Song . In 1158 , Wanyan Liang provided a casus belli by announcing that the Song had broken the 1142 peace treaty by acquiring horses . He instituted an unpopular draft that was the source of widespread unrest in the empire . Anti @-@ Jin revolts erupted among the Khitans and in Jin provinces bordering the Song . Wanyan Liang did not allow dissent , and opposition to the war was severely punished . The Song had been notified beforehand of Wanyan Liang 's plan . They prepared by securing their defenses along the border , mainly near the Yangtze River , but were hampered by Emperor Gaozong 's indecisiveness . Gaozong 's desire for peace made him averse to provoking the Jin . Wanyan Liang began the invasion in 1161 without formally declaring war . Jurchen armies personally led by Wanyan Liang left Kaifeng on October 15 , reached the Huai River border on October 28 , and marched in the direction of the Yangtze . The Song lost the Huai to the Jurchens but captured a few Jin prefectures in the west , slowing the Jurchen advance . A group of Jurchen generals were sent to cross the Yangtze near the city of Caishi ( south of Ma 'anshan in modern Anhui ) while Wanyan Liang established a base near Yangzhou .
The Song official Yu Yunwen was in command of the army defending the river . The Jurchen army was defeated while attacking Caishi between November 26 and 27 during the Battle of Caishi . The paddle @-@ wheel ships of the Song navy , armed with trebuchets that fired gunpowder bombs , overwhelmed the light ships of the Jin fleet . Jin ships were unable to compete because they were smaller and hastily constructed . The bombs launched by the Song contained mixtures of gunpowder , lime , scraps of iron , and a poison that was likely arsenic . Traditional Chinese accounts consider this the turning point of the war , characterizing it as a military upset that secured southern China from the northern invaders . The significance of the battle is said to have rivaled a similarly revered victory at the Battle of Fei River in the 4th century . Contemporaneous Song accounts claimed that the 18 @,@ 000 Song soldiers commanded by Yu Yunwen and tasked with defending Caishi were able to defeat the invading Jurchen army of 400 @,@ 000 soldiers . Modern historians are more skeptical and consider the Jurchen numbers an exaggeration . Song historians may have confused the number of Jurchen soldiers at the Battle of Caishi with the total number of soldiers under the command of Wanyan Liang . The conflict was not the one @-@ sided battle that traditional accounts imply , and the Song had numerous advantages over the Jin . The Song fleet was larger than the Jin 's , and the Jin were unable to use their greatest asset , cavalry , in a naval battle .
A modern analysis of the battlefield has shown that it was a minor battle , although the victory did boost Song morale . The Jin lost , but only suffered about 4 @,@ 000 casualties and the battle was not fatal to the Jurchen war effort . It was Wanyan Liang 's poor relationships with the Jurchen generals , who despised him , that doomed the chances of a Jin victory . On December 15 , Wanyan Liang was assassinated in his military camp by disaffected officers . He was succeeded by Emperor Shizong ( r . 1161 – 1189 ) . Shizong was pressured into ending the unpopular war with the Song , and ordered the withdrawal of Jin forces in 1162 . Emperor Gaozong retired from the throne that same year . His mishandling of the war with Wanyan Liang was one of many reasons for his abdication . Skirmishes between the Song and Jin continued along the border , but subsided in 1165 after the negotiation of a peace treaty . There were no major territorial changes . The treaty dictated that the Song still had to pay the annual indemnity , but the indemnity was renamed from " tribute " , which had implied a subordinate relationship , to " payment " .
= = = = Song revanchism = = = =
The Jin were weakened by the pressure of the rising Mongols to the north , a series of floods culminating in a Yellow River flood in 1194 that devastated Hebei and Shandong in northern China , and the droughts and swarming locusts that plagued the south near the Huai . The Song were informed of the Jurchen predicament by their ambassadors , who traveled twice a year to the Jin capital , and started provoking their northern neighbor . The hostilities were instigated by chancellor Han Tuozhou . The Song Emperor Ningzong ( r . 1194 – 1224 ) took little interest in the war effort . Under Han Tuozhou 's supervision , preparations for the war proceeded gradually and cautiously . The court venerated the irredentist hero Yue Fei and Han orchestrated the publishing of historical records that justified war with the Jin . From 1204 onwards , Song armed groups raided Jin settlements . Han Tuozhou was designated the head of national security in 1205 . The Song funded insurgents in the north that professed loyalist sympathies . These early clashes continued to escalate , partly abetted by revanchist Song officials , and war against the Jin was officially declared on June 14 , 1206 . The document that announced the war claimed the Jin lost the Mandate of Heaven , a sign that they were unfit to rule , and called for an insurrection of Han Chinese against the Jin state .
Song armies led by general Bi Zaiyu ( 畢再遇 ; d . 1217 ) captured the barely defended border city of Sizhou 泗州 ( on the north bank of the Huai River across from modern Xuyi County ) but suffered large losses against the Jurchens in Hebei . The Jin repelled the Song and moved south to besiege the Song town of Chuzhou 楚州 on the Grand Canal just south of the Huai River . Bi defended the town , and the Jurchens withdrew from the siege after three months . By the fall of 1206 , however , the Jurchens had captured multiple towns and military bases . The Jin initiated an offensive against Song prefectures in the central front of the war , capturing Zaoyang and Guanghua ( 光化 ; on the Han River near modern Laohekou ) . By the fall of 1206 , the Song offensive had already failed disastrously . Soldier morale sank as weather conditions worsened , supplies ran out , and hunger spread , forcing many to desert . The massive defections of Han Chinese in northern China that the Song had expected never materialized .
A notable betrayal did occur on the Song side , however : Wu Xi ( 吳曦 ; d . 1207 ) , the governor @-@ general of Sichuan , defected to the Jin in December 1206 . The Song had depended on Wu 's success in the west to divert Jin soldiers away from the eastern front . He had attacked Jin positions earlier in 1206 , but his army of about 50 @,@ 000 men had been repelled . Wu 's defection could have meant the loss of the entire western front of the war , but Song loyalists assassinated Wu on March 29 , 1207 , before Jin troops could take control of the surrendered territories . An Bing ( 安丙 ; d . 1221 ) was given Wu Xi 's position , but the cohesion of Song forces in the west fell apart after Wu 's demise and commanders turned on each other in the ensuing infighting .
Fighting continued in 1207 , but by the end of that year the war was at a stalemate . The Song was now on the defensive , while the Jin failed to make gains in Song territory . The failure of Han Tuozhou 's aggressive policies led to his demise . On December 15 , 1207 , Han was beaten to death by the Imperial Palace Guards . His accomplice Su Shidan ( 蘇師旦 ) was executed , and other officials connected to Han were dismissed or exiled . Since neither combatant was eager to continue the war , they returned to negotiations . A peace treaty was signed on November 2 , 1208 , and the Song tribute to the Jin was reinstated . The Song annual indemnity increased by 50 @,@ 000 taels of silver and 50 @,@ 000 packs of fabric . The treaty also stipulated that the Song had to present to the Jin the head of Han Tuozhou , who the Jin held responsible for starting the war . The heads of Han and Su were severed from their exhumed corpses , exhibited to the public , then delivered to the Jin .
= = = = Song – Jin war during the rise of the Mongols = = = =
The Mongols , a nomadic confederation , had unified in the middle of the twelfth century . They and other steppe nomads occasionally raided the Jin empire from the northwest . The Jin shied away from punitive expeditions and was content with appeasement , similar to the practices of the Song . The Mongols , formerly a Jin tributary , ended their vassalage in 1210 and attacked the Jin in 1211 . In light of this event , the Song court debated ending tributary payments to the weakened Jin , but they chose to avoid antagonizing the Jin . They refused Western Xia 's offers of allying against the Jin in 1214 and willingly complied when in 1215 the Jin rejected a request to lower the annual indemnity . Meanwhile , in 1214 , the Jin retreated from the besieged capital of Zhongdu to Kaifeng , which became the new capital of the dynasty . As the Mongols expanded , the Jin suffered territorial losses and attacked the Song in 1217 to compensate for their shrinking territory . Periodic Song raids against the Jin were the official justification for the war . Another likely motive was that the conquest of the Song would have given the Jin a place to escape should the Mongols succeed in taking control of the north . Shi Miyuan ( 史彌遠 ; 1164 – 1233 ) , the chancellor of Song Emperor Lizong ( r . 1224 – 1264 ) , was hesitant to fight the Jin and delayed the declaration of war for two months . Song generals were largely autonomous , allowing Shi to evade blame for their military blunders . The Jin advanced across the border from the center and western fronts . Jurchen military successes were limited , and the Jin faced repeated raids from the neighboring state of Western Xia . In 1217 , the Song generals Meng Zongzheng ( 孟宗政 ) and Hu Zaixing ( 扈再興 ) defeated the Jin and prevented them from capturing Zaoyang and Suizhou .
A second Jin campaign in late 1217 did marginally better than the first . In the east , the Jin made little headway in the Huai River valley , but in the west they captured Xihezhou and Dasan Pass ( 大散關 ; modern Shaanxi ) in late 1217 . The Jin tried to captured Suizhou in Jingxi South circuit again in 1218 and 1219 , but failed . A Song counteroffensive in early 1218 captured Sizhou and in 1219 the Jin cities of Dengzhou and Tangzhou were pillaged twice by a Song army commanded by Zhao Fang ( 趙方 ; d . 1221 ) . In the west , command of the Song forces in Sichuan was given to An Bing , who had previously been dismissed from this position . He successfully defended the western front , but was unable to advance further because of local uprisings in the area . The Jin tried to extort an indemnity from the Song but never received it . In the last of the three campaigns , in early 1221 , the Jin captured the city of Qizhou ( 蘄州 ; in Huainan West ) deep in Song territory . Song armies led by Hu Zaixing and Li Quan ( 李全 ; d . 1231 ) defeated the Jin , who then withdrew . In 1224 both sides agreed on a peace treaty that ended the annual tributes to the Jin . Diplomatic missions between the Jin and Song were also cut off .
= = = = Mongol – Song alliance = = = =
In February 1233 , the Mongols took Kaifeng after a siege of more than 10 months and the Jin court retreated to the town of Caizhou . In 1233 Emperor Aizong ( r . 1224 – 1234 ) of the Jin dispatched diplomats to implore the Song for supplies . Jin envoys reported to the Song that the Mongols would invade the Song after they were done with the Jin — a forecast that would later be proven true — but the Song ignored the warning and rebuffed the request . They instead formed an alliance with the Mongols against the Jin . The Song provided supplies to the Mongols in return for parts of Henan . The Jin dynasty collapsed when Mongol and Song troops defeated the Jurchens at the siege of Caizhou in 1234 . General Meng Gong ( 孟珙 ) led the Song army against Caizhou . The penultimate emperor of the Jin , Emperor Aizong , took his own life . His short @-@ lived successor , Emperor Mo , was killed in the town a few days later . The Mongols later turned their sights towards the Song . After decades of war , the Song dynasty also fell in 1279 , when the remaining Song loyalists lost to the Mongols in a naval battle near Guangdong .
= = Historical significance = =
= = = Cultural and demographic changes = = =
Jurchen migrants from the northeastern reaches of Jin territory settled in the Jin @-@ controlled lands of northern China . Constituting less than ten percent of the total population , the two to three million ruling Jurchens were a minority in a region that was still dominated by 30 million Han Chinese . The southward expansion of the Jurchens caused the Jin to transition their decentralized government of semi @-@ agrarian tribes to a bureaucratic Chinese @-@ style dynasty .
The Jin government initially promoted an independent Jurchen culture alongside their adoption of the centralized Chinese imperial bureaucracy , but the empire was gradually sinicized over time . The Jurchens became fluent in the Chinese language , and the philosophy of Confucianism was used to legitimize the ruling government . Confucian state rituals were adopted during the reign of Emperor Xizong ( 1135 – 1150 ) . The Jin implemented imperial exams on the Confucian Classics , first regionally and then for the entire empire . The Classics and other works of Chinese literature were translated into Jurchen and studied by Jin intellectuals , but very few Jurchens actively contributed to the classical literature of the Jin . The Khitan script , from the Chinese family of scripts , formed the basis of a national writing system for the empire , the Jurchen script . All three scripts were working languages of the government . Jurchen clans adopted Chinese personal names with their Jurchen names . Wanyan Liang ( the Prince of Hailing ; r . 1150 – 1161 ) was an enthusiastic proponent of Jurchen sinicization and enacted policies to encourage it . Wanyan Liang had been acculturated by Song diplomats from childhood , and his emulation of Song practices earned him the Jurchen nickname of " aping the Chinese " . He studied the Chinese classics , drank tea , and played Chinese chess for recreation . Under his reign , the administrative core of the Jin state was moved south from Huining . He instated Beijing as the Jin main capital in 1153 . Palaces were erected in Beijing and Kaifeng , while the original , more northerly residences of Jurchen chieftains were demolished .
The emperor 's political reforms were connected with his desire to conquer all of China and to legitimize himself as a Chinese emperor . The prospect of conquering southern China was cut short by Wanyan Liang 's assassination . Wanyan Liang 's successor , Emperor Shizong , was less enthusiastic about sinicization and reversed several of Wanyan Liang 's edicts . He sanctioned new policies with the intent to slow the assimilation of the Jurchens . Shizong 's prohibitions were abandoned by Emperor Zhangzong ( r . 1189 – 1208 ) , who promoted reforms that transformed the political structure of the dynasty closer to that of the Song and Tang dynasties . Despite cultural and demographic changes , military hostilities between the Jin and the Song persisted until the fall of the Jin .
In the south , the retreat of the Song dynasty led to major demographic changes . The population of refugees from the north that resettled in Hangzhou and Jiankang ( modern Nanjing ) eventually grew greater than the population of original residents , whose numbers had dwindled from repeated Jurchen raids . The government encouraged the resettlement of peasant migrants from the southern provinces of the Song to the underpopulated territories between the Yangtze and the Huai rivers .
The new capital Hangzhou grew into a major commercial and cultural center . It rose from a middling city of no special importance to one of the world 's largest and most prosperous . During his stay in Hangzhou in the Yuan dynasty ( 1260 – 1368 ) , when the city was not as wealthy as it had been under the Song , Marco Polo remarked that " this city is greater than any in the world " . Once retaking northern China became less plausible and Hangzhou grew into a significant trading city , the government buildings were extended and renovated to better befit its status as an imperial capital . The modestly sized imperial palace was expanded in 1133 with new roofed alleyways and in 1148 with an extension of the palace walls .
The loss of northern China , the cultural center of Chinese civilization , diminished the international status of the Song dynasty . After the Jurchen conquest of the north , Korea recognized the Jin , not the Song , as the legitimate dynasty of China . The Song 's military failures reduced it to a subordinate of the Jin , turning it into a " China among equals " . The Song economy , however , recovered quickly after the move south . Government revenues earned from taxing foreign trade nearly doubled between the closing of the Northern Song era in 1127 and the final years of Gaozong 's reign in the early 1160s . The recovery was not uniform , and areas like Huainan and Hubei that had been directly affected by the war took decades to return to their pre @-@ war levels . In spite of multiple wars , the Jin remained one of the main trading partners of the Song . Song demand for foreign products like fur and horses went unabated . Historian Shiba Yoshinobu ( 斯波義信 , b . 1930 ) believes that Song commerce with the north was profitable enough that it compensated for the silver delivered annually as an indemnity to the Jin .
= = = Gunpowder warfare = = =
The battles between the Song and the Jin spurred the invention and use of gunpowder weapons . There are reports that the fire lance , one of the earliest ancestors of the firearm , was used by the Song against the Jurchens besieging De 'an ( 德安 ; modern Anlu in eastern Hubei ) in 1132 , during the Jin invasion of Hubei and Shaanxi . The weapon consisted of a spear attached with a flamethrower capable of firing projectiles from a barrel constructed of bamboo or paper . They were built by soldiers under the command of Chen Gui ( 陳規 ) , who led the Song army defending De 'an . The fire lances with which Song soldiers were equipped at De 'an were built for destroying the wooden siege engines of the Jin and not for combat against the Jin infantry . Song soldiers compensated for the limited range and mobility of the weapon by timing their attacks on the Jin siege engines , waiting until they were within range of the fire lances . Later fire lances used metal barrels , fired projectiles farther and with greater force , and could be used against infantry .
Early rudimentary bombs like the huopao fire bomb ( 火礮 ) and the huopao ( 火砲 ) bombs propelled by trebuchet were also in use as incendiary weapons . The defending Song army used huopao ( 火礮 ) during the first Jin siege of Kaifeng in 1126 . On the opposing side , the Jin launched incendiary bombs from siege towers down onto the city below . In 1127 , huopao ( 火礮 ) were employed by the Song troops defending De 'an and by the Jin soldiers besieging the city . The government official Lin Zhiping ( 林之平 ) proposed to make incendiary bombs and arrows mandatory for all warships in the Song navy . At the battle of Caishi in 1161 , Song ships fired pili huoqiu ( 霹靂火球 ) , also called pili huopao bombs ( 霹靂火砲 ) , from trebuchets against the ships of the Jin fleet commanded by Wanyan Liang . The gunpowder mixture of the bomb contained powdered lime , which produced blinding smoke once the casing of the bomb shattered . The Song also deployed incendiary weapons at the battle of Tangdao during the same year .
Gunpowder was also applied to arrows in 1206 by a Song army stationed in Xiangyang . The arrows were most likely an incendiary weapon , but its function may also have resembled that of an early rocket . At the Jin siege of Qizhou ( 蘄州 ) in 1221 , the Jurchens fought the Song with gunpowder bombs and arrows . The Jin tiehuopao ( 鐵火砲 , " iron huopao " ) , which had cast iron casings , are the first known bombs that could explode . The bomb needed to be capable of detonating in order to penetrate the iron casing . The Song army had a large supply of incendiary bombs , but there are no reports of them having a weapon similar to the Jin 's detonating bombs . A participant in the siege recounted in the Xinsi Qi Qi Lu ( 辛巳泣蘄錄 ) that the Song army at Qizhou had an arsenal of 3000 huopao ( 火礮 ) , 7000 incendiary gunpowder arrows for crossbows and 10000 for bows , as well as 20000 pidapao ( 皮大礮 ) , probably leather bags filled with gunpowder .
= T30 Howitzer Motor Carriage =
The T30 Howitzer Motor Carriage ( HMC ) was a United States Army self @-@ propelled gun used in World War II . Its design was based on requirements for an assault gun issued by the Armored Force in 1941 and it was built as an interim solution until a fully tracked design was complete .
Produced by the White Motor Company , the vehicle was simply a 75 mm Pack Howitzer M1 mounted on a modified M3 Half @-@ track . It was first used in combat in the North African Campaign in November 1942 . It later served in Italy and France , and possibly in the Pacific . Some were later leased to French forces and the type was used as late as the First Indochina War in the 1950s .
= = Specifications = =
Based on the M3 Half @-@ track , the T30 's specifications were similar to its parent vehicle . It was 20 ft 7 in ( 6 @.@ 28 m ) long , 6 ft 5 in ( 1 @.@ 96 m ) wide , 8 ft 3 in ( 2 @.@ 51 m ) and high , and weighed 10 @.@ 3 short tons ( 9 @.@ 3 t ) . The suspension consisted of vertical volute springs for the tracks and leaf springs for the wheels , while the vehicle had a fuel capacity of 60 US gallons ( 230 l ) . It had a range of 150 mi ( 240 km ) and had a speed of 40 mph ( 64 km / h ) , and was powered by a White 160AX , 147 hp ( 110 kW ) , 386 in3 ( 6 @,@ 330 cc ) , six @-@ cylinder , gasoline engine , with a compression ratio of 6 @.@ 3 : 1 . It had a power @-@ to @-@ weight ratio of 15 @.@ 8 hp / ton .
= = = Gun specifications = = =
The T30 's main armament was a short barreled 3 @.@ 0 in ( 75 mm ) pack howitzer . The 75 mm Pack Howitzer M1 as mounted could depress nine degrees , elevate 50 degrees , and traverse 22 @.@ 5 degrees to each side . The vehicle had stowage for sixty rounds of 75 mm ammunition and , although it was not designed for anti @-@ tank use , it had a high explosive anti @-@ tank ( HEAT ) shell that could penetrate 3 in ( 76 mm ) of armor . The gun shield had 0 @.@ 375 in ( 9 @.@ 5 mm ) thick armor , designed to stop a .30 cal ( 7 @.@ 62 mm ) bullet from 250 yards ( 230 m ) away .
= = Development = =
The T30 HMC was originally conceived in 1941 as an interim design to fulfil the Armored Force 's requirement for an assault gun to equip tank and armored reconnaissance units . The Ordnance Department design was based on the M3 Half @-@ track in order that it could be brought into service quickly . A prototype vehicle was authorized in October 1941 armed with an M1A1 75 mm Pack Howitzer and a mount that was designed to fit on a simple box structure in the back of an M3 Half @-@ track .
Authorization for the production of two prototypes was given in January 1942 ; first deliveries of the vehicle were made the following month from the White Motor Company . As it was seen as a temporary solution it was never given type classification . In September 1942 , the T30 was partially replaced by the Howitzer Motor Carriage M8 ( the same gun on an M3 Stuart ) . After that , it was declared as " limited standard " . A total of 500 were produced , all by the White Motor Company .
= = Service history = =
The T30 HMC entered service in November 1942 , seeing action for the first time in the North African Campaign . In the 1st Armored Division , each armored regiment was issued twelve T30s . Of these , three were used in each battalion headquarters platoon and three were used in each regimental reconnaissance platoon . In addition , the 6th and 41st Armored Infantry Regiments were each issued with nine T30 HMCs , with three of them being allocated to the headquarters platoon in each armored infantry battalion .
Most infantry divisions in the North African Campaign deployed a " cannon company " equipped with six T30s and two 105 mm T19 HMCs . In one encounter in North Africa , the T30 was used in an attempt to destroy German tanks . Although the T30s fired several volleys , the German tanks were barely damaged and the T30s were ordered to retreat under the cover of smoke to prevent losses . After several similar experiences , U.S. forces ceased the practice of employing self @-@ propelled howitzers or mortars in direct combat with tanks .
The T30 also served during the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943 , the war in Italy in 1944 , and possibly in the Pacific . It was removed from infantry division use in March 1943 , following changes in the organization of US infantry battalions , and was replaced by towed howitzers . The T30 was eventually replaced by the M8 HMC , which was based on the M5 Stuart light tank , and which began entering service around the same time as the T30 . Only 312 T30 HMCs were delivered in their original configuration , as the last 188 were converted back into M3 Half @-@ tracks before they were delivered . Later on , the U.S. leased several to French forces and some were used as late as the First Indochina War before the vehicle was retired from service in the 1950s .
= Memory Almost Full =
Memory Almost Full is the fourteenth solo studio album by Paul McCartney , discounting his Wings @-@ era discography , his orchestral works and his output as the Fireman . It was released in the United Kingdom on 4 June 2007 and in the United States a day later . The album was the first release on Starbucks ' Hear Music label . It was produced by David Kahne and recorded at Abbey Road Studios , Henson Recording Studios , AIR Studios , Hog Hill Mill Studios and RAK Studios between October 2003 , and from 2006 to February 2007 . In between the 2003 and 2006 sessions , McCartney was working on another studio album , Chaos and Creation in the Backyard ( 2005 ) , with producer Nigel Godrich .
Memory Almost Full reached the Top 5 in both the UK and US , as well as Denmark , Sweden , Greece , and Norway . The Grammy @-@ nominated album has sold over 2 million copies worldwide and has been certified gold by the RIAA for shipments of over 500 @,@ 000 copies just in the United States . The album was released in three versions : a single disc , a 2 @-@ CD set , and a CD / DVD deluxe edition , the latter of which was released on 6 November 2007 .
= = Background = =
Nine demos were recorded at The Mill studio in September 2003 by Paul McCartney and his touring band . A month later , in October , album sessions for Memory Almost Full began , and were produced by David Kahne and recorded at Abbey Road Studios . McCartney and the band recorded the songs " You Tell Me " , " Only Mama Knows " , " Vintage Clothes " , " That Was Me " , " Feet in the Clouds " , " House of Wax " , " The End of the End " , and " Whole Life " . However , the sessions were cut short and put on hiatus when McCartney started another album , Chaos and Creation in the Backyard , with producer Nigel Godrich . In the website constructed for the album , McCartney stated : " I actually started this album , Memory Almost Full , before my last album Chaos and Creation in the Backyard , released September 2005 . ( ... ) When I was just finishing up everything concerned with Chaos and had just got the Grammy nominations ( 2006 ) I realised I had this album to go back to and finish off . So I got it out to listen to it again , wondering if I would enjoy it , but actually I really loved it . All I did at first was just listen to a couple of things and then I began to think , ' OK , I like that track – now , what is wrong with it ? ' And it might be something like a drum sound , so then I would re @-@ drum and see where we would get to . ( ... ) In places it 's a very personal record and a lot of it is retrospective , drawing from memory , like memories from being a kid , from Liverpool and from summers gone . The album is evocative , emotional , rocking , but I can 't really sum it up in one sentence " .
= = Recording = =
Many songs from Memory Almost Full were from a group of songs , which also included songs from Chaos and Creation in the Backyard , and some intended for the former nearly ended up on the latter . Any songs that were started , but not finished , for Chaos and Creation in the Backyard , McCartney didn 't want to re @-@ do for Memory Almost Full . As sessions for the album progressed McCartney wrote some more songs , something that McCartney used to do when he was in the Beatles . A song called " Perfect Lover " was recorded at either one of the three following studios : RAK Studios , AIR Studios or Ocean Way Studios ; sometime between November 2003 and April 2005 . " Perfect Lover " , in its original form was more folk @-@ like , similar to Chaos and Creation in the Backyard 's " Friends to Go " . " Perfect Lover " went through a minor lyrical change , the bridge was changed , and an overhaul of its musical arrangement , before it finally became " Ever Present Past " . Two years after the 2003 session , sessions for the album started again . The book Paul McCartney : Recording Sessions ( 1969 @-@ 2013 ) . A Journey Through Paul McCartney 's Songs After The Beatles reports that the recordings of the album were started in September – October 2003 and resumed in February 2004 at Abbey Road , with other sessions taking place between March 2006 and February 2007 .
New tracks were recorded at the following studios : McCartney 's home studio in Sussex , The Mill , Los Angeles ' Henson Studios , London 's RAK Studios and AIR Studios , and New York 's SeeSquared Studios . The songs recorded at those studios were " Nod Your Head " , " In Private " , " 222 " , " Gratitude " , " Mr. Bellamy " , " See Your Sunshine " , and " Ever Present Past " . Of those songs , " Mr. Bellamy " , " Ever Present Past " , " Gratitude " , " Nod Your Head " , and " In Private " were all recorded on the same day , in March 2006 . As well as working on songs from the first Memory Almost Full album session in 2003 , " Why So Blue " was re @-@ recorded . In total , between 20 and 25 songs were recorded for the album . " Dance Tonight " was recorded , along with " Feet in the Clouds " and " 222 " being reworked , between January and February 2007 at RAK Studios , as the last song recorded for the album . The album was mixed by Kahne and Andy Wallace .
= = Content = =
The Rock Radio website leaked a track listing for the album on 12 April 2007 . A day later , producer David Kahne stated on the same site that the leaked listing was bogus . In an interview with Billboard magazine in May 2007 , McCartney said that the album 's material was " in some ways a little bit retrospective . Some of them are of now , some of them hark back to the past , but all of them are songs I 'm very proud of . " McCartney played mandolin on the song " Dance Tonight " . He comments that " In searching the instrument to try and find chords , which I did with the guitar when I was 14 , probably , that freshness was brought back . " " Ever Present Past " , which McCartney called " personal " , originally started out as a song called " Perfect Lover " . " Ever Present Past " also includes references to the Beatles . In June 2007 , McCartney revealed that " See Your Sunshine " " is pretty much an out @-@ and @-@ out love song for Heather . A lot of the album was done before , during and after our separation . I didn 't go back and take out any songs to do with her . " " You Tell Me " is about McCartney 's memories of his previous wife , Linda .
" Mr. Bellamy " , the sixth song on the album , was thought by online fans to be about McCartney 's then @-@ recent divorce . McCartney invited Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke to play piano on the song , but he declined . The press ran articles claiming that Yorke had " snubbed " McCartney , but Yorke later revealed that he " really liked the song " but felt he would be unable to perform to the required standard . " Gratitude " is reportedly about the divorce between Heather Mills and McCartney .
The album features a five song @-@ medley , which in an interview with Billboard magazine , McCartney said that it was previously " something I wanted to revisit " as " nobody had been doing that for a while . " The medley was a group of intentionally written material , whereas McCartney had worked on the Beatles ' Abbey Road which , however , was actually made up of " bits we had knocking around . " The medley starts off with " Vintage Clothes " , which McCartney " sat down one day " to write , that was " looking back , [ and ] looking back . " , about life . It was followed by the bass @-@ led " That Was Me " , which is about his " school days and teachers " , the medley , as McCartney stated , then " progressed from there . " The next songs are " Feet in the Clouds " , about the inactivity while one is growing up , and " House of Wax " , about the life of being a celebrity . The final song in medley , " The End of the End " , was written at McCartney 's Cavendish Avenue home while playing on his father , Jim 's , piano .