Some were supplied to South Korea as part of the Military Assistance Program and served for years, as did re-engined examples found in Yugoslavia, which operated into the 1990s.

[2][3][4] U.S. combined arms doctrine on the eve of World War II held that tanks should be designed to fulfill the role of forcing a breakthrough into enemy rear areas.

The idea was to use speed and agility to bring a powerful self-propelled anti-tank gun into action against enemy tanks.

In October 1942, the Ordnance Department tested mounting the experimental 90 mm gun T7 into the turret of an M10 tank destroyer.

General Andrew Bruce, head of the Tank Destroyer Force, objected to the project, favoring the lighter Gun Motor Carriage M18 'Hellcat', but was ignored.

Initially, a request for full production was denied as 90 mm guns were already being studied for use on tanks, but Army Ground Forces approved the project in October 1943, and tests began.

It was decided that production vehicles would use the chassis of the M10A1 tank destroyer, as the M10A1 had superior automotive characteristics, and significant numbers were available.

[6] The first tank destroyer battalion to receive the M36 in early September, the 776th, was in transit from Italy at the time and did not use them in combat until October 1944.

The M36 was well-liked by its crews, being one of the few armored fighting vehicles available to US forces that could destroy heavy German tanks from a distance.

An 814th gunner, Lt Alfred Rose, scored a kill against a Panther at 4,600 yards (4200 meters),[citation needed] the maximum range of the telescopic sight.

However, the Panther's 82 to 85mm thick glacis plate[7] could deflect shots at certain angles from the 90 mm gun at just 150 yards (137 meters).

Testing done in December 1944 by the 703rd Tank Destroyer Battalion concluded that the M36's 90mm Gun would theoretically not be able to penetrate the frontal armor of a Tiger II at any range with the ammunition that was available to them.

One postwar modification was the addition of a ball-mounted machine gun on the co-driver's side, as in many other armored fighting vehicles of the time.

Due to the shortage of M26 and M46 tanks, the M36 became one of the preferred armored vehicles for MAP (Military Assistance Program) transfers.

The South Korean military, which faced the war without having a single tank, pushed for the creation of an armored unit and acquired the first six M36s for training in late October 1950.

Since it was operated by Koreans, command and communication between infantry and armored units were smooth, and it had a significant effect on boosting morale.

[11] During the Battle of White Horse during 6–15 October 1952, the 53rd Tank Company, assigned to the 9th Infantry Division, contributed to the victory by bombarding the side of the enemy's offensive force and suppressing heavy weapons deployed on the enemy-occupied highlands.

However, the M36 had limitations for large-scale operations due to the equipment already being retired from the U.S. military: spare parts were scarce, and it was difficult to obtain further fully functional vehicles.

The M36s were called "Tank Busters" in the Pakistan Army, though due to constant mechanical failures probably because of inexperienced maintenance personnel and drivers, they were disliked by soldiers of the Pakistani Armoured Corps.

[13][14] Colonel M. Yahya Effendi who served with the 11th Cavalry in the 1965 war recollects that: It was an awkward fighting vehicle in every sense.

The synchronization of the engines was a nuisance for the mechanics, and while driving, an inexperienced or flappy driver could smash the single plate clutch by sudden release, thus immobilizing the vehicle.

[13]Their first combat use by the Pakistan Army was in early September 1965 during Operation Grand Slam at Chumb when 11 M36B2s under the command of Major Mian Raza Shah of the 11th Cavalry fought against AMX-13s of the Indian 20 Lancers.

The rear upper hull plate was used for storage of the vehicle's pioneer tools; an axe, a crowbar, a mattock handle and head, a double-sided 10 lb (4.5 kg) sledgehammer, and a track tensioning wrench, so no appliqué armor bosses could be fitted there.

For combat use, the 90mm gun M3 could fire five types of ammunition: The M82 armor-piercing capped shot was the main round used for engaging enemy tanks.

[18] The T30E16 HVAP round had difficulty with the highly sloped glacis plate of the German Panther tank, so the T33 AP shot was developed to solve this problem.

The M71 high explosive shell was used for indirect fire, or engaging enemy infantry, antitank guns, light vehicles, or other soft targets.

The M36 tank destroyer was equipped with a single .50 caliber (12.7 mm) Browning M2HB machine gun for anti-aircraft or anti-personnel use, with 1,000 rounds of ammunition.