Almost 80 years after the end of World War II, DeBary will purchase a piece of the history of that war and put it on display in the city’s Memorial Park.
“I think this is an appropriate use of impact fees,” Mayor Karen Chasez said, regarding the planned purchase of the M5 light tank.
DeBary will pay $100,000 to WW2 Armor, a private organization devoted to preserving tanks and other vintage military vehicles of World War II, for the M5 Stuart tank. The M5 was named “the Stuart” in honor of Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, a Confederate cavalry officer.
The tank that DeBary is acquiring is now known as “Buddy,” but WW2 Armor Vice President of Operations and Executive Officer Chris Haskell says the tank has a new identity.
“We have renamed it ‘The Spirit of DeBary,’” he told The Beacon.
The city will also pay $15,000 to set up a fence around the tank display and provide landscaping. In addition, the breech and barrel of the tank’s main gun, a 37 mm cannon, will be sealed to render it incapable of inflicting death or destruction. The M5 was also armed with three .30-caliber machine guns. The time and date of the delivery from WW2 Armor to DeBary have not yet been announced.
Actually, the tank in question is “a semi-replica” that deviates somewhat from the original M5 Stuart design and model. The M5, historical sources note, was a variant of the M3 tank made for the U.S. Army, first in 1941 and continuing into 1944.
Classified as a light tank, the Stuart weighed 33,000 pounds. Altogether, American factories — General Motors, Massey Harris Co. and the American Car & Foundry Co. — produced the M5. The estimates of the numbers of the M5s built for the war vary, with some figures exceeding 22,000.
The M5 Stuarts were used in every theater of the war, including North Africa, Western Europe, the invasion of Sicily and the Pacific island campaigns. Haskell said he has no information on whether the main frame of “Buddy” actually participated in the war and, if so, where.
The original M5 tank was powered by two Cadillac V-8 engines, but the tank now bound for DeBary was converted into a High Speed Tractor (HST) for hauling artillery, and it “has modern running gear and a Cummins diesel engine and Allison transmission,” a city memo stated.
When placed in Memorial Park, the tank will join two other static displays. The most prominent is the F-15 Eagle fighter/bomber, mounted in memory of Airman 1st Class Brian McVeigh. McVeigh, whose hometown was DeBary, was an F-15 crew chief killed in the Khobar Towers terrorist bombing in Saudi Arabia June 25, 1996.
Also, the park has an anchor formerly used by the Navy.
The acquisition of a tank used by the Army was a goal of City Manager Carmen Rosamonda, who inquired if the Army had any surplus tanks available for donation to DeBary. Rosamonda received no favorable word, but WW2 Armor offered to sell the M5 in its collection.
