page_title: M47 Patton
section_title: Combat service
hierarchical_section_title: M47 Patton / Combat service
caption_attribution_description: English: M47 Patton in Somali desert. Original caption states: The road sides are still littered with abandoned tanks and mine fields www.carlmontgomery.com Taken in Somaliland
context_page_description: The M47 Patton was an American main battle tank, a development of the M46 Patton mounting an updated turret, and was in turn further developed as the M48 Patton. It was the second American tank to be named after General George S. Patton, commander of the U.S. Third Army during World War II and one of the earliest American advocates of tanks in battle.
  The M47 was the U.S. Army's and Marine Corps' primary tank, intended to replace the M26 Pershing and M46 Patton medium tanks. The M47 was widely used by U.S. Cold War allies, both SEATO and NATO countries, and was the only Patton series tank that never saw combat while in US service.
  Although similar in appearance to the later M48s and M60s, these were completely new tank designs. Many different M47 Patton models remain in service internationally. The M47 was the last US tank to have a bow-mounted machine gun in the hull.
context_section_description: Near the end of the Korean war, some M47s were deployed for field testing. Some of these had 18-inch searchlights.
  Pakistan fielded M47s against India in both the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.
  Jordan used M47s against Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967.
  The M47 was used by the Turkish Army in the Turkish invasion of Cyprus between July and August 1974, with an estimated 200 Patton tanks involved in the combat action. At least one operational M47, Serial Number 092273, was captured by the Cyprus National Guard and remained in their service until 1993. This example is currently stored at the camp of the 25 ΕΜΑ in Paphos for use as a training and a war-memorial exhibit.
  Iran sent their M47s to fight against Iraq in the Iran–Iraq War between 1980 and 1988. Iranian M47s were roughly equivalent to the T-54s and almost as good as the T-55s, performed very poorly against much-superior Iraqi tanks such as the T-62s and T-72s. Large numbers of M47 Patton tanks fell into Iraqi capture by the end of the war.
  In the 1980s and up to the early 1990s, the Turkish Army used M47 tanks against PKK guerrillas within Turkey and neighbouring Iraq. Turkish M48A5 variants replaced all remaining M47s by the late 1990s.
  Croatia used M47s against their Serbian enemies in the Croatian War of Independence but their performance was regarded as inferior to that of the Soviet-designed T-55. The M47s were retired from service immediately after the war and are now used as gunnery/missile live-firing targets during military exercises.
  In the Somali Civil War, some of the country's large M47 collection (obtained prior to the war) may have seen some service in the initial stages of the internal conflict but these aging vehicles soon ceased operations (and left abandoned and/or destroyed) due to a lack of spare parts and proper maintenance by the Somali Army.
  France deployed a squadron of its M47s against Egypt during the Suez Crisis in 1956.
caption: A destroyed M47 Patton in Somalia, left behind wrecked from the Somali Civil War.
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