a major joint arms attack to seize Noville. Team Desobry's high-speed highway journey to reach the blocking position is one of the few documented cases in which the top speed of the M18 Hellcat, , was actually used to get ahead of an enemy force. The attack of 1st Battalion and the M18 Hellcat tank destroyers of the 705th TD Battalion near Noville together destroyed at least 30 German tanks and inflicted 500 to 1,000 casualties on the attacking forces, in what amounted to a spoiling attack. A Military Channel historian credited the M18 tank destroyers with 24 kills, including several Tiger tanks, and believes that in part, their ability to "shoot and scoot" at high speed and then reappear elsewhere on the battlefield, confused and slowed the German attack, which finally stalled, leaving the Americans in control of the town overnight. After the Battle of the Bulge, since numbers of the M36 tank destroyer were slow in arriving to the European Theater and towed tank destroyer battalions equipped with the 3-inch Gun M5 had uniformly performed very poorly in the battle when compared to self-propelled units, it was decided to re-equip many of them with the "surplus" of M18s that were then in the theater, with the new M36s mostly re-equipping former M10 units. M18 strength in the European Theatre of Operations varied from 146 in June 1944 to a high of 540 in March 1945. Losses totaled 216. Reception The M18 was generally well-received by its crews. They gave high praise to its mobility when compared to the heavier M10, such as speed and flotation in mud and snow. The speed of the turret traverse was also far faster when compared to the M10, which had a manually-rotated turret. Ease of maintenance of the engine and transmission was also noted. One M18 commander said that his vehicle "operating under combat conditions and averaging a day during the Third Army drive from St. Lô to the German border near Strasbourg...was driven . No repairs were necessary either to the vehicle or engine; only minimal attention was paid to moving parts...M18 engine performance was excellent under the most trying conditions and was highly thought of by all men in my and other M18 tank destroyer outfits." Conversely, the main gun was considered inadequate against the frontal armor of later German tanks like the Tiger and Panther, especially before the introduction