Combat use World War II The first 40 M36s did not make it overseas until September 1944, and entered combat in October 1944. The US First and Ninth Armies used M36s to reequip tank destroyer battalions attached to armored divisions. The 703rd Tank Destroyer Battalion began re-equipping on 30 September 1944. The Third US Army used them to reequip towed battalions. The 610th Tank Destroyer Battalion (Towed) began retraining on 25 September 1944. The first tank destroyer battalion to actually 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. By the end of 1944, seven tank destroyer battalions had converted to the M36. The M36 had mostly replaced the M10 by the end of the war. 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. Corporal Anthony Pinto of the 1st Platoon, Company A, 814th Tank Destroyer Battalion knocked out a Panther at 4,200 yards (3,800 metres). Another 814th gunner, Lt Alfred Rose, scored a kill against a Panther at 4,600 yards (4200 metres), the maximum range of the telescopic sight. However, the Panther's 82 to 85mm thick glacis plate could deflect certain shots from the 90 mm gun at just 150 yards (137 metres), and the 150mm thick front armor of the Tiger II could only be penetrated in a few hard-to-hit places. Korean War The M36 was used by the US Army in the Korean War. It could destroy any Soviet-made AFV deployed in that theater of operations. 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 M36 was treated as a tank by the Republic of Korea Army despite technically being considered a self-propelled gun. 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. During the war, the South Korean Army had about 200 M36s and operated 9 tank companies. Each company was assigned to the