The M18 Hellcat doesn’t show up very often in Hollywood, but in 1949 it was the guest star in the movie “Battleground”.  Usually we see Sherman tanks or movie set doubles, but somehow they managed to get a hold of a Hellcat.

It’s only shown a few times in the movie - once in the very beginning, and then a few times towards the end of the movie.  I suspect the M18 they used wasn’t in working condition, because i think if it was, it would have been too tempting to include shots of it moving around.  On the other hand, it was only 1949, and you would think that they could get one in good working condition at that time.

In the movie, you see that it’s an early model Hellcat because of the raised exhaust outlet behind the primary driver hatch.

You can see “705 TD” painted near the left tail light in the refueling scene.  This is historically accurate, as the 705th TD Battalion did work with the 101st during the Battle of Bastogne.  In fact, the 705th TD Battalion was reported to have destroyed 40 German tanks, at a loss of only 6 Hellcats.  That’s nearly a 7:1 kill ratio.

The 705th was awarded the Presidential Citation for it’s role in the Battle of Bastogne.