The Curious Case of the U.S. Army's M551 Sheridan Light Tank

National Interest ^ | January 27, 2017 | Sebastien Roblin

[Spktyr]

And Zaloga’s book, a direct rebuttal to “Death Traps”: https://www.amazon.com/Armored-Thunderbolt-U-S-Sherman-World/dp/0811704246/ref=pd_cp_14_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=DCATFXG65KVRZGWY2SGZ

[jmacusa]

I will. Tell it to the Russkies who had the T-34s shot out from underneath them by 88mm’s from Tiger Tanks.

[jmacusa]

Really? Were they riding in Shermans. Who were these ‘’scholars’’? The Sherman tank was a piece of junk.

[jmacusa]

The germans called the Shermans “Ronson’’because of the Ronson Cigarette Lighter Companys slogan “Lights up on the first stoke!’. It only took one hit in the engine compartment of a Sherman and it’s gasoline engine caught fire.

[Spktyr]

In Hunnicut’s case, yes, he actually was riding in and on Shermans.

[Spktyr]

Except it wasn’t the engine compartment or the gasoline that caused them to brew up for the most part - considering that a significant percentage of the early Shermans were *diesel* and they went up just as badly. The real problem was the dry ammo storage. The applique armor they used to try to protect the dry ammo didn’t help either as it just gave the Germans better aiming points. The final solution was to go to wet ammo stowage, which put the Sherman’s chances of going on fire, gasoline or not, *lower* than most other tanks of the war.

Something worth mentioning - most German tanks also ran on gasoline. So did pretty much everyone else but the Russians, who chose diesel.

[Spktyr]

Videos worth watching - tour and talk-round of a Canadian Grizzly, which was an M4A1 made in Canada.

Exterior:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACqzevjK2DQ

Interior:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld8UGWBdU5E

[jmacusa]

I knew men who fought in Shermans in the 4th. Armored Div. and the 3rd. Armored in WW2. To a man they all said they would have preferred to have been in German tanks.

[FreedomPoster]

Bfl