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One thing is interesting is that many US troops called the Sherman tank "Purple Heart Boxes" due to the fact they were weak compare to the Germans 88 Tiger Panzers.

The Sherman crews called them "Ronsons" (popular WWII cigarette lighter) because they always lit up the first time (from a hit by the 88s). The Germans called them "Tommy Cookers" for the same reason.

Note a vain attempt to up-armor it by welding extra plates on the side - which the Germans used for aiming points.

Why did we make Shermans if they were so inferior? Because they were easy to produce and operate (for an army of civilians you didn’t need a long training time), as well as they were probably the fastest tank in WW II. When the US Army broke out of the Hedgerows, they could’ve ended the war before Christmas if they had gotten the fuel.

When America started building Shermans(M4)they were building it to match the panzers in existence at the time. The best the Germans had then was the Mark4. The Sherman was a pretty even match with the Mark4 and better than the Mark3. In North Africa the Sherman aquitted itself well, the British loved them, they mounted a 76MM High velocity gun on it and called it the firefly. We kept the short barreled 75, a gun which was the equal of the 75 on the Mark4.

Hitler decided to build two tanks that were better than the Mark4, hence the Panther(arguably the best tank in WWII)and the Tiger deadly but slow and vulnerable to artillery. Once we got to Europe we were out classed but by the end of the War we had the M26, sporting a 90MM gun and better armor and other improvements. Not many of them saw action, we built the M4 Sherman in such numbers that we overcame the Panthers and the Tigers by sheer numbers, it usually took 4 Shermans to knock out either a Panther or a Tiger. Even though we could well afford to lose the Shermans we couldn't afford to lose the tank crews that died with them.