[SoCal Pubbie]

“On Shermans. We called them “Emchas”, from M4 [in Russian, em chetyrye]...Overall, this was a good vehicle but, as with any tank, it had its pluses and minuses. When someone says to me that this was a bad tank, I respond, “Excuse me” One cannot say that this was a bad tank. Bad as compared to what?...

In the first place, this track had a service life approximately twice that of steel track. I might be mistaken, but I believe that the service life of the T-34 track was 2500 kilometers. The service life of the Sherman track was in excess of 5000 kilometers. Secondly, The Sherman drove like a car on hard surfaces, and our T-34 made so much noise that only the devil knows how many kilometers away it could be heard...

In general the American representative worked efficiently. Any deficiency that he observed and reported was quickly and effectively corrected...

For a long time after the war I sought an answer to one question. If a T-34 started burning, we tried to get as far away from it as possible, even though this was forbidden.”

When a Sherman burned, the main gun ammunition did not explode. Why was this?

“Such a case occurred once in Ukraine. Our tank was hit. We jumped out of it but the Germans were dropping mortar rounds around us. We lay under the tank as it burned...We thought we were finished! We would hear a big bang and it would all be over! A brother’s grave! We heard many loud thumps coming from the turret. This was the armor-piercing rounds being blown out of their cases. Next the fire would reach the high explosive rounds and all hell would break loose! But nothing happened. Why not? Because our high explosive rounds detonated and the American rounds did not? In the end it was because the American ammunition had more refined explosives...

The Sherman could never defeat a Tiger with a frontal shot. We had to force the Tiger to expose its flank. If we were defending and the Germans were attacking, we had a special tactic. Two Shermans were designated for each Tiger. The first Sherman fired at the track and broke it. For a brief space of time the heavy vehicle still moved forward on one track, which caused it to turn. At this moment the second Sherman shot it in the side, trying to hit the fuel cell. This is how we did it.

-Dmitriy Fedorovich
Interview with Russian WW2 tank commander

http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/thefgmforum/threads/interview-with-russian-ww2-tank-commander.6905/

[archy]

“On Shermans. We called them “Emchas”, from M4 [in Russian, em chetyrye]...

In Cyrillics, it's written MЧ, so you can see where the Em-Cha designation came from. You might get a kick out of the following reference book: