Posted on 10/23/2014 8:09:23 AM PDT by C19fan
The M-4 Sherman was the workhorse medium tank of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps during World War II. It fought in every theater of operation—North Africa, the Pacific and Europe.
The Sherman was renown for its mechanical reliability, owing to its standardized parts and quality construction on the assembly line. It was roomy, easily repaired, easy to drive. It should have been the ideal tank.
But the Sherman was also a death trap.
Basically our troops "swarmed" the German tanks and put one up their tailpipe.
The Sherman aks a ‘Ronson’ - they work everytime.
the photo of the Super Sherman in the article immediately brought to mind the T-1 of Terminator fame.
The best Sherman tank movie was the one where the guy put the transmission in backwards so it had one speed forward and four speeds in reverse. Kelly’s Heroes?
Sherman M4’s were jokingly referred to by British soldiers as “Ronsons”, a brand of lighter whose slogan was “Lights up the first time, every time!”[iv] Polish soldiers referred to them simply as “The Burning Grave”.
However to quote Comrade Stalin
‘Quantity has a quality all its own.’
There were A LOT of Shermans...
The best Sherman tank movie was the one where the guy put the transmission in backwards so it had one speed forward and four speeds in reverse.
I think that was standard in all Italian tanks in WW2...
Remember reading that it took half a dozen Shermans to take down a Tiger (Panzerkampfwagon Mark VI).
Not good if you’re the guys in the first five Shermans.
The Brits upgunned it with a “17pounder” (90mm) and called it the Firefly. Better gun, but still underarmored compared to the some of the beasts the Germans were using. But at least the bigger gun gave it a fighting chance against the thicker armor on the Tigers and Panthers (Mark V) and the bigger King Tigers (Mark VIB).
My old man was WWII Airborne. He had a healthy respect for German armor... saw a lot of in the Ardennes. Too much.
A good friend of my family was a tank driver in the 4th Armored Division. He had three Sherman tanks shot out under him.
I've always understood North Africa to be considered an ancillary or prologue to the European Theater.
Also, the word is renowned.
The final US Army mortality rate for Sherman crewmen in destructive disablements was just 0.3 fatalities per incident (sadly, I don't have the link handy, but you can research it, too). In other words, most got out, contrary to the Ronson stigma.
I recall that the Israeli Defense Forces were effectively using up-gunned Shermans as late as the Yom Kippur War (1973).
Yep...and don’t forget, along with heavy armor and big guns, the Germans had two (2) other critical pieces of force multipliers: Veteran crews and Zeiss optics. The Germans could see farther and better than the Americans. Once the US got Air superiority and/or ANGLECO Radio operator on line, the heavy german tanks days were numbered.
The Sherman was a great tank for what it was designed to do.....suppress enemy machine guns. American military leaders in the 1920s and 1930s saw tanks as being a support weapon for the Infantry. They did not envision huge armored thrusts knifing into the rear of the enemy. The tank would be a mobile machine gun in the defense and a protected machine gun to suppress the enemy machine guns in the offense.
Tankers like to talk about the tank-on-tank battles. Tanks are most useful when they are shooting up the enemy communications vans and driving through their chow halls. That’s when they really break and run.
In 1969 when I joined 58 Engr Co at Fulda FRG our tracks were all M113 with gas engines. Had the Russians come we would have been riding a ‘Ronson’.. The conversion to diesel wasn’t complete until the 70’s.
In Lima, OH, they were turning out a tank ever 4.5 HOURS. You simply can't beat that with high tech.
“...Once the US got Air superiority ...”
True that...
Falaise Pocket.... ‘nuff said... the 1944 version of the Basra Road (out of Kuwait)...
Contrary to what people may think, all the German tanks ran on gasoline too. Maybach tank engines, including the HL230 engine in the Tiger I and other heavy tanks, were gasoline engines, not diesel.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.