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To: C19fan

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.


16 posted on 10/23/2014 8:46:18 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: blueunicorn6
Use in non tank on tank engagements is why the Sherman's huge quantity was so significant in WWII, they could be in more places and do more things against German infantry and soft targets and also support and protect our infantry.

Americans did not go for grand tank on tank operations like the Germans and Russians.

For Americans and Brits, the weapon of choice against German tanks was an airplane and we had total air superiority by the time D-Day had arrived

23 posted on 10/23/2014 8:56:06 AM PDT by rdcbn
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