Belton Cooper was an Ordnance Officer under Patton. His book, “Death Traps: The Survival of an American Armored Division in World War II” tells a very sad story. Cooper's job was to give his boss a daily update on how many tanks were totaled, under repair, available for issue, or combat ready on a daily basis. On this day there were 30 Shermans sitting along a road ready for action, but they did not have enough seasoned tankers to make up the five man crews. And so they assigned 2-3 veteran tankers per tank and used raw replacements to fill the crews. Almost all the replacements were lucky if they'd seen a tank before, much less crewed one.
At the end of the day, nearly all of the 30 repaired Shermans had been knocked-out with heavy casualties. Tanks that didn't burn were taken to ordnance shops where they were rebuilt and repainted inside. These refurbished tanks were then reissued to the division's tank battalions. Veteran tankers knew how to recognize these refurbished Shermans. They said they could still smell the death that had occurred inside these tanks.