Why The Sherman Tank Arrived Just In Time For The Allies | Tanks! | War Stories

As someone once said "it might take 4 shermans to take out one Tiger but you were far more likely to find 4 shermans on a battlefield than one Tiger"

My grandfather was a tanker in WW II. Years ago when we were swapping war stories I asked him about the sherman. He was very proud of those tanks and told me that when used as intended, as support for infantry, there was no better tank in the war. He said this even after losing two tanks, one to artillery and one as you'd guess, to a tiger. He told me the Shermans were never intended to go against tanks. The Sherman was meant to be rapid, go anywhere, heavy firepower on demand for the boots on the ground. When used as such they were incredibly effective, at taking out fortified positions, gun emplacements, large numbers of enemy infantry ect. If they saw or got reports of tigers in their vicinity they called the tank killers (sorry I forget the nomenclature and don't feel like looking it up) I think they were the m18s (I think) well anyway. He said the last thing they wanted to see were German tanks, the Sherman just was not meant to do battle with those larger better armored/ gunned machines. So any word of enemy tanks they called the tank killers and then used their better speed and maneuverability to find a way to where they needed to be that did not include facing German armor. And if you're still reading, that's how he lost his second tank. It was late in the war towards the end of winter 1945 somewhere near the German border (before i go on, if this sounds like the tank battle in "Fury" someone involved may have been interviewed or written their own account of this which influenced the writers of the movie because what happened was fairly close to what when on in the movie but, he told me this story back in the early 90's) Well, Anyway my Pop and three or four other tanks were cutting across a farmer's field on the way to support some ground troops. A tiger comes out from behind a barn and immediately puts one right through the front of my Pop's tank. Just he and the assistant driver were lucky enough to escape. While they were bailing out from the tank, the tiger hit and killed a second tank sadly he told me nobody was getting out of that one alive. It was at this point the tiger all bottoned up and having to navigate through just that tiny window ended up with one of its tracks falling into an what pop thought might have been some kind of irrigation ditch and was now totally stuck. So much like in the movie the remaining shermans had to race the tiger's rotating turret and with that far superior speed and maneuverability got around the tiger's rear and that was all she wrote for the tiger. And with that my grandfather's war had ended but, not before picking up a (not so uncommon) souvenir from the war, a piece of his tank that got stuck in his knee. The Dr's at the time had their hands full, obviously, and didn't have the time to remove it in the field hospital or back in England. So he actually carried around that piece of Sherman in there for 29 years until he broke his leg in 1974 working on a car when he finally had it removed.

It is frequently overlooked that, while the Panther Tank weighted 45 tons, it was originally designed to weigh only 30 tons but, nevertheless, still had the original engine, transmission and suspension intended for the original 30-ton version of the tank. That accounted for the main reason it the Panther Tank was so mechanically unreliable.

Paraguay retired three Shermans from the Regimiento Escolta Presidencial (REP, "Presidential Escort Regiment") in 2018, which marked the end of service of the final Sherman tanks in use anywhere in the world.

'In 1943, a small Allied force invaded Sicily.' Uh, I don't think it was so small. It was a huge amphibious landing. Stunned the Axis. Look it up, documentary people.

The coolest thing about the Sherman were the level ups. Upgrading the hull to plate welded armor, better ammo stowage, better suspension, and a higher velocity gun eventually made the Sherman an incredibly strong tank for one produced in such high numbers.

MAJOR correction, the T14 and the Jumbo are NOT the same tank, not even close. By the time they were making the Jumbos the T14 and its UK equivalent the Excelsior had both been canceled for being an impractical complication that still needed more development while the Churchills had already had their issues ironed out. The Jumbos were just standard Sherman's with additional armor welded to the front hull, and a heavier armored turret. This is why only 250 were made, it heavily overstressed the front suspension leading to increased wear and tear causing frequent parts breakage. With a supply chain spanning literally the entire globe, and an equally long supply line to the front, the US refused to issue equipment that was known to be faulty or defective (This doesn't mean it didn't happen, just that they tried to avoid it when they could). That's because EVERYTHING had to cross at least one ocean to get to the fight, and they weren't shipping defective tanks back to the US to he fixed, once it was shipped that was it, and any repairs, fixes, or overhauls would have to be repaired by motor pools and if they couldn't handle the fix, the tank was just sent to the local scrapyard.

A couple of things not mentioned. First was the design constraint placed on the M4 in that over 95% of the cranes at American ports could only lift 40 tons onto a ship. A major point in its favor was crew ergonomics. The loader could load the gun while seated. It has a stabilizer for the gun. It had a periscopic sight and a telescopic sight. And it was easy to drive.

The Sherman was produced in huge numbers, could be transported and used anywhere, had a good gun which got better with the 76mm, sloped frontal armor, main gun stabilization, mechanical reliability, great crew ergonomics and organization, and was produced in many versions (direct fire guns, howitzers, flamethrowers, dozers, rocket launchers, anti-miners, engineer, armored recovery, and even personnel carriers, and could and was modified in the field). And versions were used well into the 70’s, maybe 80’s. It may be a jack-of-all-trades and not a specialist in one, but it was a war winner!

The Sherman in the museum at 32:00 is polished to a high shine. It might have been Patton's tank. I could see it now. "But General. Your tank is too shiny. It sticks out like a sore thumb." "I know Sergent. I don't just want them to hear me coming. I want them to see me coming. Now paint a big white star on the front of that tank. "

The chieftains breakdown of the Sherman and American armor doctrine corrects and adds on to a lot of info in this...after this check that video out

The Germans did not invade Austria. They were more or less welcomed. Lest we forget.

The names of the tanks were still M3 and M4 Medium Tank, it was the British who applied "Grant", "Lee" and "Sherman", which stuck with the Americans.

Gotta love shermans

26:04 Another myth. They didnt lose 5 Shermans per every Panther. They used 5 Shermans per every Panther, because Shermans operated in groups of 5, whereas Panthers operated quite frequently alone.

M4, as mentioned, won due to speed, reliability, and ease of maintenance. Drove from Normandy to Prague and Berlin. German commanders were overjoyed if one of their tanks would go 100km without a major failure, if there were no rail cars to transport them, they were basically dead meat, actual kill ratio was 3:1 in favor of M4.

The Sherman had to be very shippable as they were put on ships to every combat zone.

The German 88 was the best all around cannon in WW 2. They used it for everything. Anti-Aircraft, Anti-Tank, Artillery, & Heavy Tank Gun.

The opening off this video describing the US as a “ Isolationist back water to an industrial giant” HA! Back Water? When the United States entered WW2 it had been the world’s largest economy for approximately 65 years, it already was an industrial giant.

The fact the Sherman kept getting modified just showed it service expiration. It can be said about the Patton as well. What a wonderful machine of industrial thought. Without the plants that built the Sherman’s, we wouldn’t have the automotive culture we have now due to the re-use of the factories.