Sherman Tanks

The Sherman tank was developed from the M2 and M3 series medium tanks. The M2 was slated for full production with thousands supposed to be manufactured, but with the fall of France, the Americans realized that the Germans had a short barrel 75 mm gun and so they desperately wanted to field one that would be at least that good.

They had worked on an artillery piece with a 75 mm gun in a sponson, with a quick rework they designed the Lee M3 medium series. It was supposed to be a interim training tank to give Americans experience in using a 75 mm gun. It was used in combat really only because the British purchased them and used them in North Africa. The US used only about 150 in Tunisia and about 5 or 10 in the Pacific. As they were destroyed in Tunisia they were replaced by Shermans.

The Sherman was a good tank when it was first fielded, it was very reliable, and it had many "luxury" items that can't be found on other nations tanks. The Soviets were amazed with the workmanship, the compass, the siren, the general high quality of the welding and fit, radios and other items made for the almost disposable T34.

The problem with the Sherman is that while the US continued to make many upgrades to the tank, many of them were never fielded, or fielded in only limited numbers. Part of the reason was the doctrine of the US Army that tanks don't fight tanks, tanks are infantry support weapons to destroy the machine gun which had created trench warfare in WWII. Tank destroyers were to destroy tanks. Only later, post war did the US Army determine that the best anti tank weapon was another tank. At the beginning of the war, 1941 the standard tank, the Sherman fielded a 75 mm gun. The tank destroyer was a 37 mm gun. At the end of the war in 1945 the standard tank was still a 75 mm gun Sherman but the tank destroyer had evolved from 37 to 57 to 76 to 90 mm guns and from all towed guns to all self propelled guns.

The other issue was shipping space and weight. US planners seemed to think that tanks of greater than 30 tons could not be off loaded from ships without major seaports and could not use most of the bridges in Europe nor could they use the standard pontoon bridges. Heavier tanks with thicker armor also cost more, could not be produced in as great a numbers as the Sherman and caused more wear and tear on tracks, suspensions and engines and transmissions. That meant more pressure on logistics and maintenance and recovery troops and supplies.

The Germans had these problems with their massive Tiger series. They were always short of parts, short of fuel, lubricants, had problems recovering damaged tanks, and difficulty getting tanks over rivers. Look at the Panther and Tiger problems. Always transmissions dying, drive sprockets breaking, tanks that are nose heavy due to suspension failures.

The Sherman was a great tank in many ways and they look great on the wargame table.