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Whats Your Favorite Sherman?

Discussion in 'Weapons & Technology in WWII' started by dasreich, Nov 3, 2002.

  1. Kai-Petri

    Kai-Petri Kenraali

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    Some interesting info I found:

    "In early 1944, the US Army faced a critical decision regarding its armored forces: should it retain the M4 Sherman as its primary tank or accelerate production of the new M26 Pershing heavy tank? Although many armored commanders favored the Pershing, the tank debate continued until Lt Gen George S. Patton, the Army’s leading tank "expert," entered the fray. Patton favored the smaller (and supposedly more mobile) Sherman, noting that "tanks were not supposed to fight other tanks, but bypass them if possible, and attack enemy objectives in the rear." Ultimately, senior Allied commanders—including Gen Dwight Eisenhower—backed Patton and decided to increase production of the Sherman.

    Belton Cooper served in the legendary Third Armored Division ("Spearhead"), Cooper was charged with the critical task of locating damaged Shermans, directing their recovery, and ensuring the flow of new or repaired tanks to frontline units.From the Normandy invasion to V-E day, Cooper witnessed the folly of Patton’s logic firsthand. The author calculates (with only a touch of irony) that he "has seen more knocked out tanks than any other living American."

    Over the next 11 months, the Third Armored Division, which began the Normandy campaign with 232 M4 tanks, would see 648 of its Shermans destroyed in combat, with another 700 knocked out of commission before being repaired and returned to service—a cumulative loss rate of 580 percent. Casualties among tank crews also skyrocketed, producing an acute shortage of qualified personnel. By late 1944, Cooper recalls, the Army was sending newly arrived infantrymen into combat as replacement tank crews. Some of these recruits received only one day of armor training before being dispatched to the front in their M4s.

    http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/bookrev/cooper.html

    Pershing then??

    M-26 Pershing
    41.8 metric tons
    Hull Armor (front/side/rear) 102mm/76mm/51mm
    Turret Armor (front/side/rear) 102mm/76mm/76mm
    Main Gun 90mm
    Top Speed 32 km/hr

    How about that? Or was it too late to start mass production anyway for this?
     

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