At the outbreak of World War II, the preparation of the U.S. military was not sufficient, which was more reflected in the armored units of the U.S. Army. When the German army was equipped with a large number of long-barreled artillery Panzer IV tanks, the U.S. army was still using the M-3 Lee "seven brothers coffin", even when the U.S. army landed in Normandy and opened up the second battlefield, it was equipped with M-4 Sherman tanks. The Sherman looks tall and mighty, but it performs on the battlefield unsympathetically.
Eisenhowerson, commander of the US European Theater of Operations, even publicly stated that if the logistics personnel dared to send another short-body tube version of the M-4 tank, he would shoot the US military's logistics officer, which can also show the US military's dislike of the short-body tube M-4 tank. At that time, the U.S. military had little experience in large-scale ground combat, and the U.S. military designers believed that the Sherman tank did not need to face the opponent's armored forces, and the Army Aviation Corps would destroy all the opponent's tanks, but this was just the wishful thinking of the U.S. military designers. On the European battlefield, Sherman tanks had to face the German "zoo", not to mention tiger tanks and Leopard tanks, and even the Panzer IV tanks could easily "kill" the American armored forces in the early days of the US landing. The short-barrelEd Sherman could only deal with infantry without heavy weapons, and sherman was a small sheep on the European battlefield.
Sherman tanks on the battlefields of Africa
Sherman was too tall to hide in the bushes. According to the data released by the US military, the Sherman tank is about 2.74 meters high, which is much shorter than its opponents and can hide itself in various terrains. And the early version of the Sherman only had a short-barreled 75 mm tank gun, this tank gun could not penetrate the front of the Leopard tank even at a distance of 100 meters, I am afraid it could only try to deal with the German Panzer IV, but the German army generally did not let Sherman rush to such a close distance to fire. The Sherman tanks used gasoline as fuel, which is even more confusing. Because gasoline engines are so easy to catch fire, Sherman is bound to catch fire every time he is hit by an opponent. Because of this, Sherman received the nickname "Ronson Lighter" (the slogan of Ronson's lighter at the time was "one hit, every hit must be").
The German Tiger tank, which can easily "hunt" Sherman at a distance of 1500 meters
Faced with Sherman's innate shortcomings, the Allies were constantly trying to improve the tank. The British first developed the Firefly tank to deal with the German Tiger tank, in fact, among the many improved models of Sherman, only the Firefly tank can pose a certain threat to the Tiger. In the British tank formation, basically each tank platoon would have a Firefly tank to deal with the opponent's armored forces, and it produced about 2200 during World War II. The Firefly was a relatively successful attempt, equipped with the British's own 17-pounder tank gun, which could penetrate the frontal armor of the Tiger tank at a longer distance. After the tank was officially equipped to the British army, the British army's "Tiger tank phobia" was slightly alleviated, and the American army without the 17-pounder gun did not have such good luck.
The U.S. military developed the mad "Jumbo" (M4A3E2), but this tank is still equipped with a short-barreled 76 gun, which does not look like much progress, but it is praised by the U.S. military as the king of tanks. The reason is simple, the frontal armor thickness of this tank reached 101 mm, the frontal armor inclination was about 56 degrees, and the front was equivalent to 180 mm steel plate, which was also a battlefield at that time. In one battle, an M4A3E2 had eaten 8 8 mm shells fired by tiger tanks on the front, and the frontal armor was not penetrated. This tank has surpassed the Tiger tank, and only the later Tiger King tank, The Tiger or Cheetah anti-tank destroyer can destroy it.
The front thickness of the sauce explosion did make many German tankers "doubt life"
"Sauce Burst" is still not the most crazy design of the US military, and if you have played Call of Duty, you must be impressed by sherman with a rocket overhead. In reality, the U.S. military really designed a Sherman tank that was resistant to rockets. The tank was often used as front-line infantry support, and after firing the ammunition it carried, the Sherman tank would immediately be put into the offensive, and even launch rockets while attacking.
Sherman tanks are found almost all over the world, and even sink opponents' submarines. The countries that had cooperative relations with the United States during World War II were basically equipped with Sherman tanks, and many Shermans were dumped on China as war surpluses after World War II. In the United States, Sherman tanks are everywhere, and even now in the farmland of Texas can still find Sherman tanks used as tractors, in addition to the fuel consumption is a little large, there is nothing wrong.