Long before the outbreak of the First Middle East War, the IDF was equipped with a sparse number of technical weapons, especially only 20 tanks. In contrast, in the surrounding Arab countries, any one of them can pull out one or two hundred tanks. In response to a possible war, the Israelis upgraded six Sherman tanks left behind by the U.S. Military and replaced them with 77 mm tank guns ordered from West Germany.
In fact, these 77 mm guns were not advanced at that time, and their technology was derived from the war defense guns of the First World War. The IDF armored corps were naturally dissatisfied, so they replaced another batch of Sherman tanks with 105 mm howitzers to deal with the threat of war that could occur at any time.
In 1953, although the Israel Defense Forces had received a large number of US military assistance in the past few years, their embarrassing situation had not improved, and they were still facing the danger of being completely crushed by the surrounding Arab countries in terms of the number of technical equipment.
Although the tanks and anti-tank guns earlier aided by britain and the United States were able to deal with soviet tanks used by the Middle Eastern army. But with the entry into service of the Soviet T-54/55 tank, the Israeli Army realized that the new Soviet tank was likely to become the number one opponent of Israel's armored forces in the near future.
Therefore, Israel decided to send a delegation to European countries to purchase a batch of cutting-edge tanks to make up for the lack of its own armored forces. One of the IDF delegates was France, where they visited France's latest AMX-13 tank, which was generally satisfactory to the Israelis, equipped with a 75 mm gun that was enough to compete with the mainstream tanks of the Middle East at this stage.
However, the armor of the AMX-13 was not very satisfactory, and it was so fragile that the Israeli delegation, after consulting with the French, only purchased the 75 mm gun of the AMX-13 tank.
The Israelis' goal was simple: to use the new French tank guns to modify Israel's existing tanks, especially the M4 Sherman tanks with a large amount of U.S. aid. Although these old antiques are World War II goods, some reasonable upgrades, such as external armor, replacement of main guns, installation of more infrared observation equipment, upgrading of suspension systems, modification of engines with greater horsepower, can still fight for another decade.
The first batch of Sherman tanks to be modified totaled 50, due to the excessive length of the super-diameter 75 gun brought about the center of gravity problems, the Super Sherman in the modification of the British modified "Firefly" tank, in the rear of the turret to add a counterweight box. The Super Sherman tanks were also fitted with the latest model of the R-975 petrol engine and upgraded VVSS suspension, which was more suitable for driving in the original road environment.
Although the modification was perfect from a design point of view, the first prototype was found to have defects during testing, the most obvious defect being that the tank tracks were too narrow, which caused the ground to be under greater pressure, which in turn led to the tank's off-road driving performance being very bad, and the pressure on the engine when driving was also very large.
Therefore, the Israel Defense Forces urgently halted the modification of subsequent vehicles, and after some deliberations decided to replace the HVSS suspension and 460-horsepower V-8 diesel engine for the Sherman. This allows for a wider track change for the Sherman tank, which reduces ground pressure. Diesel engines have been proven in war, especially in the face of Middle Eastern armies and militias using RPG and Molotov cocktails, and the advantages of diesel's low flammability are evident.
The first modified Sherman tanks were officially designated M50 tanks by the Israel Defense Forces and are often referred to as Super Sherman tanks. It excelled against the Egyptian army during Operation Cadiz in 1956, effectively countering Soviet and American tanks equipped by the Egyptian army. However, the M50, equipped with the super-diameter 75 gun, can only be regarded as the first generation of super Sherman at best.
In 1960, the Israel Defense Forces introduced the more powerful 105 mm tank gun from France, and soon converted these tank guns to Sherman tanks. After being convinced that the Sherman could install a 105 mm gun, the IDF had a bold idea to install the 155 mm gun on the Sherman tank, which could be used as a self-propelled gun to provide fire support for mechanized troops, even if it could not undertake the combat task of the tank.
In 1964, a military conflict broke out between Israel and neighboring countries over the United Nations-initiated water diversion program in the Sea of Galilee. Initially, both sides attacked each other's construction crews with tanks and artillery in their respective hands, destroying each other's construction vehicles. But the war soon turned into a military conflict, with IDF-equipped Super Sherman tanks and Centurion tanks easily destroying Syrian and Jordanian T-34-85 tanks.
Subsequently, the Super Sherman tank participated in many battles such as the Golan Heights Conflict, the West Bank Conflict and the Sinai Peninsula Conflict, and destroyed a large number of Soviet tanks equipped by Middle Eastern countries in the battle, and even did not lose the upper hand against the T-54/55 tanks exported by the Soviet Union to the Middle East countries. In a way, it should be said that the tank soldiers of the Middle East countries have achieved the myth of super Sherman, but the tanks exported by the Soviet Union are not equipped with advanced observation equipment, which also makes the super Sherman have room to play.
Beginning in 1973, the Super Sherman tank was completely behind the times, and no matter how much the IDF spent a lot of money to maintain and upgrade its equipment, the aging Sherman could no longer compete with the cutting-edge Soviet tanks. As a result, the Israel Defense Forces transferred it to a second-line force and gradually retired it over the next two decades. Born during World War II, the Sherman tank, which was in service at an overage age, finally withdrew from the stage of military history. (U.S. Sherman tanks were retired around 1953.)
References: IDF Sherman Tank, M-50 Super Sherman