3 things the M4 Sherman did BETTER than other tanks

The M4 Sherman has a bad reputation. It had a relatively low velocity gun, it was rumoured to burst into flames at a moments notice and was seen to be inferior to German heavy tanks. But is the Sherman's notoriety deserved?

In this video, IWM's John Delaney will examine the M4 Sherman in the round. He'll look at the tank's design, what it was produced to do, and how it compared to its German equivalents. Plus he'll examine some of the Sherman's forgotten attributes which outclassed even the heaviest German tanks.

As a result we'll gain a more nuanced view and a better appreciation of just how effective the Sherman was in the Second World War.

#history #ww2 #tanks

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00:00 Introduction
0:53 What was the Sherman for?
3:09 Production
5:36 Battlefield effectiveness
6:36 Survivability
8:23 Firepower
10:18 Manoeuvrability
11:12 The Sherman's Secret Sauce
13:47 Our Sherman M4A4
14:49 Conclusion

[mikect]

Everyone forgets one big issue. The Sherman had to fight all over the world and the American logistics system couldn't transport a bigger and heavier tank. The Germans could build a tank and then put it on one rail car and have it at the front in less than two days. The Sherman got put on a rail car, had to be lifted into a boat, taken off the boat, put on a rail car, put in another boat and then put on another rail car.

[stekarknugen]

I think the Chieftain said it best: "You can either have the best tank in your army, or have the tank that's actually there for you in battle"

[Jayjay-qeum]

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.

[kilotun]

The Sherman could be the poster child for the maxim, "An okay solution applied immediately and vigorously is far better than a perfect solution ten minutes too late."

[Yen-pgyd]

It takes 3-4 hours to change the transmission on a sherman.
It takes 2 days on a panzer 4.

[michaelw]

The Sherman also fought in forests, mountains, arctic, jungle, coral atolls, hills, built-up areas, and open country. It was designed to be easy to hoist aboard ship and to optimize space for shipment.

[tonytaylor]

During the late 1980’s I worked with a WW2 veteran Sherman tank crew chief. Many stories that I’d not be able to share here, but he survived 5 tanks all the way into Germany. He was severely wounded in his right leg outside of his last tank by shrapnel that had ricocheted off a wall then was patched up and sent home. He loved the Sherman tank. Said that each on he received was a little better than the one it replaced!!

[therealmrfishpaste]

On D-Day, the Sherwood Foresters Tank Regiment lost 13 tanks knocked out in the initial landing....by the end of the day 8 of them had been repaired (on the beach) and returned to service....that is a significant comparative advantage over German tanks.

[lt_rainbowslash]

“Amateurs study strategy, professionals study logistics.” -Omar Bradley

[ycplum]

The Sherman was a medium tank that was compared to German heavy tanks. A medium tank cannot compare with a heavy tank in armor and anti-armor firepower. But this focus distracts from the recognition that the Sherman was a medium tank that punched above its weight class. It wasn't a specialist, but a great jack of all trades.

[Kevin-mxvi]

My dad drove Shermans, and his chief complaint was that because they were tall and hence carried a lot of weight high above the ground, traversing an incline was tricky, especially if the ground was soft.

[SpeedyCotton]

As a former American tanker serving on M60A1's and early M1's, I used to question our use of the Sherman. The more I study it, the more sure I am that it was the right tank for the job at hand.

[andyedwards]

One thing often not mentioned about the Sherman was crew survivability if penetrated. Of all the tanks of WW2 the Sherman had the highest crew survival chance. More tankers got out alive. Ergonomic, easy to open hatches made bailing out much easier.

[neilouellette]

My father was a WWII Veteran and passed away at 95 yrs old 2019. He always mentioned that the roads in Europe cities and towns were very small and not wide. Tigers and Panthers had difficulty traversing, even at slower speeds. The medium Sherman tank had little difficulty and used this to their advantage. Because of this Shermans could out -maneuver Tigers, King Tiger & Panthers and hit them in the ass, where they were most vulnerable.

[bulldogss]

Another thing to note that was important about the Sherman being lightweight was the fact that all the shermans were built in America and had to be shipped overseas.

You could ship two or three Shermans for every tank that was the size of a Tiger and with as many Shermans that needed to be shipped overseas, this was crucial. Not only did we need to supply our own American army, we had to supply the Brits and the Soviets as well.

[captainclone]

One other item is that the Sherman would fit into the available landing craft for amphibious landings. The M-26 Pershing could only be landed at a port with a major crane facility doing the offloading.

[DelAoc]

The most impressive feature of the Sherman tank was the huge amount of variations and upgrades the tank could have. The tank had five different engine variants available to suit requirements of different armies. The design of the suspension allowed the tank to upgrade from VVSS to HVSS fairly easily which in turn allowed the tank to increase track width from 16" to 23". These improved the mobility of the tank substantially and of course the turret ring was large enough to accept turrets with 75mm gun, 76mm gun or 105mm howitzer. The British could even install their 17 pounder with some changes of their own to the tank. There were still many more variations without going into tank destroyers and self propelled guns which were based on the Sherman chassis.

[samschellhase]

There was a Sherman variant for everything too. Mine clearing, recovery vehicle, flamethrower tank, amphibious landing tank, setting fire to the state of Georgia, there’s a Sherman for everything

[steadyjumper]

Always remember survivor’s bias.
“ we got knocked out our Sherman and had to bail 10 times.”
So you survived 10 times

[ObiwanNekody]

It has a bad reputation because so many people that operated it survived to complain about it and were allowed to do such.