German view of the Sherman tank

[phylo_roadking]

Table XXVI
Fortifications-- 21.2%
Buildings--17.3%
Personel--15.5%
Tanks--14.2%
Art--12.8%
Wheeled vehicles--8.2%

85% of all targets were NOT tanks.

Sherman had lots of good features but was drastically undergunned for anything but infantry suport work.

Exactly. The tank's real enemy was not another tank....it was the anti-tank gun

[Reb]

I love debating with you Michael since you always come up with useful info!

The fact that 60% of hits were from the side may be due to the fact that many tanks were only vulnerable from the side - at least, German tanks. As I noted, western allied tanks were vulnerable front, side and rear.

cheers
Michael (Reb)

[lwd]

...The Pz IV had a weapon that could penetrate any western tank at that time (possible exception was Churchill from the front). ...

I thought the PxIV had a rather weak gun when introduced. Indeed when the Sherman was first introduced wasn't it's 75mm supperior to the armament on most PzIV's?

[Reb]

lwd

Correct. The early PIV had a short barreled infantry support gun. It was rapidly upgraded to first a better long 75 and then a much better one. (at work so can't look up the specs).

The problem for Sherman was the 76 only appeared in quantity late in '44 and it lacked the punch the 75 had in inf support. The Germans had a huge incentive for continuous improvement since Ivan was upgrading constantly. (Fritz

IMHO the Americans were constrained by their doctrine - people as smart as Patton rejected Pershing and 76 guns on Shermans - at least initially. See Ike's famous quote when he found out that even our 76 wasn't all that hot - he was royally pissed! "How come I'm the last to know?" etc

I'll never understand why we didn't license the daggone 17 pdr which was very much in the German's league and after some teething problems turned into a real killer.

cheers
Michael (Reb)

[michael kenny]

http://208.84.116.223/forums/index.php? ... opic=30717

[ReinhardH]

Prior to his time in the west, dad had some first-hand experience during his year in Russia facing the T-34. "You could shoot the tracks off of those things, and they'd still keep on coming at you"
lol, in a tank battle between the mass-produced Sherman vs. the mass-produced T-34, what would the outcome be?

[michael kenny]

Prior to his time in the west, dad had some first-hand experience during his year in Russia facing the T-34. "You could shoot the tracks off of those things, and they'd still keep on coming at you"

I think he means the BT series. The T34 did not have this feature.

[Jochen S.]

During interviews tankers of SS Pz.Rgt.1 - who served in a Pz.IV – only compared their tank with a T34. They believed that a US Sherman was no match for a Pz.IV manned by a experienced crew. Only because of their large numbers during combat they were seen as a threat.

[Quelimane]

Does that tell us anything about the relative merits of the two tanks? What about the reverse - a Sherman with an experienced crew against a Pz.IV?

[Jochen S.]

Well the topic is called 'GERMAN view of the Sherman tank'. I therfor simply stated that, when asked about comparing allied tanks with thier own, the veterans only compared their tank with a T34 'cause they were convinced that a Sherman was no match for their Pz IV. That's all.