Among the iconic Allied weapons of the Second World War, the M4 Sherman medium tank emerged as perhaps the most decisive, but also without doubt the most controversial.
The M4 was distinctly American, and the influence of prevailing land warfare doctrine shaped its development, along with the obligatory influences that dictate the genesis of armoured fighting vehicles to this day – firepower, mobility and armour protection. Prior to US entry into the war, the American military establishment watched with great interest, and frankly some astonishment, as the German blitzkrieg slashed across Europe with incredible speed and efficiency.
In response, American armoured doctrine revolved around the use of tanks as penetration and exploitation weapons. Tank-versus-tank fighting was considered only as a secondary aspect of land warfare, and when enemy tanks were encountered they were to be dealt with by open-turreted, fast-moving tank destroyers. The tank itself was to be an infantry support weapon.
While Britain and the Empire stood alone against the Nazis and President Franklin D Roosevelt declared the US to be the great “arsenal of democracy”, American factories supplied tremendous amounts of war materiel to the British armed forces via Lend Lease. Among these weapons were the early production tanks, rolling off the assembly lines and loaded on ships for the perilous crossing of the Atlantic. The earliest of these to reach British forces in substantial numbers was the M3 Grant/Lee tank.
“THEY CHRISTENED THE M4 THE SHERMAN, AFTER UNION GENERAL WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN”
The M3 was a ponderous vehicle whose design was reminiscent of the tanks that had fought during World War I. With its high silhouette, the M3 was vulnerable to enemy fire, while its turret was small and capable of accommodating only a relatively light 37mm cannon. To address the need for additional firepower, the M3 was armed with a 75mm gun housed in a hull-mounted sponson.
Why the throwback design? The answer was simple and startling. While the panzer divisions of the German Army already deployed tanks with turrets that could accommodate larger caliber 50mm and 75mm guns, and British designs could as well, there was no production-ready American tank turret that could do so. Therefore the M3 was a stopgap design that could bring comparable firepower to
