M4 Sherman

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|-|M4A3(75)W "Sherman"=
|-|M4A3E8 "Field Expedient Jumbo"=right|400px 
|-|M36B1 "Jackson"=
|-|M4A3(105) "Sherman"= 
|-|T34E1 "Calliope"=
|-|M4A3(75)W POA-CWS-H5 "Zippo"=
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==Summary==
The M4 Sherman, officially “Medium Tank, M4” and named by the British for the American Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman, was the most widely used medium tank by the United States and Western Allies in World War II. It is one of the few really iconic fighting vehicles of the Allies during World War Two. The M4 Sherman proved to be reliable, relatively cheap to produce, and available in great numbers. Thousands were distributed through the Lend-Lease program to the British Commonwealth and Soviet Union.
The M4 Sherman evolved from the M3 Medium Tank, which had its main armament in a side sponson mount. The M4 retained much of the previous mechanical design, but put the main 75mm (2.95 in) gun in a fully traversing turret. One feature, a one-axis gyrostabilizer, was not precise enough to allow firing when moving but did help keep the reticle on target, so that when the tank did stop to fire, the gun would be aimed in roughly the right direction. The designers stressed mechanical reliability, ease of production and maintenance, durability, standardization of parts and ammunition in a limited number of variants, and moderate size and weight. These factors, combined with the Sherman's then-superior armor and armament, outclassed German light and medium tanks fielded in 1939–42. It spearheaded many offensives by the Western Allies after 1942.
The M4A3 was first delivered by the Ford Motor Company in June 1942, alone delivering 1690 machines by September 1943. It was produced to a total of 5015 by all manufacturers combined. The M4A3(75)W was equipped with the 75mm M3 L/40 gun and had wet ammo stowage. Early versions still had the dry ammunition stowage, direct vision slots for the driver and the 60-degree hull glacis (89mm/3.5 in). The 3071 next had wet ammo stowage and a newer commander cupola. Most of all, it featured the new liquid-cooled Ford V8 500 hp engine, which was capable of giving a top speed of 42 km/h on road (26 mph), and a 209 km (130 mi) range. The suspension was the unchanged VVSS, but the transmission was now protected by a one-piece cast steel armored cover. Driver vision slots were augmented by bullet-proof glass and protective covers. Mid-production they also saw the adoption of duckbills, extended end connectors for the tracks, which improved the grip on soft terrains. Early series also saw extra 25mm (1 in) thick appliqué armor welded over the ammo storage bins and the turret gunner position, later removed. By 1943-44, the recognition white stars were usually painted black or olive drab in order to mask them to enemy gunners, which used them as an aiming point. Over 3000 were delivered until March 1945.
In early 1944, the United States Army decided that they needed an up-armored version of a medium tank for an assault role for the upcoming operations in the European Theatre of Operations (ETO). However, they had rejected previous plans for such a vehicle, and time was short. The decision was made to modify the standard US Army medium tank of the time, the M4A3 Sherman, creating the M4A3E2 Assault Tank, later known as “Sherman Jumbo”. Despite only 254 being built, representing less than 1% of the total numbers for the M4, its iconic profile made it likely one the most easily-recognized M4 variants. During February 1945, approximately 100 M4A3E2s were up-gunned to 76mm using guns recovered from knocked out 76mm armed M4s and normal supply stocks. This upgrade was a fairly straight forward field modification, as the combination gun mount was originally designed for this gun. Alongside the up gunning of the Jumbo’s, the 12th Army Group commissioned the building of what became known as M4A3E8 "Field Expedient Jumbo". These were M4A3(76) HVSS, often called "Easy Eights", with additional armor welded to the glacis and turret. These tanks often achieved very near levels of armor to the original Jumbos. The additional armor was scavenged from wrecked tanks. Other M4s and Panthers were preferable. Entire glacis plates from wrecked M4s could be cut out and welded to the new vehicle without needing to move gun travel locks or cutting new apertures for the bow machine-gun. Much of this work was carried out by three civilian factories with an allowance of 85 man hours per vehicle.
The M36 tank destroyer, formally 90 mm Gun Motor Carriage, M36, was an American tank destroyer used during World War II. The M36 combined the hull of the M10 tank destroyer, which used the M4 Sherman's reliable chassis and drivetrain combined with sloped armor, and a massive new turret mounting the 90 mm gun M3. Conceived in 1943, the M36 first served in combat in Europe in October 1944, where it partially replaced the M10 tank destroyer. It also saw use in the Korean War, able to defeat any of the Soviet tanks used in that conflict. Some were supplied to South Korea as part of the Military Assistance Program and served for years, as did re-engined examples found in Yugoslavia, which operated into the 1990s. Two remained in service with the Republic of China Army at least until 2001. The M36B1 "Jackson" was essentially the same but used the improved M4A3 Sherman hull and chassis instead.
The M4A3(105) armed with an M4 105mm Howitzer was a solution for a problem the US army didn’t know they had until the Italy Campaign. It turned out the M7 Priest did not work well in the direct fire role it was sometimes called to fill. The mount was not very accurate for direct fire, and there was no fixing it. It was also poorly suited to direct fire work with its light armor. The solution was mounting the M4 series 105mm gun in the M4 series medium tank. This required a rework of the gun and mount, but it was ready before the Normandy landings, and once in use, were well liked, replacing the M7 in Tank Company and Battalion 105 support roles.
The T34E1 "Calliope" was a tank-mounted multiple rocket launcher used by the United States Army during World War II. The launcher was placed atop the M4 Sherman, with its prominent vertical side frames firmly anchored to the turret's sides, and fired a barrage of 4.5 in (114mm) M8 rockets from 60 launch tubes. It was developed in 1943; small numbers were produced and were used by various US armor units in 1944–45. It adopts its name from the musical instrument "Calliope", also known as the steam organ, which had similar parallel pipes, and which had historically existed on steamboats of the Mississippi River in the United States.
There had been an interest in mounting flamethrowers onto armored platforms since WWI as an antipersonnel weapon for driving defenders out of fortifications such as caves, tunnels and bunkers. By 1940, it became clear that such a weapon would be necessary in both the Pacific and European theaters to remove entrenched forces. Initially, flamethrower mounts were field modifications based on man-portable flamethrowers. Most of the tanks provided by the Marines carried 75mm guns, the remainder carried 105mm howitzers. By judicious planning, designers arranged the interior of the vehicles to allow the storage of forty rounds of 75mm or twenty rounds of 105mm shells without decreasing the quantity of flamethrower fuel. During the battle on Okinawa the Tenth Army asked for eighteen of these double-barrel Sherman tanks, designated M4A3(75)W POA-CWS-H5. They were on their way to that island by the time the battle ended, and were rerouted, instead, to the Marianas to equip the Marine division rehabilitating there. Seventy tanks were ready for the invasion of Japan when the operation was called off and the war came to an end.
Description [partially] lifted from Wikipedia, Tank Encyclopedia, and Olive-Drab.
==Powers and Stats==
Tier: with main gun, with .50 caliber machine guns, with .30 caliber machine guns | | | | | At least , up to with flamethrower
Key: M4A3(75)W "Sherman" | M4A3E8 "Field Expedient Jumbo" | M36B1 "Jackson" | M4A3(105) "Sherman" | T34E1 "Calliope" | M4A3(75)W POA-CWS-H5 "Zippo"
Name: M4A3(75)W "Sherman" | M4A3E8 "Field Expedient Jumbo" | M36B1 "Jackson" | M4A3(105) "Sherman" | T34E1 "Calliope" | M4A3 POA-CWS-H5 "Zippo"
Origin: The Real World
Age: 1944–1957 | 1945–1957? | 1944–1956 | 1944–1957 | 1944–1945 | 1944–1957?
Classification: Medium Tank | Medium Assault Tank | Tank Destroyer | Assault Support Gun | Multiple Rocket Launcher | Flame Assault Tank
Length: 6.27 meters (20.58 feet) without gun | 6.27 meters (20.67 feet) without gun | 5.91 meters (19.38 feet) without gun | 5.89 meters (19.23 feet) without gun | 6.27 meters (20.58 feet) without gun | 6.27 meters (20.58 feet) without gun
Width: 2.67 meters (8.75 feet) | 2.94 meters (9.633 feet) | 2.65 meters (8.71 feet) | 2.62 meters (8.58 feet) | 2.67 meters (8.75 feet) | 2.67 meters (8.75 feet)
Height: 2.94 meters (9.64 feet) | 2.95 meters (9.69 feet) | 2.66 meters (8.72 feet) | 2.74 meters (9 feet) | 2.94 meters (9.64 feet), 4.43 meters (14.53 feet) with rockets | 2.94 meters (9.64 feet)
Weight: 31.57 tonnes (34.8 tons) | 38.92 tonnes (42.905 tons) | 30.84 tonnes (34 tons) | 32.8 tonnes (36.16 tons) | 33.49 tonnes (36.92 tons) | 33.1 tonnes (36.49 tons)
Pilot(s): 5 (commander, driver, co-driver, gunner and loader)
Necessary Prerequisites: Trained crew, fuel, ammunition
In use by: American, Argentine, Bengali, Belgian, Brazilian, British, Canadan, Chilean, Cuban, Danish, Egyptian, Ethiopian, French, Filipino, Indian, Iranian, Israeli, Italian, Indonesian, Japanese, Lebanese, Mexican, Nazi German, Netherlandic, New Zealand, Nicaraguan, Pakistani, Paraguayan, Peruvian, Polish, Portuguese, Chinese, South African, South Korean, Soviet, Syrian, Turkish, Uruguayan, and Yugoslavian armed forces
Powered by: Ford GAA V8 gasoline engine delivering 336 kilowatts (450 horsepower) at 2600 rpm
Operational Timeframe: About 4 hours 30 minutes
Terrain: Ground (Ground/marine (surface) with specialized amphibious variants)
Material: Steel cast and rolled homogeneous armor (RHA), up to 108mm (4.25 inches) thick, gun mantlet armor up to 89mm (3.5 inches) thick | Up to 114–140mm (4.5–5.5 inches) thick, gun mantlet armor up to 127–178mm (5–7 inches) thick | Up to 108mm (4.25 inches) thick, gun mantlet armor up to 76mm (3 inches) thick | Up to 90mm (3.5 inches) thick, gun mantlet armor up to 90mm (3.5 inches) thick | Up to 91mm (3.6 inches) thick, gun mantlet armor up to 89mm (3.5 inches) thick | Up to 108mm (4.25 inches) thick, gun mantlet armor up to 90mm (3.5 inches) thick
Attack Potency: Wall level firing 75mm M3 main gun once (1.21–4.06 megajoules), Wall level firing .50 caliber machine gun (15 kilojoules with standard M2 ball ammunition), Street level firing .30 caliber machine gun (3.388–3.681 kilojoules) | Wall level firing 76mm M1 main gun (1.7–3.6 megajoules) | Wall level firing 90mm main gun (3.695–7.165 megajoules) | Wall level to Wall level+ firing 105mm M4 main gun (8.36–10.79 megajoules) | Wall level+ firing single M8 rocket (up to 18.56 megajoules) | At least Street level with flamethrower (Napalm burns at a higher temperature and for a longer time than gasoline which has an adiabatic flame temperature of over 2100°C (3810°F)), up to Small Building level per liter of fuel (Burning gasoline can produce up to over 35.75 megajoules of heat per liter)
Speed: Peak Human, 42 kilometers per hour (26 miles per hour) max speed | Athletic Human, 35 kilometers per hour (22 miles per hour) max speed (The Jumbo suffered lowered speed as a result of up-armoring) | Peak Human, 42 kilometers per hour (26 miles per hour) max speed
Striking Strength: Wall level (An M4 "Sherman" at full speed can have kinetic energy of 1.84–2.26 megajoules)
Durability: At least Wall level (Rolled homogeneous armor (RHA) has a Brinell hardness of up to 655, equal to a tensile strength of about 2210 megapascals), at most Building level to Building level+ in terms of total destruction (Comprised of up to 30,840–38,100 kilograms of cast and rolled homogeneous armor (RHA) with a fragmentation energy of 3.71–6.74 gigajoules)
Range: Operational range of 161 kilometers at 35 kilometers per hour (100 miles at 22 miles per hour); up to over 12.8 kilometers with 75mm main gun, up to over 2.5 kilometers with .50 caliber machine gun (AA ceiling of over 1.5 kilometers), up to over 1400 meters with .30 caliber machine guns | Up to over 14.72 kilometers with 76mm main gun | Up to over 19.5 kilometers with 90mm main gun | Up to over 11.16 kilometers with 105mm howitzer (up to over 7.85 kilometers with HEAT shells) | Up to 750 meters for accurate rocket strikes, up to over 4.2 kilometers with rocket area barrage | Up to 87–114 meters with flamethrower (windless), up to 37–137 meters (wind-dependent)
Weaknesses: Relatively under-powered and slow by modern standards, has outdated hardware | The additional weight of the Jumbo was seriously taxing to the standard suspension parts of the original M4A3 Sherman | The rocket launcher makes the tank top-heavy and much more difficult to transport, and it is hard to precisely aim the rocket launchers for direct fire application | Flamethrower has limited range and cannot destroy armored targets, high flammability of fuel presents significant safety hazard to tank crew if containment is breached, requires inert propellant gas pressurized to about 13.8 megapascals (2000 pounds per square inch) to operate effectively
Weaponry (M4A3(75)W "Sherman"):
*1×75mm L/40 M3 tank gun in turret with 104 rounds
*1×.50 caliber Browning M2HB machine gun in turret pintle AA mount with 600 rounds
*2×.30-06 caliber (7.62×63mm) Browning M1919A4 machine guns; one in turret coaxial mount and one in bow ball mount with 6750 rounds
*1×2-inch (51mm) M3 mortar fixed in turret with 18 smoke rounds
*Provision for up to 5×.45 caliber (11.43mm) M3 "Grease Gun" submachine guns with 900 rounds
*Provision for up to 12×fragmentation and/or smoke grenades
Weaponry (M4A3E8 "Field Expedient Jumbo"):
*1×76mm L/52 M1A1 tank gun in turret with 71 rounds
*2×.50 caliber Browning M2HB machine guns; one in turret coaxial mount and one in turret pintle AA mount with 3000 rounds
*1×2-inch (51mm) M3 mortar fixed in turret with 12 smoke rounds
*Provision for up to 5×.45 caliber (11.43mm) M3 "Grease Gun" submachine guns with 600 rounds
*Provision for up to 12×fragmentation and/or smoke grenades
Weaponry (M36B1 "Jackson"):
*1×90mm L/53 M3 tank gun in turret with 47 rounds
*1×.50 caliber Browning M2HB machine gun in turret pintle AA mount with 945 rounds
*2×.30-06 caliber (7.62×63mm) Browning M1919A4 machine guns; one in bow ball mount and one in turret forward pintle mount (optional) with 2000 rounds
*1×2-inch (51mm) M3 mortar fixed in turret with 18 smoke rounds
*Provision for up to 5×.45 caliber (11.43mm) M3 "Grease Gun" submachine guns with 600 rounds
*Provision for up to 12×fragmentation and/or smoke grenades
Weaponry (M4A3(105) "Sherman"):
*1×105mm L/22 M4 howitzer in turret with 66 rounds
*1×.50 caliber Browning M2HB machine gun in turret pintle AA mount with 600 rounds
*2×.30-06 caliber (7.62×63mm) Browning M1919A4 machine guns; one in turret coaxial mount and one in bow ball mount with 6750 rounds
*1×2-inch (51mm) M3 mortar fixed in turret with 18 smoke rounds
*Provision for up to 5×.45 caliber (11.43mm) M3 "Grease Gun" submachine guns with 900 rounds
*Provision for up to 12×fragmentation and/or smoke grenades
Weaponry (T34E1 "Calliope"):
*1×75mm L/40 M3 tank gun in turret
*1×T34 multiple rocket launcher mounted above turret containing up to 64 4.5-inch (114mm) M8 Barrage Rockets
*2×.30-06 caliber (7.62×63mm) Browning M1919A4 machine guns; one in turret coaxial mount and one in bow ball mount with 6750 rounds
*1×2-inch (51mm) M3 mortar fixed in turret with 18 smoke rounds
*Provision for up to 5×.45 caliber (11.43mm) M3 "Grease Gun" submachine guns with 900 rounds
*Provision for up to 12×fragmentation and/or smoke grenades
Weaponry (M4A3(75)W POA-CWS-H5 "Zippo"):
*1×75mm L/40 M3 tank gun in turret with 40 rounds
*1×M5-4 E12-7R1 mechanized flamethrower (www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/b279984.pdf) in turret right coaxial mount (with dummy cannon barrel) with 1040–1120 liters (275–295 wet gallons) of napalm and over 330 liters (75 dry gallons) of pressurized inert propellant gas, enough for about 2 minutes of continuous fire or 200 one-second bursts (www.wood.army.mil/chmdsd/images/pdfs/2007%20Winter/Ringquist-Pt2.pdf)
*1×.50 caliber Browning M2HB machine gun in turret pintle mount with 600 rounds
*2×.30-06 caliber (7.62×63mm) Browning M1919A4 machine guns; one in turret coaxial mount and one in bow ball mount with 6750 rounds
*1×2-inch M3 mortar fixed in turret with 18 smoke rounds
*Provision for up to 5×.45 caliber (11.43mm) M3 "Grease Gun" submachine guns with 900 rounds
*Provision for up to 12×fragmentation and/or smoke grenades
Note: Similar tanks of about the same type and period generally have performance equivalent to this one. Information used tank loadouts and to formulate shell attack potency found in PDF form at BulletPicker and The Sherman Tank Site.
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