M4A2 (Late) (USSR)

The **M4A2 (Late) (USSR)** is a Soviet Medium Tank. The Sherman was extensively supplied through Lend-Lease to Britain, the Soviet Union, China, and Free France. Under Lend-Lease, 4,102 M4A2 medium tanks were sent to the Soviet Union. Of these, 2,007 were equipped with the original 75 mm main gun, with 2,095 mounting the more-capable 76 mm tank gun. The total number of Sherman tanks sent to the USSR under Lend-Lease represented 18.6% of all Lend-Lease Shermans.

## History

### Lend-Lease

The first American Lend Lease tanks arrived in the USSR towards the very end of December 1941. The volume of shipments was small at first, but this changed in the spring of 1942. American light and medium tanks began arriving in large amounts and were widely used in battle by that summer. The Medium Tank M3, known as the M3S or M3sr, was the most common American medium tank shipped in 1942, but towards the summer the Americans began to shift production to the more successful Medium Tank M4. Its diesel variant, the Medium Tank M4A2, became the most common foreign tank used by the Red Army.

Supplies of M4A2 tanks to the USSR began in late 1942. Unfortunately due to technical defects (chiefly to do with injectors) they did not see service right away. Only a few units received these tanks in the spring of 1943, but one of them ended up fighting in the most famous tank battle of the Great Patriotic War.

Further deliveries of the M4A2 were a mere trickle, especially compared with the M3. 26 tanks arrived in January of 1943, 69 in February, 9 in March, 9 more in April, 52 in May. Deliveries then ended for half a year. After that the American tank industry had no time for the USSR. They had their own army and the British to worry about. The peak of production for the British lasted from February to July of 1943, after which American factories switched to supplying the Soviet Union again, albeit with some pauses. Including the 3-4 month lag between production and delivery, the USSR received only Canadian Valentine VII tanks between June and October of 1943 that the British themselves had no need for.

Official Lend-Lease figures for M4A2 (Late) shipments to the Soviets vary a little, but its estimated around 1,780 were to be sent from July 1943 onwards. 1,000 of these M4A2s were modified in the Fisher Tank Arsenal while waiting to be shipped, these modifications include the additional armor on the sides of the ammo racks, the additional turret cheek plate, plates for the driver hatches and so on. Full fledged deliveries of the M4A2 began in 1944. 800 tanks were delivered via Baku in 1944, but 1,465 came through the northern convoys. Not all of them were M4A2s, as delivery of the M4A2(76)W began in late September of 1944. Since the delivery records did not distinguish the two, it is hard to arrive at an exact number of M4A2 tanks delivered.

### Combat Usage

Many (Early) Shermans were already deployed with several regiments in 1943 and 1944. A rather famous battle takes place during the Battle for Ponyri in the Kursk Salient. The 229th Independent Tank Regiment started with 31 M4A2 Shermans and 14 burned out and 17 were knocked out between July 15th and 18th

#### Operation Bagration

The real large scale usage of the M4A2 (Late) Shermans came in July 1944 when the Soviets started to receive the final batch of M4A2s. Tank crews had started calling their M4A2s - Emcha, a derivative due to the Russian pronunciation of the M4 designation (em chetyrye) which was shortened to Emcha. Colonel Dimitry Loza, a Sherman battalion commander, states in his memoirs, the infamous 9th Guards Mechanized Corps was awarded honorific titles for seizing Balti in Moldova, Rymnik in Romania, and Vienna, Austria. Near Vienna, he also earned his Hero of the Soviet Union award commanding an understrength Sherman company that seized a vital rail junction on the way to Vienna. It's reported that an M4A2 (Late) was the first tank to enter the city. However, other Sherman units also earned battle honors similar to the 9th Mechanized Corps. The 3rd Guards Mechanized Corps won the honorific title Krivorozhskaya for fighting in Ukraine, while the 8th Guards Mechanized Corps won its status for its Carpathian offensive.

#### Berlin & Manchuria

Perhaps most interestingly enough is the service of the M4A2 in Berlin. Multiple armored units equipped with Shermans like the 1st Guards Mechanized Corps formed part of the Second and Third Guards Tank Armies that fought in the battle for Berlin. Of the roughly 400 tanks between those two formations alone, Sherman-equipped units lost about half their number during the street fighting in the Reich capital. After the war in Europe ended, the M4A2 also saw service in the Far East for the USSR’s invasion of Manchuria. At least two Sherman-equipped units, the 3rd and 9th Guards Mechanized Corps, fought in Manchuria, though they saw little action and no confirmed tank kills.