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JeepsGunsTanks

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    www.theshermantank.com

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    The Sherman tank.

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  1. This is the caption info. An M4A3 76w HVSS tank is climbing up a muddy road in this HUGE image. Note the commander has an M1919 mounted in front of him. The caption says 11th US Armored Division Einheiten Der Germany 1945. You can see a Jumbo and another A3 76 tank, this one VVSS in the background. There is a really nicely done colorised version I'm having trouble finding, it's a great pic though, just os much going on.
  2. They show the commander firing the .50 from his hatch at least once in you clip. They also mounted extra M1919 machine guns on a mount in front of the Commanders hatch late in the war. Check out this video for more info on how the early rotation copula mounts work.
  3. Army TD battalions got used in the infantry support role fairly commonly. In these cases, it was also not uncommon to see the crew mount extra machine guns on the turret, I can't find it right now but there is a pretty famous photo of an M10 with 2 extra,m1919s mounted on the forward part of the turret and there may have been an extra .50. I'm going to have to dig the photo up now, I don't think I have it on my site... The M10 got used on the Pacific of all places! In the infantry support role as it's primary job. M10s on Leyte M10s somewhere in New Guinea. Here's one in the ETO supporting the doughs
  4. It was a neon sign type thing with a girl, that flashed in an out.
  5. I don't think they got any M4A2 76 tanks, the Brits were not all the fond of the M1A1/A2 gun, but they did get a large chunk of the early M4A2 75 tanks. The Russian crews really liked their Shermans. I post on occasion at Armorama, (rubicon on that forum) but there are guys over there who really really know their Sherman stuff, like Kurt Laughlin and Roy Chow. If you have played World of tanks you may know me from that forum, but I do not post there much anymore.
  6. Thanks I've read about the M4A2 Shermans not being suitable, but never heard why, there are minor hull layout differences, but I don't know that they are drastic enough to rule out the hull type though. It probably was more availability, the Soviets would only take the M4A2, they had taken a pair of M4A4s to test but ruled out the A57 motor as to complicated, and they refused the type. Since the Brits were fine with the M4A4, they got just about all of them, and most late production 75mm M4A2 tanks, and almost all the M4A2 76 tanks.
  7. They were stock 75mm turrets modified to work with the 17 pounder. The back of the turret bustle was cut out and a armored box was added for the radio, so there would be a little room behind the gun. The gun mount, and mantlet armor were made by the Brits, and the 17 pounder gun itself had to be modified to fit into the new mount, so the guns were not interchangeable with the AT gun versions. They also cut in a loaders hatch, though, one of the reasons they liked the M4 composite hulls, was that many of the turrets already had a loaders hatch ,so they didn't have to cut one. The other advantage to the composite hulls were the larger drivers and co drivers hatches. They also used their own telescopic sight. The US wanted to cease production on 75mm Shermans, but because the Marines and Brits still wanted them the M4A3 75 was kept in production a little longer, and all the M4A4 tanks in the US were sent back to the factory, overhauled, and shipped off to England, making the M4A4 or Sherman V very common UK tank. The best way to spot an M4A4 or Sherman V is the extra space between bogies, see below, the other Shermans have much smaller gaps, since the M4A4 was 12 inches longer. Here is one of the running Vc Firefly tanks. Thanks for all the kind words about the Sherman Tank site, it's a labor of love so it's nice to hear people like it. Don't miss out on the downloads page, I have a bunch of Sherman tank technical and field manuals you can download. All free.
  8. I made it, but its based on the ones in Hunnicutt's books, and he got his data from the Tech Manuals on the tanks. Typing that out in word was a nightmare, but once I had one, I at least had a nice template for the others! I have a bunch more up on the website, check out this page. http://www.theshermantank.com/the-sherman-tank-variant-page-pages-for-each-type-of-sherman-tank/ Each link leads to page for the tank, and should have a spec sheet and a gun data sheet. I even have a review of the Combat Missions games up there somewhere!
  9. The Sherman in this pic is an M4 composite hull, the front hull is a big casting, welded to a welded rear hull. These saw action in the Pacific, and a number of them got turned into Composite hull IC Fireflys. These tanks had improved larger drivers and co drivers hatches, but still used dry ammo storage, the extra armor over the ammo racks was installed at the factory, and the cheek of this tanks turret was probably cast thicker, so the add on armor was not needed. The big change in ammo storage came when the M4A1, M4A2 and M4A3 tanks were upgraded with improved turrets, with the M1A1 76mm gun. All these tanks had the improved large hatch hulls, wet storage and commanders all around vision cupolas. The real difference with wet storage was the location the ammo was stored was changed, instead of being in the sponsons, it was moved into the hull, in the floor under the turret. To make it easier to get to this ammo, the turret basket had half the floor removed. This location change, coupled with an 8 round armored ready rack made the ammo much less likely to be hit, and the location more than the wet racks made the difference, and the water jackets were dropped by the US right after the WWII. There were dry rack, 75mm M4A1 tanks made with cast hulls that incorporated the armor in the casting over the hull ammo racks. As for what the crews had for personal weapons, they all had a trusty 1911A1, and on the early Shermans, the tank had one Thompson, and they crew was instructed to take one of the .30 1919s with them if they bailed. The second Gen Shermans, IE anything with large hull hatches, each crew station had an M3 Grease gun handy. Check out this spec sheet for the Easy 8 Sherman. Anyway, I hope that helps.
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