tacitrain Posted January 9, 2004 Share Posted January 9, 2004 About how many sherman platoons were there? in a major operation, about how many tanks would be there? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Dorosh Posted January 9, 2004 Share Posted January 9, 2004 Originally posted by tacitrain: About how many sherman platoons were there? in a major operation, about how many tanks would be there? A battalion of infantry would likely be supported in action (when armour support was available) by a squadron of Shermans; a squadron consisted of three troops of four or five tanks each, plus a headquarters troop. Sherman troops were generally the 75mm armed ones, by 1944 in NW Europe (not sure about Italy), one tank per troop was a Firefly, by 1945 some troops had two fireflies and two 75mm Shermans per troop. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BadgerDog Posted January 9, 2004 Share Posted January 9, 2004 A repost from a similar CMBB thread,,, Here's what my Regiment looked like. Circa 1960-68 Sherman Tank Regiment (Canada) 4 Tanks per Troop (5 man crews) 4 Troops per Squadron 3 Squadrons per Regiment plus an "A" and "B" echlon consisting of everything from jeeps to 3/4 ton trucks to deuce-and-one-halfs to support fighting elements. All in all, about 50-60 Shermans (with maint tanks, plus their support cadre. Hope this helps a bit... Regards, BadgerRegards, Badger 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Gallear Posted January 9, 2004 Share Posted January 9, 2004 A battalion of infantry would likely be supported in action (when armour support was available) by a squadron of Shermans; a squadron consisted of three troops of four or five tanks each, plus a headquarters troop. Sherman troops were generally the 75mm armed ones, by 1944 in NW Europe (not sure about Italy), one tank per troop was a Firefly, by 1945 some troops had two fireflies and two 75mm Shermans per troop. I'm not sure if you are sking about US or British/Empire formations. For the latter Dorosh is partly right. In the Desert War it was normal for tanks and infantry to fight their own seprate engagementts from each other. In Italy where the terrain was close, just a few tanks would support a large infantry formation. British Squadrons had the number of troops, in them educed at the beggining of the war. The official 4 tank troop was unofficially cut to a three tank troop. From late 1944 the old system and larger size numbers was restored. The Squadron HQ would normaly be 1 or 2 tanks plus 2 CS tanks that fired Smoke/He as the 2pdr/6pdr was not supplied with HE rounds. As the Sherman was these are normally just normal Shermans although some units in Italy had the 105mm version. At second Alemain -the Shermans first use by the British a troop had just three Shermans. Late in 1944 one of them was replaced by a Firefly or 76mm Sherman. This would be about the time the troop was increased to 4. I suggest for these you buy a "Platoon" of 3 or 4 Shermans, delete one off and add a Firefly or 76mm Sherman. (In North western Europe some guards units fielded all Firefly Squadrons by 1945 but I don't think this happened in Italy, although Rune has indicated that the South African Army fielded all 76mm Sherman troops. This was not a popular tank with the British Army as its HE round was less efective than the 75, an important factor in Italy and its ability to deal with the odd German Panther was much less capable than the Firefly.) If you are doing an historical scenario doing an internet search, you may find some info about a battle with an unconventional formation or tactics. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeyD Posted January 9, 2004 Share Posted January 9, 2004 Its a difficult question since you're referring to "major operations". Sometimes an entire division would be stuffed into a relatively small area to achieve a major breakout. A dozen tanks could be lost crossing a minefield in an afternoon. This defintely would not be the usual practice supporting an infantry probe or some day-to-day activity. But for major operations it woudn't be inappropriate to pile-on the armor 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SgtMuhammed Posted January 10, 2004 Share Posted January 10, 2004 The number could range from 0 to a couple hundred depending on what you mean by a major operation and exactly which one. The Market part of Market-Garden didn't have any tanks while the Garden part had an entire corps. American forces tended to be organized into task forces at the CM scale. These could be either armor or infantry heavy. Either a couple infantry companies and a tank company or the other way around. I believe the Brits tended to keep a more organic organization but don't quote me on that. Remember that for the most part the Western Allies didn't face large numbers of German tanks once fighting reached Europe so there was less of a tendency to throw tens of them at the same target. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Dorosh Posted January 10, 2004 Share Posted January 10, 2004 Originally posted by Mark Gallear: I'm not sure if you are sking about US or British/Empire formations. For the latter Dorosh is partly right. Actually, I'm completely right if we are talking about Canadians in NW Europe and Italy. Interesting bits about early and mid war Sherman troops in the British Army, though, I had never given the subject much thought. Quite surprising to hear of three vehicle troops. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted January 10, 2004 Share Posted January 10, 2004 Originally posted by Michael Dorosh: Quite surprising to hear of three vehicle troops. I had read about the Grants being organized into three-tank platoons at the time of the Gazala battles. Hadn't heard of any others organized that way but that doesn't mean it never happened. Likely candidates would have been the Matildas and Valentines. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted January 10, 2004 Share Posted January 10, 2004 Kiwis maintained troops of 3 till the end of the war. Actually, they had a mix - some of the troops were 4, some were 3. The different sizes were organisational, not due to losses. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted January 10, 2004 Share Posted January 10, 2004 Originally posted by Michael Emrys: </font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Michael Dorosh: Quite surprising to hear of three vehicle troops. I had read about the Grants being organized into three-tank platoons at the time of the Gazala battles. Hadn't heard of any others organized that way but that doesn't mean it never happened. Likely candidates would have been the Matildas and Valentines.</font> 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted January 10, 2004 Share Posted January 10, 2004 Originally posted by JonS: Troops Emrys, troops.Sorry, sorry. I was hypnotized by the thread header and was staying consistent with it. More usually I try to stay with Brit/Commonwealth nomenclature when discussing their units, even going to far as to adopt their peculiar spellings (e.g., "armour"). "Two great peoples separated by a common language" etc. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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