THE SHERMAN TANK
The first tank we are going to look at the history of in this section is the Sherman Tank, Officially known as The M4 General Sherman, a main battle tank which was designed and built in the U.S.A. For use in WWII. 49,324 Sherman Tanks were produced between 1942 and 1946 in 11 factories. The prototype of the M4 was named after William Tecumesh Sherman and debuted in 1941 and was accepted for production in the October the same year.
Its designers emphasized its speed and mobility limiting the thickness of its armour and the size of its main gun which was a short barrelled low-velocity 75mm gun with its armour thickness of a maximum 75mm and minimum of 12mm.
Its speed was between 24 and 29 km (24 to 29 mph) and a range of 160 to 240 km I 100 to 150 miles) depending on the model (M4 to M4A3E2).
The M4 had a crew of 5 personnel these comprised of The Commander, Gunner, gun-loader, driver and co-driver who was also the hull gunner.
The tank weighed in at about 33 tons depending on the series it engine was a 425 hp Gasoline engine.
The Sherman was not only used by the American Army and its Marine corps but it was also used among the Western Allies, Britain, Canada, and France used the Sherman tank in their Armed Forces.
This tank was used in North Africa, Sicily, Italy and Western Europe and also throughout the Pacific Theatre. In 1940 The U.S. War Department authorized the development of a new “Medium” Tank, at the same time it also Authorised the organisation of its first Armoured Divisions, By 1941 The U.S. had 5 Armoured divisions organising and training for war in Europe.