American Medium Tank Sherman M4A3 COBI 2570 - World War II

You know that:

• The M4 Sherman tank was produced in many versions from 1942 until 1945 in 6 different American and British factories.
• In addition to many modifications, the tank was also produced with a square (welded) or round (cast) hull. Crews favored the cast version because they believed in greater resistance to enemy shells. This has never been independently verified.
• The last units were retired from the US Army in 1974.
• A total of 49,234 Shermans were produced in various versions, of which the M4A3 version accounted for 1,690.
• In addition to many upgrades, versions such as the bulldozer, pontoon carrier, salvage tank, deminer and flamethrower were also produced.
• The tank had ammunition stored in water with glycol to reduce the risk of fire in the event of a hit.
• More tanks were produced only by the Soviet Union, namely the T-34 model.
• Sherman tanks were also in the armament of the Czechoslovak Independent Armoured Brigade, consisting of young men who managed to escape the occupation.
• This armoured brigade relieved a British group at the siege of the fortified port of Dunkirk in August/September 1944.
• More than 4,000 pieces were also delivered to the Soviet Union as part of the relief effort.
• The tank was very popular with Red Army crews because of its high reliability. The T-34's steel tracks lasted approximately 2,500 km of driving, while the rubberized ones on the Sherman more than doubled that.
• However, even the Sherman had its weak points. The driver's hatch was so unfortunate to open that the gun barrel could hit it when the turret rotated, and you can imagine what happened when the 20 kg heavy hatch fell on the driver's head.

Technical parameters:

• length 5.9 m (6.27 m with cannon), width 2.62 m, height 2.74 m
• weight 30 255 kg
• frontal armour thickness up to 64 mm/47°
• power unit Ford GAA V8 petrol engine with 298 kW
• 5 forward speeds + 1 reverse speed
• top speed 41.8 km/h
• fuel tank capacity 660 litres
• range 209 km on the road
• wading distance 0.91 m
• main weapon M3 cannon 75 mm calibre
• maximum range 13 716 m
• turret turn time 360° 15 seconds
• secondary weapon 1x 12.7 mm Browning M2HB machine gun (300 rounds) + 2x 7.62 mm M1919A4 MG machine gun (4,750 rounds each)
• crew of 5

From the memoirs of the commander of the Soviet 46th Guards Tank Brigade, Colonel Dmitri Fyodorovich Lozi:

"Another disadvantage of these rubber tracks was that on lightly frozen surfaces the tank slid like a fat cow. We had to wrap barbed wire around them or anything to increase the grip. Later on, we got special blocks of spiked tracks from America. There were fourteen of them for each tank. This shows one very positive thing about American vehicles. Whenever the Americans found something unsatisfactory about their tanks, they were very quick to remedy it and come up with a solution."