The M4 Sherman Medium Tank, the first tank purchased by the National Museum of Military Vehicles' founder Dan Starks.

By Hank Wilcox, Associate Curator

The M4 Sherman Tank: Master of the Battlefield - Exploring Its Variants and Legacy

Join Hank Wilcox, the Associate Curator at the National Museum of Military Vehicles, as he delves into the fascinating history and variants of the M4 Sherman tank, one of the most iconic American tanks of World War II. This comprehensive video, set in the museum's Marshall Gallery, offers a unique insight into the Sherman tank's development, production, and role in shaping the outcome of the war.

Transcript of video:

Hello, my name is Hank Wilcox, and I'm the Associate Curator here at the National Museum of Military Vehicles. I'm currently standing in probably the most important room in the entirety of our Marshall Gallery here at the museum. Our Marshall Gallery is, of course, the site of our museum that covers all of our World War II era vehicles, weapons, and equipment.



This is the Rotunda of American Armored Vehicles, and in fact displays not only the tanks I'm about to be talking about in this video, but also light tanks, tank destroyers, artillery pieces, and even some recovery vehicles, alongside a wide collection of halftracks. But the center of our combat rotunda is occupied by these vehicles, medium tanks, in particular variants of what we refer to as the M4 Sherman medium tank. Now, if you've ever begun your foray into research about tanks during World War II, some may tell you on the internet, perhaps, that the Tiger I German tank is perhaps the best vehicle of the entire war.

But if you start to dig a little deeper, you'll start to hear whisperings of a tank that is, in fact, much better than the Tiger for a variety of reasons. And that tank will, in fact, be the M4 Sherman. Now, many, of course, are going to perhaps scoff at that notion.

The Sherman, by all rights, is going to be easily destroyed by a Tiger on flat ground, for example. It is certainly at a disadvantage for reasons I'll get to in a moment. But truly, if you can justify why the M4 Sherman is, in fact, the best tank of World War II, rather than the Tiger I German tank, well, perhaps then you could call yourself an amateur historian of World War II vehicles.

Now, this vehicle behind me here is the M4 Sherman tank, probably the most important American vehicle of World War II. This vehicle was the most produced American tank of World War II, with just under 50,000 M4 Shermans and other variants produced during this time period, 1942 to 1945. The M4 Sherman was developed to replace the failings of the M3 medium tank, also known as the Lee or Grant, which made its debut way back in the North African campaign in 1941 (Correction: The first Sherman Tanks arrived in North Africa January 1942 and entered combat for the first time in May 1942 and not in 1941.)

The M4 Sherman is originally designed mainly for infantry support, but it's also designed to be what's called a medium tank, and the purpose of a medium tank is mainly to be a compromise between the speed and maneuverability of a light tank and also the heavier firepower of a heavy tank. And the M4 Sherman still mounts the lighter firepower, admittedly, of the M3 medium tank in the form of its 75mm cannon that we see here. That 75mm cannon did have some trouble dealing with German tanks throughout the war, as did the armor of this vehicle.

In fact, the M4 Sherman only features about 2 inches of armor in its frontal plate, which is really nothing, considering some of the heavier weapons brought to bear against it during the war. Despite this, the M4 Sherman will be produced by over 10 different manufacturers throughout the course of the war, not just the M4 itself, but also the variants that we'll be covering throughout this video. And it's that power of manufacturing that truly makes the M4 Sherman one of the most dynamic and also one of the most important vehicles of World War II.

It's because, yes, these vehicles were being destroyed in large numbers on the front line. But a crew of a destroyed Sherman could simply exit it, walk back to a repair facility, pick up a brand new Sherman and perhaps their four friends, and then move towards the front line in now a group of Sherman tanks to deal with that tank that perhaps just killed only one Sherman, perhaps just a couple days before. It's that power of American manufacturing that allowed us to build so many Shermans during the war, allowed us to replace our battlefield losses and overcome war machines deployed by those.

Such as those deployed by Germany. Now when we think about our particular M4 Sherman here in the museum, this M4 Sherman is in fact the first tank that was ever purchased for our museum. So for the rest of the video, we're going to be covering some of the most important variants of the M4 Sherman, many of which we have right here in our museum in a variety of different exhibits, but mainly right here in the combat rotunda, where I'll also end the video later on.

So if you come along with me, we'll talk about these different varieties of Shermans and how they approved, improved, and also helped the American war effort overseas. Well, the M4 Sherman is the first version of the M4. In fact, it is not the first version to reach the battlefield.

That honor goes to our first variant of the M4 Sherman, the M4A1, which you see next to me here, which fought with British forces first in North Africa. Again thinking about that Lend-Lease program, how America was sending these vehicles to our allies overseas, as well as them being used by our men right here at home. Now the M4A1 Sherman is different from the M4 Sherman in only one way.

To all rights, this vehicle is essentially an M4 Sherman as it features the exact same drive system, the exact same suspension system, the exact same engine, and even the exact same gun in that 75mm cannon. But the only difference between the M4 Sherman and the M4A1 is how the chassis is made. As you can see here, this vehicle has a much more smooth, perhaps rounded or bulbous chassis than you might be seeing on perhaps an M4 Sherman, which has that more angular design.

And that is because the M4 Sherman's body has been entirely welded together, which was easier to produce in the long run than the fully cast hull of the M4A1 Sherman. Ironically, it's that cast hull that would see this Sherman arriving on the battlefield first. And in fact, it was Lima Locomotive, a company here in the United States that had previously produced steam trains for the various industries around the US that would actually produce the first bodies for the M4 Sherman.

In fact, this M4A1, now with this rounded chassis, actually has just about the exact same armor thickness as the M4 Sherman does. And in fact, despite the fact that they're a little bit differently shaped, contrary to popular belief, the rounded body did not necessarily deflect bullets a little bit better than perhaps an M4 Sherman chassis would. With that being said, the M4A1 is later going to be outproduced by the M4 Sherman in terms of overall production number, because simply, it's very hard to cast the entire body of this tank in one go, just like a cast iron pan that you may have at home.

That kind of process was lengthy, required very large and specialized manufacturing equipment, so in the end, it's the welded hull of the M4 Sherman that becomes a bit more effective to produce on the assembly line. Regardless, the M4A1 proves itself incredibly worthy of being a very effective main battle tank, especially on those deserts of North Africa, and later on, across the different tundras of, in fact, Northern Europe. This vehicle oftentimes was also adapted into other Sherman variants.

Later, larger guns were added, for example, to the M4A1, so it managed to keep up with the rest of the M4 Sherman line for the majority of World War II. With that, we'll move on to our next variant here in the museum. This is the M4A3E8 Sherman, also known as the EZ-8 Sherman.

This is one of the last Sherman variants that will be produced during World War II, in 1944, right as the war is coming to an end. Commonly, our M4A3 EZ-8 is mistaken for the M4A2 76mm gun motor carriage, which is equipped with HVSS suspension. I mention this because a lot of people mistake this vehicle for the one used in the Brad Pitt movie, Fury, which unfortunately we do not have in our collection.

But that being said, this vehicle behind me is essentially the exact same as that vehicle from the movie, with the exception of the engine. It features this HVSS suspension system, brand new for a vehicle of this type. That's actually what the E8, at the end of its name, refers to, and also the 76mm cannon, which was used for destroying much larger and heavily armored targets out on the battlefields of World War II.

Our EZ-8, also being a larger, slightly heavier tank, features a brand new track design, which has been added to this HVSS suspension. Now, instead of the previously used tracks that we saw on our M4 Sherman, for example, we have a single guide that essentially extends the entire length of the tracks and runs between these sets of wheels that we see here, which means that the tracks are going to stay more stable on the wheel as the vehicle moves down the road. The tracks on our EZ-8 are also a little bit wider to accommodate for the heavier weight of the vehicle as it decreases the surface pressure with which it pushes into the ground, and therefore, much like a snowshoe, it allows this vehicle to not get stuck in something like snow or mud as easily as a thinner-tracked vehicle might, like the M4 Sherman.

Regardless, the EZ-8 does very well in its original purpose as a major tank buster. It is able to use its 76mm cannon to destroy heavy targets, such as the German Tiger I tanks, especially if it was firing at its sides or rear armor. And other vehicles before our EZ-8 were upgraded with the 76mm cannon, including other variants of the M4 Sherman, which are not technically here on display.

Regardless, that's a little bit here about our M4A3 EZ-8, but we're now going to go into another part of our museum where we'll talk about a different version of the M4A3, referred to as the Jumbo. This vehicle is a different take on the M4 Sherman. This is our M4A3 E2 Sherman, but it's more popularly known as the Jumbo.

It gained its name due to the 8 additional tons of armor that's now been welded to its chassis in kind of a slapdash job, to essentially make this vehicle able to withstand all of the heaviest of German artillery out there on the battlefield. Anti-tank guns, of course. Now, when we think about a vehicle like this, some people may call it a heavy tank because it has so much additional armor.

But if you think that notion, you're unfortunately pretty wrong. The American military referred to this vehicle as what's called an assault tank, meaning while it does have some additional armor, it's not necessarily featuring the armament of a heavy tank. It has the exact same 75mm cannon that we've seen on a lot of our previous Sherman variants.

Therefore, this vehicle is mainly designed for breakthroughs. It moves at the head of an armored column to push through heavy German reinforcements or perhaps a heavily defended line, and then, of course, allow its lesser armored brethren to move up behind it. At the same time, this vehicle still obtains a relatively fast speed of around 22 miles per hour thanks to its bigger engine that, of course, the M4A3 chassis is well known for.

At the same time, because this vehicle is so heavy, we're also looking at a new improvement added to its tracks here. These little metal extensions that we refer to as duckbills are here to make the tracks wider. If you remember my conversation on the EC-8 in the previous room, we can think about how the wider tracks allowed this vehicle to traverse things like snow and mud without getting stuck.

Again, wider surface area, less surface pressure, just like a snowshoe that you may have at home. So, again, these duckbills allow our Jumbo here to traverse the snows out here in the Ardennes Forest during the Battle of the Bulge without getting stuck like a thinner-treaded Sherman might get. Another vehicle that was known for using duckbills is another type of Sherman that you see right over here.

This is, again, another variant of the M4A3 chassis. This is the M4A3E9 Sherman, and from a glance, it looks basically the exact same as maybe a normal M4A3 Sherman would look like with its similar appearance to the M4 Sherman. But if you look down here, you'll notice that she's a bit wider than perhaps your normal Sherman.

In fact, she features 37 inches of additional space on either side of the main chassis that we see here. You can see that in these extensions. Now, normally, you wouldn't be able to see these extensions because on either side of these treads, we'd have two sets of those duckbill track extenders, one over here and one over here, which, again, increases the overall width of the Sherman's treads and allows it to, again, traverse ice, mud, and snow out here in the winter conditions, in the Battle of the Bulge, much easier than a thinner-treaded Sherman might.

So, of course, this is a very subtle upgrade to, again, another very important tank here in World War II. But now we're going to go across, of course, the ocean to actually go to the Pacific Front and talk about a very interesting Sherman variant made in very few numbers over there. So far, we've seen Sherman tanks that are of the normal breed of Sherman, and we've seen those built for tank-busting.

We've seen those built for busting through enemy defenses. But now we're thinking about tanks that can, of course, get through infantry, perhaps a little bit more effectively than just a simple cannon. That's, of course, going to result in the creation of many different Sherman tanks that had different types of flamethrowers mounted on them.

One of the most well-known Sherman variants that featured a flamethrower would be used here at the Battle of Iwo Jima, which is the exhibit I'm standing in now. At Iwo Jima, eight specialized Sherman tanks were converted into flamethrower tanks, mounting a very large flamethrower up in its turret. Only eight of these vehicles were again converted.

They were referred to by the United States Marine Corps as the M4A3R5 Sherman. So again, another variant of the M4A3 Sherman tank. So on our vehicle here, it looks like it has a 75-millimeter cannon.

But in reality, it has that flamethrower nozzle shoved up the barrel here, which allows this vehicle to shoot a jet of napalm at a range of roughly 150 yards out in front of the tank. That jet of napalm was absolutely devastating to infantry caught out in the open. And for those who were in bunkers, such as those here at Iwo Jima, were going to be simply burned alive by the sheer existence of that napalm being thrown in through the small armored slits of those heavily fortified defenses.

These vehicles were so effective here during World War II that some Marines at Iwo Jima remarked that this tank, in fact, and many variants like it, were instrumental to winning the war in the Pacific. As I said before, the M4 Sherman, at least those with flamethrowers on them, goes by a variety of different names, mainly due to this simply diverse amount of weapon systems mounted in a lot of these vehicles. Regardless, looking at this vehicle, though, we're not just talking about weapon systems that have been mounted on it.

This M4 Sherman, in fact, also features a couple of improvised systems that have been added to this vehicle by Marines out in the battlefield to prevent new tactics that were being used here at Iwo Jima and other places across the Pacific. One very popular question we get here at the museum is, what are all the spikes on the vehicle's hatches used for? Well, they're here to prevent Japanese boarding actions. Say I'm a Japanese soldier and I've come from a perhaps hidden bunker down here in the ground at Iwo Jima.

As I run out and see this tank approaching me, I'll turn and look and simply duck in front of it about this low to the ground. Now, here in front of this tank, the men inside can only look at me via periscopes that are mounted on the tops of those hatches, and they're looking right over my head, so I'm currently standing in the tank's blind spot. Knowing that the blind spot is here, I can actually run to the side of the vehicle, where I can in fact stand at my full height in most cases, and still be completely out of sight from the men inside this tank.

By clambering on top of the vehicle and forcing open one of those hatches, which you can do so pretty easily, I can throw in a grenade or a phosphorus bomb, which generated a lot of heat and flame that would easily kill all the men inside of this tank. And so therefore, we have these spikes that have been welded to the hatches of our M4A3R5 to make it harder for a Japanese soldier to force them open and throw in that deadly ordnance. I've seen a lot of different modifications made here to the M4 Sherman that didn't necessarily roll off an assembly line.

Rather, it was the ingenuity of the Marine Corps out on the battlefield that made this Sherman effective for not just destroying tanks. By all rights, some could consider the M4 Sherman to be a terrible tank. It's got poor armor.

It has poor armament in many cases, and in some cases, it just simply performs poorly on the battlefield in terms of moving from place to place. But when we think about the M4 Sherman from a greater perspective, when we widen that lens, we can come across two points. And that, of course, comes in not only the power of American manufacturing bolstering the ability to create Shermans as quickly as they were destroyed on the battlefield, but also that same manufacturing building an incredibly diverse amount of Shermans to fulfill any purpose the American military ever needed on the front line.

It's this kind of power of manufacturing in conjunction with the idea of the M4 Sherman being the jack of all trades, but perhaps the master of none, that truly made it the master of the battlefield in World War II. So again, if anyone ever asks you what the greatest tank of World War II ever is, be sure to tell them it's the M4 Sherman. And be sure to visit our museum here in Dubois, Wyoming the next chance you have.

Again, I'm Hank Wilcox, the Associate Curator here at the Nash Museum of Military Vehicles. Thank you.