The M4 Sherman tank was the mainstay of the Western allies between 1942 and 1945. Fast and modern it was better than most of the tanks Britain had to offer. The American Chief of Staff claimed in November 1943 that it had been hailed widely as ‘the best tank on the battlefield today’. However, by the time of the Normandy invasion of June 1944 this was not the case. The new heavy tanks being produced by the Germans were able to outclass the Sherman in both armour and armament. This title describes the development and operational use of the Sherman medium tank throughout World War II and beyond.
PRODUCT DETAILS
Publisher: Osprey Publishing Pub. Date: 27th May 1993 Catalog: Book Media: Paperback Number Of Pages: 48 Ean: 9781855322967 Isbn: 185532296X
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USER REVIEWS
Too Short, Format Not so Good ~ Written on Feb 16, 2005. 11 out of 13 users found this review helpful.
Although I have invested quite a pot of money into Osprey publications, some of the series are better than others... one problem is if the subject matter is so long that it cannot be handled by the short page format.
This is definitely the case in this book: since the Sherman tank became the unfortunate defacto standard for the western allies in WWII, it can potentially encorporate a lot of space and detail. Zaloga covers the advent of the tank and how it was put through it production paces. I also learned why the production run of the Lee-Grant tanks was so short --- it was an interim version between the Stuart and the Sherman -- the turret for a gun larger than the 37 mm had not been made, so the hybrid was the only way to get large amount of up-gunned tanks into the field quickly(even if they did look wierd).
There is a lot of detail on the many versions but I did find a few things that annoyed me:
1) There is no detail on the "why" of the choice of the Sherman. Surely a tank as critically flawed and used as long as it is either being defended by misdirected intentions, or it really has some solid points.
2) Although British and Cmmonwealth forces were using this tank in some of the largest engagements on the western front, there is little on the variations used by these forces. There is in addition no mention of any variations that may have been shipped to Burma.
3) As carrolary of the above there is nothing on the Firefly version with the 17 Lbr version of its gun. Certainly arguably the most worthwhile upgrade done on this tank.
4) No mention of the impact of model development and the impact on the field. The 17 pounder on the Firefly meant that the British and Canadians could match the Panzer IV and also score hits on the Panther and Tiger (though still outgunned).
A good reference but I think that there was just too much info and the Osprey format was just too short.
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