Myths of American Armor & "Why the Sherman was what it was"

[MechAg94]

I thought I would share these links.  It is video of a couple of presentations by Nicholas Moran who goes by The_Chieftain on youtube.  He has a lot of detailed videos on tanks and armored vehicles.  These two videos were mostly about the M4 Sherman, but branched into other WWII tanks and tank destroyers as he went into some detail about development of tanks by the US.  He goes into a lot of detail about the performance of the Sherman and how it compared to other tanks of WWII.  IMO, it goes against a lot of what I have heard about the Sherman.  I thought it was well worth the time watching it.

The second link is the shorter of the two and was recorded earlier.  He makes reference to it at the beginning of the first link.  The shorter one is 46 minutes just so you know what you are in for.

US AFV Development in WW2, or, "Why the Sherman was what it was"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwIlrAosYiM

Myths of American Armor. TankFest Northwest 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNjp_4jY8pY

I have no idea if this has been posted before.  I didn't see it on a quick search.  

[TommyGunn]

I recently obtained a book called "DEATHTRAPS",  written by a WW2 vet who serviced the Shermans.   I haven't read it, but in general he seems to say it's original cannon was not powerful enough,  and that improvements were made over time.

The German tanks were well armored and defeated early Sherman attacks fairly well, except when whacked in the butt.  But as frightening as those huge armored Panzers were,  they were problematic as well.  They were often maintainance nightmares,   bogged down in muddy areas that our tanks maneuvered in pretty well,  and often could not get through narrower town streets when they were designed for pedestrian or horse traffic.

Remember also,  WE had to transport our tanks across an ocean .... the Germans had no such constrictions.

[K Frame]

Belton Cooper's book. Thought so. He's had some interesting things to say about the Sherman on various programs on History Channel over the years, some of them not supported by the broader historical record, but reinforced by his own experiences.

[MechAg94]

In the video, he does mention the maintenance record of some of the German tanks.  They threw tanks into production and combat without a lot of testing at times.  One thing he mentioned that I had never heard was that German supply trains carrying parts had to be guarded as German units would conduct raids to steal parts so they could get their own tanks in operation.   

He did talk a bit about the 75mm gun.  It could take out anything the enemy had in North Africa and Italy.  It wasn't until late in the war when the Germans fielded heavy tanks like the Tiger that it was considered inadequate.  Then there is all the infighting about whether tanks or tank destroyers should be fighting other tanks.  By that time later in the war, we already had the 76mm gun in the pipeline just not very many.  I had also not realized we  had a number of heavier tank designs in prototype and some in production, but all had some issue or another. 

Some of the facts he brings out I found very interesting.  I haven't done any reading on the subject.  Most of what I have heard is the History Channel stuff.