Shermans in Mud

The Medium Tank M4 showed itself as an effective weapon over the course of decades of service. Tanks from the Sherman family successfully fought in every corner of the world in WW2 and after. However, these tanks still had a number of design drawbacks that American engineers had to fight to solve while the tank was already in production. One of these drawbacks was poor mobility in soft soil.

Attachments of every kind

One of the reasons why the Sherman’s off-road mobility left much to be desired was the high ground pressure. Even the prototype Medium Tank T6 didn’t have particularly wide tracks, and every subsequent variant of the Sherman became heavier and heavier. Ground pressure increased along with weight.

A Medium Tank M4A1 that sank in mud, Miturno, Italy, 1944. The high weight and narrow tracks of this vehicle meant that off-road mobility was low.

German Tank Intel 1944

 "Top Secret

Inspector General of the Tank Forces
#046/44 Top Secret

June 26th, 1944

Copy 1 out of 5

Notes on the report to the Fuhrer

[...]

Based on information received at 2:00 on June 25th from Tank Group West and Colonel Emichen, the following picture is formed on English and American tanks:

1. The new Cromwell tank is armed with one 75 mm L/34 gun. The American Sherman tank used to be armed with a 75 mm L/40 gun and now has a longer 76.2 mm L/52.8 tank gun (previously used on the M10 SPG).

Foreign Aid

"GBTU Tank Directorate report on the amount of imported tanks received from 1941 to January 1945

March 10th, 1945

	Crom-well	Chur-chill	Matil-da	Valen-tine 3-5	Valen-tine 7	Valen-tine 9-10	M4-A2	M4-A4	M3 med	M3 lt	M5-A1	Bridge-layer	Tetrarch	Total
1941	-	-	145	216	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	361
1942	-	84	626	636	323	-	36	-	812	977	-	-	20	3514
1943	-	174	147	430	709	637	469	2	164	255	5	-	-	2992
1944	6	-	-	82	9	290	2345	-	-	-	-	25	-	2757
January 1945	-	-	-	-	-	-	289	-	-	-	-	-	-	289
Total	6	258	918	1364	1041	927	3139	2	976	1232	5	25	20	9913

	Mk.1	M3A1	M2	SU-57 (T48)	SU-76 (T70)	SU-76 (M10)	SU M17	SU-37 (M15)	ARVs
1941	330	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1942	903	261	83	-	-	-	-	-	-
1943	403	608	30	251	-	-	-	-	-
1944	351	1954	-	409	5	52	1000	100	127
January 1945	16	180	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	2003	3003	113	650	5	52	1000	100	127

Deputy Chief of the GBTU TU, Engineer-Colonel Muravich

Chief of the 5th Department of the GBTU TU, Engineer-Colonel Biletkin"

CAMD RF F.38 Op.11355 D.3016 L.118 

Printed in Glavnoye Bronetankovoye Upravleniye Lyudi, Sobytiya, Fakty v dokumentakh, 1944-1945 p.429