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Mustang said:
Yeah, but the T-34 had a lot more armor, and it was well-sloped. No variant of the M4 was particularly well-armored, so it dosen't matter in my opinion what the armor was on any of the Sherman models.
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The hull armour of the T-34/76 and T34/85 was a mere 45mm while the front hull of the Shermans produced 1944/45 was 64mm. Once you calculate in the slope, the front hull protection was about the same in the two tanks. And the Sherman did not have the big hatch in front hull which was a protection liability on the T34 for a number of reasons. Earlier Shermans had thinner armour but more slope and thus, in principle, gave protection similar to the later models (there were some issues with the way the front hull was built up of different parts which weakened it somewhat).
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Mustang said: But the early Shermans not only had low-velocity guns, but they also were equipped with poor-quality ammunition that sometimes shattered on impact.
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The Sherman 75mm M3 gun was not really "low velocity", 620 m/s is quite respectable and very similar to the 76mm gun in the T34/76 - and Soviet ammunition was not that hot either which is why the US 76mm M1A1 gun was just as good at penetrating armour as the Soviet 85mm gun in the T34/85. The US 75mm M3 also penetrated more armour than the Soviet 76mm.
I dont know who spawned the fantasy that the T34/76 was somehow a better tank than the early Shermans, but it is just that, a fantasy. Protection was roughly the same and neither hand any chance of withstanding a hit by a German 75mm gun. Firepower was about equal and the Shermans three-man turret was a considerable advantage over the two-man turret on the T34/76.
As for the ammo, the US 75mm fired M62 APCBC (i.e. a capped round) and M79 AP (i.e. uncapped). The 76mm fired the same and M93 APCR (a.k.a. HVAP, subcaliber). The Germans mainly used PzGr 39 APCBC but also used a lot of Gr. 38 Hl - HEAT - and small quantities of PzGr 40 APCR. Soviet 76mm ammo was mainly BR-350 APBC, an uncapped, blunt-nosed round as well as some APCR and HEAT. The 85mm also fired APBC as well as plain AP and APCR.
So everybody used a variety of ammo types, performance differences of similar rounds from different armies can usually be explained by subtle design differences or quality issues.
Claus B