USA: Early M4 hulls with L40 gun?

[Copernicus]

Originally Posted by Mobhack

So which M4(mouthful) do you actually want then, what start date, and as I would not know a "cast hull" from a "welded hull" if it bit me, what armour scheme?.

Well... the idea was to copy unit #302/303 to give them the L40 (Weapon 47).

But...

Now that I'm looking into this some more, I'm kind of doubting whether there actually was a distinct L37 version of the M4's gun at all. The only reference I can find that mentions both the L37 and L/40 is in wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/75_mm_Gun_M2/M3/M6

Which says: "Barrel length: 40(37.5) calibres (3 m)". The same page also refers to it as the "75mm/L40." I can't find any document that actually refers to the 75mm/L40 and 75mm/L37 (or 37.5) as distinct weapons. One might refer to the "75mm M3" (gun, not tank) as either the L37 or L40, but never refer to each as distinct weapons.

It looks like it might just be that some documents rounded up. In which case, the fix would be to replace all weapon #45's with weapon #47.

But I would like for someone who knows Shermans better than I to confirm...