US Sherman Tank

[cbo]

Originally Posted by Marek_Tucan

Depends on which Sherman and when. Early Shermans had thin armor, bit worse than contemporary Panzer II and IV, but better gun. Later on, Shermans got armor and survivability improvement while Panzer IV got long 75mm so the advantages and disadvantages turned..

The overall armour protection of the Sherman remained much the same through the war. Shermans produced 1942-43 had 51mm of armour on the front hull, sloped at 56 degrees while those made in 1944-45 had 63mm of armour, but only sloped at 47 degrees. The main difference was that the front armour was one piece of RHA armour on the latter ones while the earlier types had a front built up of several pieces of RHA and cast armour with some protruding bulges etc. This probably wasn't as strong as the later type.
The side armour remained 38mm vertical all through the war. There were small changes in the turreet armour as well, but not much.

By the time the Sherman entered the war, the Panzer IV was only made with the long 75mm gun and 80mm frontal armour, but its turret and side hull armour remained weaker than that of the Sherman throughout the war (not counting Schürzen )

Yet later on Sherman got 76 or 17pdr and in that configuration had the upper hand over any PzIV.

The 76mm was, if anything, slightly weaker as anti-tank weapon compared with the German 7,5cm L/48 gun and fired a somewhat less effective HE round. With HVAP, it was a superior performer, but just as 75mm HVAP (PzGr40) was rare to non-existant in the German camp, it was in very short supply among American tanks as well.

You are right, that the 17-pdr beat both as an anti-tank weapon, but was of couse a lousy HE performer, just as the 17-pdr APDS round was a somewhat erratic performer.

CBO