Panzer Sloped Armor: M4 Sherman Tank variants...

The M4 series, popularly referred as the “Sherman” Tank, is the best-known American tank ever built. It was quick, highly maneuvrable and simple to mantain. With almost 50,000 produced between 1942 and 1945, the M4 series tank served in almost every part of the globe during WWII. Not only did this mass-produced vehicle equip the armored formations of the US Army and Marine Corps, but it also saw service with a whole host of Allied Armies, including the Free French Army, Russian, Indian, Canadian, New Zealand, Polish and British.

The M4 was designed to ricochet impacts from the German PAK 36 (3,7 cm), but during the course of the war the improvements of enemy anti-tank guns and armor converted the Sherman in an early outclassed tank. The M4 had a mediocre armor and was vulnerable to almost all anti-tank German weapons. It had also, once penetrated, the tendency to blow-up in a few seconds due to internal ammunition fire. But it was the courage in battle of their crews, the mass-production, the fighter-bomber air support and later improvements in armor and gunnery that makes that this tank overcame adversity and won the war.

M4 PRINCIPAL VARIANTS:

M4	welded hull	Continental R975 radial engine
M4A1	cast hull	Continental R975 radial engine
M4A2	welded hull	General Motors 6-71 diesel engine
M4A3	welded hull	Ford V-8 500 hp engine
M4A4	welded hull	Chrysler Multibank engine