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Designed in 1940, the
Sherman was the armor backbone of the American and
Allied armies during World War II and became one of
the most important battlefield weapons of the war.
The M4 entered
its first action with the British 8th Army on October
24, 1942 and played a decisive role at the battle of
El Alamein in North Africa. It was the British too,
who first named it the "Sherman" tank in
tribute to the American Civil War general William
Tecumseh Sherman.
Despite its tall
silhouette and glaring weakness in both armor and
firepower, Shermans proved their combat worthiness in
all terrain and weather conditions and in every major
theater of the war. Reliable, robust and and easy to
operate, it became the most widely used battle tank of
World War II and was supplied in considerable numbers
to the Soviet Union and England, as well as free
French and Polish forces.
Over the course of the
war, the tank went through a steady series of
refinements and improvements to its armor, engine,
running gear and weapons systems. Some versions were
modified for special duty as armored bulldozers,
minesweepers, rocket launchers, recovery tractors and
personnel carriers.
Sherman flame thrower
tanks, or "Zippos" became a key weapon in
the Pacific theater from mid-1944 on and were heavily
used by the U.S. Army and Marine units to knock out
enemy bunkers.
By the time production
ended in June 1945, American factory workers had
turned out a total of 49,234 Sherman tanks to help win
World War II. Thousands remained in active service
after the war and fought again in Korea, forming
divisional tank companies for close infantry support.
Although declared
obsolete by the U.S. Army in 1956, the Sherman's
combat career lasted for another two decades with the
Israeli Defense Force and over forty other armies
around the world.
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