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The M4 Sherman was the most important armored vehicle in the inventory of the western Allied powers during World War II, and many were also sent to the Soviet Union as part of the U.S. Lend-Lease program.
The Sherman was of conventional layout, with a driver and hull gunner/radio operator at the front of the hull; a fighting compartment and turret housing the gunner, loader, and commander; and the engine compartment at the rear.The early versions were armed with a short-barreled 75mm main gun, although it was progressively up-gunned: first to long-barreled 75mm guns, then to a 76.2mm gun in a variant known as the Firefly: 9,677 M4A1s were built with 75mm guns, with another 6,281 built with the 76.2mm weapon. It had a .30 caliber machine gun in a ball mount in the glacis plate, another coaxial to the main gun, and a .50 caliber machine gun mounted on the turret roof.
The M4A1 had a 400hp Chrysler gasoline engine. Its suspension featured three twin bogies with a vertical suspension and integrated return rollers, a rear idler, and front sprockets. The M4 served as the basis for a variety of vehicles, including: - Armored recovery vehicles
- Tank destroyers
- Rocket launchers
- Mine clearing vehicles
By 1946, when production finally ceased, 49,234 M4 Shermans had been built, with major variants from M4A1 through M4A6. Shermans continued to serve in the US and then in foreign armies (notably Israel, where they were upgraded to the “Super Sherman”) for many years after the war.
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