Found an interesting quote on wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M4_Sherman
I'd say it goes to show how quickly the losses could be made up. The industrial might of the USA just kept pumping them out.
What about crews though...........
Quote:
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According to Belton Y. Cooper's memoir of his 3rd Armored Division service, the Shermans were "death traps"; the overall combat losses of the division were extremely high. The unit was nominally assigned by table of organization 232 medium tanks (including 10 M26 Pershing tanks that made it into combat). 648 tanks were totally destroyed in combat, and a further 1,100 needed repair, of which nearly 700 were as a result of combat. According to Cooper, the 3rd Armored therefore lost 1,348 medium tanks in combat, a loss rate of over 580%. Cooper was the junior officer placed in charge of retrieving damaged and destroyed tanks. As such, he had an intimate knowledge of the actual numbers of tanks damaged and destroyed, the types of damage they sustained, and the kinds of repairs that were made. His figures are comparable to those given in the Operational History of 12th U.S. Army Group: Ordnance Section Annex. Some WWII Army officers made similar arguments during the war.
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