The Sherman Tank what an amazing vehicle!!

[kfz]

the plate is roughly oblong with circular cover with a 2 small hols in it and one big one, though not big enough to be the hull top. Its looks like its the entire turret top plat with the hatch/cupolar blown out.

Not sure its the whole turret that tips back, is it just the gun?

Kev

[Slipdigit]

Could very well be, Kev. It is hard to tell, the gun barrel does change position noticeably.

[machine shop tom]

Originally Posted by kfz

its not the turret, you can still see it in place, though it look like its come out the ring. The plate looks like it is an engine cover or other large hatch. Does seem to pop though doesnt it. Assuming it was solid shot something has cooked off.

Dont like the fact you can see the panther and then it cuts to the brewed up tank. No evidence that the 2 events are even connected.

Kev

I'm sorry. I meant to say the turret TOP is launched in the air by the attack. I appears to me the tank is a KV1 by the overhang in the back of the turret. I have read many accounts of the turrets being blown clear of Soviet tanks by hits from German 88mm and L71 75mm guns. The gunners would aim about a hands width below the turret ring.

I would imagine that the Sherman would do less well in such a situation.

Imagine the poor blokes in the tank..........
tom

[Tom Houlihan]

Only slightly OT, but last night I caught The Military Channel's show on the top 10 tanks. The M4 Sherman ranked in at #10.

[Owen]

Bit taller than a Pz III. Not much though.

Lone Sentry: Tankers in Tunisia Photos and Maps, Front View of a German Mark III Tank and an American M4 Tank

Front View of a German Mark III Tank and an American M4 Tank Lone Sentry: Tankers in Tunisia SERGEANT BECKER, Company "G", 1st Armored Regiment. M4's are fine..... I like the M4. I look at the German tank and thank God I am in an M4. I think we will lick the Germans in time. I think we are good. COLONEL HAINES: We drew 36 M4A2 Diesel tanks from the British. We like them very much. Lone Sentry: Tankers in Tunisia SERGEANT LASLEY, Company "G", 1st Armored Regiment, Maknassy, 4 April 1943. When you are fired upon, if you have a good tank like an M4, you try to find out where the enemy is and fire even before you find a good position. The M4A2 seems to be a swell tank.

[4th wilts]

i once read about the soviet 122mm mounted on js tanks,knocking the turret off of tiger and panther tanks.i do not have accurate details regarding the gun though.i think that would launch an m4 turret very effectively.yours very sincerely,lee.

[kfz]

Launching turrets isnt that hard. Some of the rela tanks nuts correct me but most are just held in my their weight alone, not actually locked down.

Now show me some battleships turrets getting luanched and I will be impressed.

Kev

[von Poop]

Not really Kev, maybe on warships where the turret weighs hundreds/thousands of tons but imagine a tank's turret not being fixed via the ring while the vehicle travels over rough terrain, it'd just fall off.
I'll try and find a diagram on the web.

Back on Shermans specifically, could their (I feel) undeserved 'reputation' be something to do with the fact that for pretty much their whole ww2 career they were on the offensive? Not so much safe sitting in Ambush for them, more struggling forward and facing the hammering from defenders that engenders?

[machine shop tom]

Originally Posted by kfz

Launching turrets isnt that hard. Some of the rela tanks nuts correct me but most are just held in my their weight alone, not actually locked down.

Now show me some battleships turrets getting luanched and I will be impressed.

Kev

Not "launched" but quite damaged:

http://www.royalmarinesbands.co.uk/h.../7_17_4_40.jpg

tom

[Owen]

Reading Mailed Fist by Ken Ford, page 70 & 71.
17th/21st Lancers are issued with Shermans in March 1943.
An extract from ffrench Blake's History Of The 17th/21st Lancers page 126 is quoted,

The best feature of the change to the Sherman was the 75mm gun. At last, here was the answer to the deadly 88mm antitank gun. By shooting into a suspected area with several tanks at once , the blast could strip the camoflague from the big 88s; and if these were of the antiaircraft type with no shield , the crew might be killed before they had fired a shot. Once the antitank gun had fired and had been spotted it was finished; it could be destroyed from three thousand yards or more without revealing more than the tank turret-or not even that if time allowed indirect fire methods to be used.