First, their designs required entirely new and separate training, maintenance, and repair procedures. Both were finally rejected (although the turret of the T23 would be used in all future 76mm upgunned Shermans) for two reasons. The T23, like the T22, was a medium tank, but with an electrical transmission and cast iron turret able to house a 76mm M1A1 gun. The former was an M4 with a smaller two-man turret. Other contenders as upgrades for the Sherman appeared in the form of the T22 and T23.

In addition, the T20 was to be armed with a new 76mm M1A1 cannon, as well as fitted with 3-inch frontal armor compared to the 2.5 inches found on the Sherman. The main difference between the two armored vehicles was a lower silhouetted engine that made the T20’s overall profile smaller than the existing M4. This quest started with the design of the T20 prototype intended as an improved version of the Sherman.

In mid-1942, even as the Sherman first entered mass production (48,000 would eventually be manufactured between 19), the United States Army Ordnance Department, in fits and starts, embarked on a search to improve the M4. Army knew otherwise due to reports coming from the Eastern Front, where the Soviet Army was scrambling during 1943 to come up with an answer to the new German heavy MK VI Tiger tank and the medium MK V Panther.

Regardless of what the “Dog Faces” were told about their tanks before the Normandy invasion, some of the high brass in the U.S. Would the M26 Pershing be an answer to their problems? As you’ll find out, the Pershing’s shortcomings were not necessarily limited to design. and Allied tankers, including Harris, who had three Shermans shot from under him during the war in Western Europe, the nine savage weeks of fighting in the Normandy hedgerow country and the following dash across France proved the Sherman was far from the equal of the German Tiger, Panther, or even the outdated Panzer IV. 2nd Armored Division, had been told over and over again that the American M4 Sherman Medium Tank (the Allies’ main battle tank) was as good, if not superior, to any armored fighting vehicle in the Wehrmacht’s arsenal. “We had been assured by our officers before we invaded France in 1944,” recorded Bill Harris, “that our Sherman tanks could take care of any Nazi armor we met there.” Harris, a tank gunner in the U.S.

Paderborn tank battle wwii