Wise to remember that Hitler placed a very great emphasis on new tank production over that of spares and replacement parts so under that regime, any tank would be hard to repair.

 

The Tiger was a bit complicated tho ;)

One of the key people involved in the design and manufacture of the Sherman, George McLeod Ross, wrote "The Business of Tanks"..., where the whole history of the design decisions and battles over them are discussed.

 

McLeod Ross's big push was insisting on up-gunning the Sherman. He also got the Oilgear turret drive into production, which allowed precise enough control of the turret that gunners could hit something at range. And he was involved in using British optical designs to reduce the size of the hole in the armor required for the sight. With those improvements, Shermans could deal with a target once they got into range. Which, after all, is what tanks are for.

 

 

Nice citation, initiative is as important as plan is after all

 

 

I thought Hitler rejected the use of gas as a weapon.

It is of note that the 76mm was actualy a 75mm gun but was called a 76 to stop it being confused with the existing 75, this gun was based on the 17pwdr but modified to fit a Sherman turret, this resulted in a small drop off in performance but it was reckond to be on par with the US 90mm.

 

the problem was supply - never enough to go round, the brits wanted 1 firefly per squad of 4 but never achieved this

 

The US decided to use petrol shermans on dday to simplify the fuel supply - all the diesel shermans (yes there were diesel powered M4s in 44) were redirected to Italy (although not sure what were used in Pacific)

 

It was a mentality of the time - production was more important that lives.

WRONG.

 

It, the "76 mm M-1" was a new 3 inch gun that fired the same shells as the anti-tank gun  on the M-10 tank destroyer, vut withy a different shell case to fit the smaller breech chamber.. It used the same type of breech lock mechanism mechanism as the 75 mm gun, but  aside from that, not only was the breach chamber different, and the tube bore diameter different, but the barrel  lineages were not even alike. The 76 M-1 traces its lineage back to the US 3 inch/50 NAVAL Model 1890 gun, while the 75 mm was a direct descendant of the French 75 mm Model 1898.        

 

H.

Also a different gun from the US 3 inch, the British called that 17 pounder the  77 mm when they finally fit  a cut down  version to their Cromwells and Comets to keep it from being confused  in their supply chain with the US 3 inch,  and with their own 3 inch, which they also used.  It was the British who couldn't keep their ammunition straight, without this trick, not the Americans. We used stock numbers.

 

H.