Has anyone heard any horror stories of Sherman Tank crews during WW2.?

Question

Has anyone heard any horror stories of Sherman Tank crews during WW2.?

Answer 1

Well i have a personal one my fathers Uncle Robert [my great uncle] was a tank commander in WW2 . His Sherman was one of three leading an attack on a French village when they came under arty fire. He ordered his Shermans to head for a stand of trees for protection as they entered the woods a shell hit a tree directly in front of his Sherman which then fell across the turrent and the hatch . Seconds later a panzerfaust crew hidden in the woods hit his tank from the rear and it promptly burst into flames SGT Robert S Brown at age 24 and two others burned to death on that day only the driver escaped. My Great Uncle is still buried on French soil may god rest his soul.

Answer 2

The M4 has a much worse reputation than it actually deserves for catching fire.



The famous "Tommy Cooker" nickname came from the North African campaign in 1942 to early 1943 when British tankers got in the very bad habit of shoving as much ammunition into every nook and cranny of the tank that they could. This made the tanks far more vulnerable to ammunition explosions if penetrated. This however was no failing on the part of the tank but of the crews failing to follow proper protocol when stowing ammo.



Late model M4 Mediums (only the British called them Sherman's back then) recieved "wet" ammunition stowage, where the ammo bins were surrounded with engine coolant. This dramatically reduced the incidence of ammunition explosions which were the cause of most fires.



People tend to forget too that as a matter of policy gunners on both sides would keep shooting at a tank until it caught fire, whether it happened on the first hit or after 3, 4, 5 or a dozen. Eventually, they all burned! The German Panther was certain to light up like a roman candle when hit from the side due to the way the ammo was stored. And the side of a Panther wasn't too tough to penetrate. You see lots of pictures of burned out Panther's with their turrets blown off for exactly this reason. Yet the Panther does not enjoy the same reputation as the Sherman for burning.



Short answer is that being in any tank that is on fire is the last place in the world you want to be. Any type of tank that has been in battle will have its horror stories.

Answer 3

The German's nicknamed the Sherman a "Ronson" after the famus lighter, since the sherman lit up everythime it was hit, other than that i dont know of any horror stories, i supose most crew men could tell you some stories such as comming across a Tiger tank,

Answer 4

What component are you attempting to get in the process [a] That the sherman tank became right into a catastrophe the two under gunned, poorly designed and with a petroleum engine for gods sake ! which created the term "tommy cookers " or [B] The tiger became right into a stable tank and with extra numbers would have be extra decisive to the end results of WW2 To answerer :- all of us knows of the shortcomings of the Sheram tank after it became into dedicated to conflict there became into no option the had to apply it And as for the tiger changing the path of the conflict .....No no longer of project. The germans did no longer have air superiority ,in spite of if that they had thousands of tanks they could be very sceptical to attack by air that's authentic of tanks oftentimes even this present day day

Answer 5

Not anything specific, but they were so outgunned by the German tanks Im sure there are plenty of horror stories.

Answer 6

Yes I have