The M4 Sherman Tank Epic Information Thread.. (work in progress)

[Jeeps_Guns_Tanks]

The Sherman article just posted on AW reminded me of the Sherman with the PT-76's 76mm, so I went and googled it.  This time, it was the very first result, instead of me finding nothing.  welp

 

 

Interesting, from this angle, I can't tell what hull it's based on, its a small hatch tank with late drivers hoods, I can probably figure it out from that, it's probably and M4A2 or A4 hull though.  

[EnsignExpendable]

Haha, what? Link please

[ApplesauceBandit]

Haha, what? Link please

Assuming you mean the AW Sherman articlehttps://aw.my.com/us/news/general/eternal-warrior-75-years-sherman

I've got a side shot of that Indian sherman on my computer, but I'm on my phone right now so too bad. I think the same photo is in the .pdf of surviving postwar shermans.

[Jeeps_Guns_Tanks]

New Post on Jungle Warfare going up today.

Jungle Tanking: The Sherman Saw Combat In Almost All Terrain, Including The Steaming Jungles Of The Pacific.

 

 

Marine M4A1s on Cape Gloucester.

 

Conventional wisdom often states, Jungles are no place for tanks, but that wisdom is wrong. It is very difficult to operate a tank in the jungle, that is true, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done. In many cases it requires the close work of heavy engineers and their bulldozers.  In at least one case engineers had to put in a corduroy log road to get the tanks up to the fight when the Marines used them on Cape Gloucester. When a tank can be brought up though, when used correctly, it was a very useful tool in destroying enemy bunkers and strong points that could not be flanked.

 

Another Marine M4A1 on Cape Gloucester, this one made by (Pacific Car & Foundry) West Coast Best Coast Baby

 

Tanks have to be used in a different way than they would in just about any other terrain when fighting in the jungle, and more so than any other terrain, are dependent on their infantry support to protect them and be their eyes. They also cannot be employed in large numbers, fighting in the jungle is a very up close and personal affair, and from two to six tanks are all that are needed or can really be employed.  In most cases it will only be two or three, because most jungle fighting is limited to certain paths due to terrain restrictions.  If the area was wide enough, a tank was only behind a bulldozer in off road ability, but large trees and rocks will stop any tank.

 

An LST delivering a Marine M4A1 Sherman to Cape Gloucester

 

The Tank could be useful for clearing some of the jungle terrain, through the use of its machine guns, cannon with canister rounds or HE, and even its tracks.  It would take a fairly large tree to stop a tank, the bigger the tank, the larger the tree would have to be, and the tracks are very good at tearing up underbrush.  In some cases tanks were used to pull loaded trucks up roads normally impassible due to mud.  They could be used to haul in supplies to troops and in some special cases used to retrieve wounded troops pinned down by enemy fire, by driving over them and pulling the wounding in through the bottom escape hatch.

 

Were calling this M4 Composite Hull, in a clearing, in the jungles of the Philippines

 

To successfully employ tanks a thorough recon of the area the tanks are going to operate in was needed.  A specific set of objectives, preferably, ones that could be seen from the jumping off point were needed to effectively use tanks, or they just got in the way.  With established objectives, specific infantry squads would be assigned to work directly with individual tank, to baby sit it and keep enemy infantry away.  The platoon leader would be encouraged to either ride on the tank his men were protecting, or stay very close to it so he could talk to the tank commander. The tanks would hold back with their protecting infantry, until the leading grunts made contact, then as needed they would move slowly forward and engage targets pointed out by the grunts.  Moving slow and staying with the men protecting the tank was very important, if they fell behind or got run off by flanking fire, the tank became very vulnerable to close infantry attack.  This is why the platoon leader staying close to the tank was important, so it could be told to start backing up the fire was too heavy.  If an attack failed, the tanks were advised to never attack over the same path, especially if the Japanese had time to bring up AT guns or mines.

 

Marines supporting an M4A2, in almost jungle, or jungle after lots of shore bombardment.

 

The pace of these attacks was purposely slow, they needed to make sure they were not bypassing an AT gun or tank killer team hiding in the brush.  Various methods were used, from hand signals to tracers and smoke to designate targets to the tank.  Smoke worked ok, but someone on the phone on the back of the tank telling the TC exactly where to look worked the best.  Once the bullets were flying the tank crews buttoned up and would not open up until asked by the supporting Doughs, or the intense part of the fighting was over.  Sometimes the tanks would need to be given a break in very hot weather, operating at low speed could cause overheating and vapor lock, and was hell on the crews too.  In the tropical heat, the interior of an M4 was not a pleasant place to be.

 

A pair of M4’s being supported by infantry, on Guam

 

Once the objectives were achieved for the day or the attacks were stopped, the tanks pulled back far enough behind the lines to refuel, repair and, rearm the tanks. They would also take out as many wounded men as they could carry on their way to the rear. In the morning they may haul extra ammo and other supplies forward to the units who held the line.  Tanks, unless under the most dire circumstances were not used in the line at night, or used in night attacks.  Tanks, blind enough during the day, are so blind at night they are a threat to everyone around them, friend or enemy in the jungle.

 

These M4 Composite Hulls were probably lost in the Philippines, after they got to far ahead of the Infantry.

 

The Army and Marine learned a lot of lessons about employing tanks in Jungle terrain, they recorded and disseminated these lessons in the very interesting: Combat Lessons, The Rank And File, What They Are Doing and How They Are Doing it. This was a series of nine, 50 to 90 page pamphlets, put out by the  DOD and sent out to all the troops I have 8 of the 9 hosted in the downloads section, and they are all interesting reads,  they do not cover Armor exclusively, or even in every issue, but they are still a very interesting look at how the US Army and Marines worked during WWII.  When the Sherman was employed using the lesson the Army and Marines learned on the job, they proved to be a crushing and very hard to deal with part of the Allied Arsenal in use against them. The Japanese really had few options in dealing with a Sherman once it was in the fight, the rare 47mm AT gun, hard to employ in heavy jungle, magnetic mines and suicide squads, and the occasional oddball tank trap were the only tools in their arsenal that could deal with the Sherman and none of these was as good as the basic Panzerfaust or German Pak 40 75mm AT gun. The Japanese tanks were so bad they are not worth mentioning in this section.  

[Jeeps_Guns_Tanks]

First draft of my post on US Armored Divisions

 

The Tank Divisions: The US Armored Divisions, What They Were and A Brief History Of Each One.

There were two types of US Armored Division during WWII.  The Regular type and the Heavy type, I will detail out the changes below.  

 

A regular US Armored Division was made up of three Tank Battalions, three Armored Infantry Battalions, and three Armored Field Artillery Battalions. These were broken up into three Combat Commands, A, B, and R. Each of these had a Tank Battalion, an Armored Infantry Battalion, and a Armored Field Artillery Battalion and each one was commanded by a colonel.  Commands A and B were the primary combat force of the Division and R was the reserve.

 

The Armored Division would also have service battalions and smaller units attached:

 

An Armored Engineer Battalion

An Armored Medical Battalion

An Armored Reconnaissance Battalion

An Armored Ordnance battalion

An Armored Signal Company

A CIC Detachment

A Division Supply Trains(made up of trucks)

A Division Artillery Battalion

A MP Platoon

An Tank Destroyer Battalion Could be assigned

An Armored AA Battalion Could be assigned  

 

These units could be broken down and assigned to the Combat Commands depending on the needs of the missions. The Armored Division was intended to be a self-contained unit with all the assets needed to support and move itself around a theater.  A normal light Armored Division had an authorized strength of just about 11,000 men.

 

The main difference with a Heavy Armored Division was they had eight Medium Tank Battalions, instead of just three. They also had more light tanks, with two full light tank battalions.  Only a two armored divisions retained the heavy designation and organization through the whole war, the 2^nd and 3^rd.

 

All these Division were meant to exploit a major breakthrough won by the regular Infantry Divisions.  In many cases they were not used this way, and often got thrown into the lines as the enemy was faltering, using a single Combat Command to help secure the breakthrough while the rest of the Division rushed through.  No Armored Divisions saw use in the Pacific, but the Sherman sure did.  The Sherman was really the heart of the US Armored Division, and it’s mobility and reliability really served it well there, it allowed US Armored Divisions to make very long runs once broken through.

 

1^st Armored Division: Old Ironsides, 1940-1946 Reactivated 1951-Prensent

The oldest US Armor Division. It saw a lot of action in WWII, and I’ll break down its history a little at some point.

2^st Armored Division: Hell on Wheels, 1940-1995

The second US Armored Division put together and it saw just about as much as the first. This was one of only two Heavy Armored Divisions. More to come!

3^st Armored Division: Spearhead 1941-1945, reactivated 1947-92

Also maybe known as the Third Herd, but may be post WWII.  The 3^rd only saw combat from Normandy to the end of the war.

4^st Armored Division: They had no name! 1941-1972

One of the few Armored Division that never adopted a name, it also developed a reputation. The 4^th was often used as the spearhead for Paton’s Third Army and it was a tough outfit.

5^st Armored Division: Victory, 1941-1945, reactivated 1950-1956

Another Divisions that saw combat from Normandy to the end of the war in Europe.

6^st Armored Division: No Official Name, but was nicked named the Super Sixths 1942-1945 reactivated 1950-1956

Another AD that saw combat in from Normandy to end in Europe.

7^st Armored Division: Another Armored Division with no official name but it was nicknamed the Lucky Seventh 1942-1945 reactivated 1950-1953

This AD started combat in northern France and ended it in Germany.  They were a part of Paton’s third Army

8^st Armored Division: The Thundering Herd 1942-1945

The 8^th AD has a very nice website linked above.  I spend a lot of time on the Thundering Herds website, and it’s good stuff.

9^th Armored Division: The Phantom Division, (but a real one) 1942-1945

This AD came in toward the end and only fought in three major campaigns. They did help secure some key bridges over the Rhine River though.

10^th Armored Division: Nicknamed the Tiger Division, 1942-1945

They saw combat for a short time, three campaigns, but had a pretty cool nickname.

11th Armored Division: Thunderbolt, 1942-1945

Another late comer they saw enough action to see how disgusting the Nazi Germans were when they liberated Mauthausen Concentration Camp

12th Armored Division: The Hellcat Division, 1942-1945

This AD came in late, in the war, but some a good amount of action.

13th Armored Division: The Black Cats 1942-1945

These guys were in combat for 16 days, and fought in two major campaigns.

14th Armored Division: 15th Armored Division: Phantom Division, not a real AD 16^th Armored Division: 

[EnsignExpendable]

Did the Hellcat division have any Hellcats? Also did the Tiger division have that one Stuart tank named Tiger?

[Walter_Sobchak]

Did the Hellcat division have any Hellcats? Also did the Tiger division have that one Stuart tank named Tiger?

I'm pretty sure the TO&E of an armored division contained neither M18 Hellcat tank destroyers or the Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter.  Although, I suppose it's possible 12th Armored Division could have had a TD battalion attached to it at some point. 

 

Check out their sweet logo.

 

[Jeeps_Guns_Tanks]

That's a nice logo...

 

Man I must have been mega tired last night, the AD post is a mess of typos lol

[Walter_Sobchak]

Letter from British Tank commander to the Lima Locomotive Inc factory thanking them for his Sherman Tank.

[LoooSeR]

Uparmored?

[Meplat]

Uparmored?

Interesting, and well done..But I weep for the folks who'll have to change out the brake linings or work on the transmission/transaxle.

[EnsignExpendable]

A .30 cal and a .50 cal on the turret? I don't think I've ever seen that before.

[Jeeps_Guns_Tanks]

A .30 cal and a .50 cal on the turret? I don't think I've ever seen that before

 

And a .50 cal Co-Ax, this was a pretty common modification in Patton's  3rd Army, since he banned sandbagging. 

 

Uparmored?

 

 

Yeah, they cut the whole front plate out of an M4A3 large hatch hull and welded it in, highlight brackets and all, right over the existing front plate. Not all go the extension over the differential, but I think the ones that did left the bolts exposed so the final drive could still be removed. I'm not 100% sure on that, I'll have to dig for pics. 

 

This tank did not receive the extra armor they added to the cheeks of the turret, as can be seen in this pic. 

Note this one also has extra side armor installed.  These were almost as good as a Jumbo, but no super thick mantlet.  Also note the .30 cal on the roof, and you can see the shadow of the .50 coax. 

[Walter_Sobchak]

And a .50 cal Co-Ax, this was a pretty common modification in Patton's  3rd Army, since he banned sandbagging. 

 

 

I believe the .50 cal coax was the airplane version of the gun, hence the visible barrel sleeve and shorter length.  Zaloga notes in Armored Thunderbolt that some of these guns were "liberated" by tankers from the aircorps.

 

[Collimatrix]

I believe the .50 cal coax was the airplane version of the gun, hence the visible barrel sleeve and shorter length.  Zaloga notes in Armored Thunderbolt that some of these guns were "liberated" by tankers from the aircorps.

 

 

 

 

I think Zumbro mentions tankers grafting M3 machine gun barrels onto their M2s to increase their rate of fire.

[Jeeps_Guns_Tanks]

So, i've been working on improving the Armored Divisions post, and just general cleanup of both the word doc the site is based on and the web site. So nothing big for some time. I decided to add a game review section though and cranked this out.

 

 

Computer Games that have Sherman Tanks in them:  WWII and or Sherman Tank games

 

World of Tanks: The best Tank Arcade Game on the Market

World is a great game. I could be accused of being biased, I do have over 20k games in the beta, and a little more than 15K since release. I’ve been playing computer games since I was a kid, in the 80s, on an old Apple II. Since my dad was also a military history nut, and like computer games as well, I got to play an awful lot of games involving tanks, going as far back as SSIs Panzer Commander game, and Kampfgruppe games, and then SSI’s last hurrah, Steel Panthers.

 

World of Tanks is a different type of tank game, since it is really arcade based, but it’s very fun.  The problem with most simulator type tank games is they take to long, and then you finally make contact, miss the camping sniper tank and die. They claim to be realistic, but really, when they get past the set PVE scenarios, are not more realistic in PVP play then the arcade games, because of the limitations of the platform.  War Thunder suffers from this along with a lot of other problems.

Having played WOT from the almost the beginning, having started in the early closed beta, before there were any other tech trees than the German and Russian lines, I really know the game. I saved up free exp and gold (you got like 200 gold a day) before the American Tank release, so I have a T29 the first day it came out.   This was back in the old days when if you ran over a dog house, (since removed) a dog yelped, before the whiners got them to soften it up.

 

I clearly still like the game, since I still play, though Clan Wars nearly burnt me out. I am glad I was in a clan good enough to get the special tanks for the first three campaigns.  PBKAC was a great clan, and they kept me around long after my skills had become low rung in the clan.  The real problem with clan wars is the time it takes.  Now compared to games like Worlds of Warcraft or other MOLRPG games, the CW in WOT is great, and far less time consuming, but it’s still an hour or two 3 to 5 nights a week, or more of the clan was really active. They also went a long way to make being active give you some in game extras.  As for all the whining about CW sucking etc., or the game in general, especially from the elite class of players, whining is the in thing, talking shit about something you’re good at and play all the time seems to be the thing with elite gamers. I’ve seen in in every PVP game I’ve played, and I’ve played a lot.

 

My thoughts? Negative whiners suck, if you don’t like something, don’t bore us with the crying and moaning, leave and find something else to do.  Does the game have issues? Sure, what game doesn’t? Do they make the game less fun? Yes, Arty I’m looking at You, but they do not make it so bad, you need to dbase yourself and whine about it like a little wimp. State your case to the people who mater, and then either move on and or deal with it until fixed. No one wants to hear you cry.

How this all relates to Shermans? Well, as a PVP tank versus tank Arcade game, where you start with old, weak tanks, and by killing other players, win exp and credits to unlock and buy new tanks. The game is free to play. Though there is a play element, it really only makes advancing in the game easier and quicker, and really offers no in game PVP advantage.  You start running into Sherman tanks or Lees really, at Tier 4.  You get the Basic M4 Sherman at Tier 5 and the M4A3E8 and Jumbo at Tier 6.  There are some other Shermans in the game, The British line has an M4A2 Sherman III at T5, and the Firefly IC Composite hull at T6.  There is also an M4A2E4 Sherman as a rare tank given out to beta players with more than 3000 games. The latest Sherman to be added is the French M51 105mm Sherman tank, as a premium.  I’ll discuss each tank and it’s model below.

 

M3 Lee: The Combat RV in WOT, Tier 4, US Medium Tank

The M3 Lee got an HD update early in the HD update process, but it’s still a fairly decent HD model. The biggest flaw I can really see is they have the points on the sprocket stabbing through the track end connectors, instead of between them. The model is an early production M3, with the 37mm gun lacking the counter weight needed to work with the stabilizer for that gun.  It still has hull side doors, another sign of an early model. It has the two fixed forward firing hull machine guns that were eliminated early on as well.

 

The tank in game has a reputation for being poor. There are a few reasons for this, one, it’s a holdover from when the games matchmaking spread was larger, so the M3 would see T7 tanks, and it’s one shotable to many of these. That has been fixed.  Another reason is the large crew, for the tank to shine, it needs a 100% crew, and many of the advanced crew skills help this tank. With a almost three skill crew, a rammer, binocs, and enhanced gun laying drive, I was in the top 50 players in the Lee the last I looked, and with this crew and setup, in a T4 match, the tank is a monster, and not as a sniper TD wanabee.  It high damage for tier, high rate of fire gun, make it deadly even up close at T4, and it can shoot fairly well on the move!

 

Both the model, and tanks in game performance are very good.

 

M3 Grant: The Combat Caravan, Tier 4, British medium Tank

This HD model was added a little later than the M3 Lee, and they fixed the problem with the tracks. They put the Grant specific turret on it, without the machine gun cupola, and added sand shields.  The 37mm gun lacks a counter weight, and the hull has the paired machine guns, and I’m not sure if that was the case with the Grants, I’ll have to look. It’s still a very nice model of the Grant.

 

In game, it plays like a Lee, but you can put the 6 pounder on it in place of the 75mm. I don’t like the swap, and do not actually play this tank much, though I have one in the garage. When I want a T4 tank, I play the Lee since it’s crew is better.

 

Overall the tank and model are both good in game.

M4 Sherman: The M4A1 Mishmash.

 

What can I say about this model, well other than it’s a mess, it’s also historically impossible.  If you put the 75mm turret, the and M3 gun on it, it’s almost passible, but still has later heavy duty suspension on a direct vision hull with fixed hull machine guns and three piece differential that would not have had that suspension, and should have the suspension on the M3 Lee. There are also many little accuracy problems with the model, the driver and co drivers hatches are off a little, the suspension units are not spaced evenly. The model only gets more accurate if you put the top turret and gun on. Since it’s a small hatch M4A1, it should not get the T23 turret.  These were only installed on M4A1, A2 and A3 large hatch hulls.

 

What they need to do to fix the model is, remove the T23 turret, add a later 75mm turret with full gun mantlet at the upgrade turret, and allow the M1A1 gun to be the top gun on that turret. They also need to fix the mantlet of the 105 model on this turret, it’s all wrong, but would be easy to fix on the full mantlet 75mm turret, though it really needs a second ventilator, and no 105 M4A1s were ever made.

 

Anyway, in game, it’s a very good T5 Medium. At one point, before the HEAT nerf, the M4 was actually very OP, as were all the 105 derp tanks, like the Panzer 4. Since, it’s been balanced, and a decent tank. You can run it will all guns and still contribute to your teams win. Even it’s basic 75mm gun can take on a KV an pen it from the front. Derping in it is more art than science now, but still viable, but the best gun overall is the M1A1.

 

The tank is good in game but the model is subpar as the HD models go. It is supposed to get a model update soon, so hopefully they fix it.  

M4A2 Sherman III: This Model, as First Unlocked is Very Pretty and Accurate

 

This model, as unlocked is one of the best HD models in the game. The model is a M4A2 Sherman III, with a 75mm M3 with the shorty, no ear mantlet, DV ports, fixed hull MGs, sand skirts, and the proper turret box the Brits added. It also has the proper, early Lee style suspension bogies.  The hull may be a touch to long since the wheel spacing looks a little wide. One final flaw may be the antenna bracket near the co-driver. It looks like a type not installed on M4A2 tanks with the fixed hull guns, but that’s a detail only the geekiest of Sherman geeks would get so faulting Wargaming on it is a tad unfair.

 

The Model goes south when you add the upgrade turret, a T23 turret, that is wrong for a small hatch hull. They could solve this the same way I suggested with the M4, or they could update the M4A2 hull to a large hatch hull and ad a later set of T5mm turrets to fix it.  It is a fine looking T23 turret though, and it’s not like it couldn’t have been built, and there are a few Franken Shermans around with the T23 turret on the wrong, small hatch hull, this is not something Wargaming needs to put on the critical fix list.

 

It plays in game just like the American M4 T5 Sherman. It can hold its own in any match with any of its guns.  

M4A2E4:  One of the Oldest Models in the Game, and not Very Pretty

 

This tank is fairly rare on the US Server, since it was a Beta Reward tank. If I recall right, it is purchasable as a premium tank on the Euro an Russian Servers. It is a classic Premium tank, in that it is not as good as it’s fully upgraded T5 piers, but its slightly better than a stock T5 tank.  This was an experimental M4A2 with torsion bar suspension, and they now have all the parts to make a very nice model for this tank, but who knows when they will.

 

They could fix it by taking the Sherman III hull, and the turret off the Firefly IC minus the 17 pounder and loaders hatch.

 

The tank in game is a pretty decent T5 medium tank. The gun is decent, the armor is decent, the mobility is decent if it’s flat or you start on a hill. Honestly, I play it because it’s rare, and I like tanks that are not the ‘best’, and it can play my best crew.  It will never go on sale again though, since it has improved match making, and that makes up for its flaws, since it will not see T7 matches at all.  I’ll never sell mine.

 

A premium tank in WOT is a tank you can buy for gold, or real money through the WOT website. You can also win them through events and missions. They allow you to put any crew from the same class tank into it without retraining, and they get an experience bonus from the tank. This makes the tanks nice for training a crew, but also nice for making extra cash, using your best crew.  Premium tanks also make more money than regular tanks.  There are a lot of premium tanks in the game, and they range from T2 to T10, and a few over the years have been considered overpowered and removed from sale, but not the game. Most are balanced on the weak side.

 

M4A3E8:  Ugly Old Model, But Still A Great Tank

This tanks model was one of the original models in the game, well, it has been unchanged since the American line was released in beta and the model shows it. It’s plain ugly and looks out of place in a game that has come really far graphics wise since its release.

 

In game once fully upgraded this tank is everything a medium tank should be, mobile over all terrain types, decent armor, and fairly good gun. It has good gun handling, and can shoot well on the move. Some like the Cromwell better, since it’s a little faster, and has a slightly better gun, but I think the Easy8 still holds its own.  The thing really keeping this tank rare, and probably holding back the HD model is the Fury Premium tank, basically a E8 with a stock turret and slightly slower, with an ok HD model based on the Movie tank.

 

 

M4A3E8 Fury: An American Premium Medium, Just Like the Tank in the Movie Fury

Fury was a big deal in the WOT community; it had a lot of tie ins with the game and War gaming, including this premium tank. The model is HD, but not the best one around but it’s still better than the Model on the T5 M4 Sherman. I’m not sure if it’s still for sale, but since it’s basically a slightly nerfed E8, it will probably be available on and off for years.

 

The Model does show off what a late war Sherman looked like from a storage perspective, and has all kinds of junk draped on the tank.  You can see the same kind of thing in period photos. The Model has the wrong sprockets though, showing they based it directly off the tank in the Movie that was NOT an M4A3 76  HVSS tank, but it was an M4A2 76 HVSS tank made by FTA, not CDA.

 

It plays just like the E8, but it makes very good money. It came with a crew with the same names as the movie crew as well. Everything said about the E8 above applies to this tank,  meaning it’s a pretty good medium tank too.

 

M4A3E2 Jumbo: A Good HD model, but a Confused Tank In Game

The Jumbo model is very good. It just has a few minor flaws, the first being it has CDA not FTA sprockets. ONLY FTA made Jumbo tanks so their plain sprockets were the only ones used. It also has sand skirts, and they were removed before being deployed into combat. The other problem with the model comes with the upgraded turret, basically a T23 turret, with the Jumbo mantlet, IE a fantasy turret.  Very few tanks have completely fabricated configurations like this, and I suspect they did this for balance reasons, since the M1A2 gun in the full armor turret may have tipped this tank just a tad to the OP side. This leaves you with a choice, good armor, or good firepower, since if you chose the top turret and gun, you can be easily penned anywhere on the turret but the mantlet, thus defeating the whole purpose of the jumbo.

 

I run mine with the 105 derp gun, not historically correct, but not impossible either. At T6 the 105 Derp is really at the bottom end of its effectiveness, and I would run the M1A2 if they let you put it in the stock turret, but nope…  The Jumbo is a good tank, it’s armor can bounce a lot, with good angling and clever terrain use you can really bounce a lot of stuff.  I’ve got almost 300 battles in mine, but really prefer a more mobile tank.

 

All Wargaming needs to do to fix the model is remove the second turret, and make the top gun the M1A1 off the T23. They could then remove the skirts and put plain sprockets on it and the model would be perfect. Oh, they also need to swap out all the road wheels for the stamped plain ones.

 

Sherman IC Composite Firefly: This Model is all Kinds of Good

This model is good overall in both the stock, and fully upgraded configurations, but does have a few minor problems. Someone should really send the modelers, who do the Shermans at Wargaming a copy of Son of a Sherman, but really, these models are very nice, and some of the best of the Sherman models.  Problem one, these composite hull M4 tanks, were large hatch hulls, built by CDA, by this point, they should have the fancy CDA sprocket, like wrongly used on the

Jumbo.  The next model problem involves the turret, the stock turret has no loaders hatch, and all if not the vast majority of M4 Composite hull tanks had a loaders hatch.  There may have been a batch early on that didn’t but I’m trying to confirm this. In any case, by the time production really got going the M4 Composite production tanks were getting late production 75mm turrets with loaders hatches cast in, or were using older turrets left over from the ARV program and updating them by adding cheek armor and cutting a loaders hatch in. This means the upgraded turret on the IC Composite Firefly should have a oval loaders hatch not the British square one.

 

Other than these minor things the model is beautiful, and may have been based on a post war restoration with the wrong sprockets.  It has many very fine details and is toped with a very nicely modeled M2 .50 machine gun. I think this is the prettiest Sherman model in the game at this point.

 

It plays in game more like a TD than a Medium tank.  It has a very nice gun that can pen just about anything you’re going to see, but it’s got a slow ROF. It’s slow for a Sherman, and is not good in a close in knife fight.  I do not have a large number of games in this tank and am only average in it at this point. It’s play style is not really one I enjoy so I rarely play it.

M4A1 Revalorise: The Most Awesome Sherman of them All

This is a T8 Sherman tank. That’s two tiers higher than any other, and in some ways it shows, the tank is slow, has no armor and really only has one thing going for it, a gun with nice pen. The model is a little odd. It’s an M4A1 76W VVSS hull, and it’s well modeled.  This is the only M4A1 large hatch hulled tank in the game so the hull model was new, and they did a great job with that part. The turret looks a little fat, but it was modified, with new parts welded to the front and back, but the all-around vision cupola looks a little off.  It is supposed to be a limited Premium, so it will only be sold on special event weekends and stuff, and it’s a fun tank.  I have not played it much though, simply because I have so many T8 Premium tanks to choose from, I usually pic something I have a really good crew for.

 

The Tank plays like the classic glass canon. The gun is decently accurate and handles ok, but is really slow on the rate of fire. This is a sit back and snipe and anoy tank. It does make good money if you get some good damage in.  I really bought it because it was a Sherman, and I must have all things Sherman.

 

World of Tanks has come a long way from its release, and unlike most games it’s really only gotten better. As a 15 on 15 tank based PVP Arcade game, there is really nothing that can touch it. I think what’s really kept me playing is the companies push to improve and add to the game, even years into its release. For example a new physics system and sound system are about to be implemented.  The biggest advantage to the causal played, and as much as I  play, I’m now just a casual, is a battle can take no more than 15 minutes, and most of the time it’s less than 10.  If you want more action you can stack games, playing tank after tank, rack up the games, exp, and credits, but you don’t have to. As a casual with a huge tank base, I can play tanks I like, and burn a little real money on gold to keep premium and convert exp, and get any tank I want in a short time. I can jump on for three games after work, and even if everyone is a loss, still have a little fun.  Many a night after a hard day at real world work, when I’m dead tired, dehydrated, and hungry, I’ll play a game or two before I go to bed, sometimes on weekends, I can crank the games out like the old days, or get on with a few pals, and platoon up and spread T1 Conan tank Terror through T5. For the type of gaming I do now, this is just about the best game I could ask for.

 

4.5 out of 5 stars

[Sturgeon]

The thing I love about the Rev is that it has a 390 alpha lasergun with incredible flight time. On a mediocre chassis, that's still fun as all hell.

[Jeeps_Guns_Tanks]

The thing I love about the Rev is that it has a 390 alpha lasergun with incredible flight time. On a mediocre chassis, that's still fun as all hell.

 

 

Yep, the gun does make up for a lot. 

 

I'll be adding pics to review post now. 

[LostCosmonaut]

Really good review, but to nitpick, a couple of the pics are out of place (there a pic of the Grant in one of the regular Sherman sections (and vice versa), also I think I saw a pic of a dead T29 in there).

[EnsignExpendable]

I found my next Sherman build

 

[Jeeps_Guns_Tanks]

I totally forgot about the M4 Improved!

[EnsignExpendable]

Every vehicle can be improved by hanging tracks off it! Also if you don't have tracks, rubber sheets will do fine, like in this sick Yugo mod

 

[Bronezhilet]

The E4 isn't for sale on the EU server, you ignorant American!

We got it for 1000 games played in the Closed Beta.

[Sturgeon]

I found my next Sherman build

 

 

Is that a 105 Jumbo!?

[DogDodger]

Agree on the howitzer turret, but the hull looks like a non-Jumbo to me. M4A3E2s didn't have headlights or sirens, for example.