----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve" <FLYNN1955@webtv.net>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 05, 2001 8:10 AM
Subject: Re: [MV] M4 Tanks
> Apparently the life span of the ''good''NAZI General was better than
> all.
>
> As for the M4A3,read Death Traps.That will give a new appreciation to
> the bravery required to battle the ''superior technology,''by Allies
> alike.
>
Perhaps some qualification is needed, the now almost mythical reputation for
the M4 series to instantly "brew-up" owing to its petrol (gas) engine is
somewhat unfounded, indeed it is becoming widely held that all petrol
powered tanks are inherently dangerous whereas the factual foundation for
this does not support this view.
The M4 series was not without its drawbacks and was often fielded in a five
to one ratio with the British modified M4A4 Sherman V Firefly mounting the
effective 17pdr gun. The idea was for mutual support where the M4A4 Firefly
could protect the regular 75mm armed variants from heavy armour attack at
extended range whilst the M4A3 versions could effectively engage lighter
armour, artillery and troop targets using an effective HE round which the
17pdr did not ever have.
Private research of the available combat records show that even allowing for
the disparity of numbers of M4 vehicles operated by US and British forces,
the rate of instant fires was five times higher for the US crewed vehicles.
Invariably these instant fires are the result of main gun ammunition
propellant spillages not fuel, it seems the stowage of ammunition is the
contributor and the common US practice of stowing a few extra rounds
wherever possible seems likely. British crews were generally far more
regimented and supervised, ammunition was placed in the protected stowages
only since being caught mis-operating the vehicle would likely incur a
punishment.
At last some of this information has seen a public forum from a very
respected source, the mechanics of instant tank fires and propellant
spillage was recently explained by David Fletcher (Bovington) in a Discovery
Armoured Warfare programme.
>By the way Germany still lost,take them down off that bloody
> pedestal.
>
Quite true but doesn't really tell the whole story. Leaving aside the
political ideology, which has no place here, it took massive and combined
forces of America, GB plus Commonwealth, and the Russian bottomless pit of
men with the attendant production might of these countries to overwhelm the
relatively small German Army and its quite diminutive armoured forces.
History does not record that it was a quick and easy task, the Wehrmacht was
a very capable and efficient fighting force of which 99.99% and 44/100ths
were ordinary soldiers just like any other army.
Richard
Southampton - England
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jun 05 2001 - 23:18:31 PDT