Shermans v Mark IV

[airbolt]

Would a Sherman Tank ( June 1944 ) have been any match for a Mark IV ? I know they were no match for Tigers.

Apropos of that , could any WW2 Allied Tank go toe to toe with a Tiger. I know the T34 was highly rated

[mike b]

Depends on which variant - the standard Sherman 'Ronson'/'Tommy Cooker' with the original gun would probably have a problem, as PzKw IVs in Normandy would have the long-barrelled 75mm gun, but the rarer specialist up-gunned Sherman Firefly and the US equivalent would be able to outshoot it.

As for the Tiger, I believe that the late-war US Patton (M47?) and the Soviet JS series were specifically designed to counter the German heavies. T34s would have to rely on sacrificial weight of numbers (There's a lot more where those came from...)

There's a little known 1950 British war film which occasionally crops up on afternoon TV -'They Were Not Divided' - which includes a horribly authentic looking sequence where three Cromwells make a Balaklava charge against a single Tiger, albeit under smoke, the survivor as I remember finally ramming the thing and shooting it up point blank...

[heathfield]

The T34 was probably the best WWII tank - the Germans were thoroughly alarmed by its capabilities and had nothing to match it. See http://www.achtungpanzer.com/t34.htm

Whilst the Sherman was a match for the Mark IV, complaints from the front that they were no match for German Tiger and Panther tanks resulted in Eisenhower visiting the forward lines to see for himself. He reported on his feeling of disillusionment after watching shells simply bouncing off the German armour. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/m4-sherman.htm

[mike b]

(knew I'd got my M numbers mixed up...)