M4 Sherman Tank Platoon 75mm/76mm

When the Second World War broke out in September 1939, the US Army possessed 18 M2 medium tanks. The situation had not improved when the US Army was shocked into action by the fall of France in June 1940. With a requirement of 2000 as-yet-undesigned medium tanks by the end of 1941, the Army accepted a radical proposal from GMC for Chrysler to build a brand-new tank factory, the Detroit Tank Arsenal, specifically to mass produce tanks. Within a year the updated M3 medium tank (named the General Grant by the British) was rolling out the doors, with the Detroit Tank Arsenal producing over 3000 in its first year.

With the M3 on the production line, attention turned to a new M4 medium tank (named the General Sherman by the British). The M4 was designed as one of the most powerful medium tanks in existence. It mounted a 75mm gun in a fully-traversing turret, and armour able to withstand any tank gun then being fielded. Like the earlier medium tanks, it was powered by a Continental radial aircraft engine. This gave it a reliable engine with lots of power, but resulted in an unusually tall tank.

The first model into production was the M4A1 with a cast hull, quickly followed by the M4 with a welded steel hull, manufactured by heavy engineering firms like Lima, American Loco, and Pressed Steel. These first saw combat with the British at El Alamein where they were known as the Sherman II and Sherman I respectively.

With the armour of German tanks getting thicker each year, there was concern over the ability of the Sherman tank to deal with them. The designers created a variant armed with a 76mm gun with better anti-tank capability, but the initial response was that it was totally unnecessary since the tank destroyers would fight enemy tanks leaving the tanks free to engage other targets. Fortunately production of M4A1, M4A2, and eventually M4A3, models began anyway, as demand for them soared when the Army faced large numbers of heavy German tanks for the first time in Normandy.

THIS PRODUCT CONTAINS:

• 5x M4 Sherman (75mm) or M4 Sherman (76mm) Tanks
• 1x Decal Sheet