By then, the M4 was inferior in firepower and armor to increasing numbers of German heavy tanks, but was able to fight on with the help of considerable numerical superiority, greater mechanical reliability, better logistical support, and support from growing numbers of fighter-bombers and artillery pieces.
Even by 1944, most M4 Shermans kept their dual purpose 75 mm gun. Tank destroyer battalions using vehicles built on the M4 hull and chassis, but with open-topped turrets and more potent high-velocity guns, also entered widespread use in the Allied armies. Logistical and transport restrictions, such as limitations imposed by roads, ports, and bridges, also complicated the introduction of a more capable but heavier tank. For this reason, the US Army believed that the M4 would be adequate to win the war, and relatively little pressure was initially exerted for further tank development. When the M4 tank went into combat in North Africa with the British Army at El Alamein in late 1942, it increased the advantage of Allied armor over Axis armor and was superior to the lighter German and Italian tank designs. It spearheaded many offensives by the Western Allies after 1942. The M4 went on to be produced in large numbers. These factors, combined with the Sherman's then-superior armor and armament, outclassed German light and medium tanks fielded in 1939–42. The designers stressed mechanical reliability, ease of production and maintenance, durability, standardization of parts and ammunition in a limited number of variants, and moderate size and weight. One feature, a one-axis gyrostabilizer, was not precise enough to allow firing when moving but did help keep the reticle on target, so that when the tank did stop to fire, the gun would be aimed in roughly the right direction. The M4 retained much of the previous mechanical design, but put the main 75 mm gun in a fully traversing turret. The M4 Sherman evolved from the M3 Medium Tank, which had its main armament in a side sponson mount. 4.2 The British Army and the Commonwealth.
M4 sherman commander copoula upgrade#
3.6 The Caliope (US147 Upgrade Pack and USAB11 American Spearhead Force).The front of the hatch has an opening and mounting bracket for installing a periscope and when not in use the opening is sealed with a metal plug. The over-head domed hatch is equipped with a race plate that rotates 360 degrees and includes an azimuth scale around the interior edge-if you have good eyes you might see it here. The large bolts/screws you see at the sides of each viewing block are the bolts holding the cupola to the turret roof. Six direct viewing prisms (multiple layers of bullet proof glass) are mounted around the stationary ring and each can be replaced easily from outside the turret, but not inside. The commander's vision cupola is the same as mounted on late model M4 Sherman tanks and consists of a stationary ring bolted to the turret roof with a hinged door mounted on top. "Picture 2: We will start our examination of the turret outside the vehicle at the commander's hatch. See the great picture on AFV Interiors, US M26 Heavy/Medium Tank, "Pershing", Part 3: The copula on the DML turret I compared it with is not at the 12 o'clock position either.Ĭharbyon some/most vision block cupola Shermans the periscope was mounted on a race plate that rotated and the vison blocks were mounted in a ring that didn't rotate.
M4 sherman commander copoula windows#
Reason I ask is I'm currently building Italeri's old M4A1, and while removing the original copula (to be replaced with a DML copula), I noticed that none of the copula windows were facing straight to the front (12 o'clock position). Was the vision block copula installed on 76mm and late 75mm Shermans designed to rotate, or was it fixed?
OK, as basic as this may sound, I gotta ask.
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