I wouldn’t be so curious about all these Sherman tanks with 75mm (short) guns if they weren’t so much different in their designations, instead of being copies with roundels.
I merely know about certain differences of normal american tanks, like M4, M4A1 and M4A2 (M4A3 I know are usually armed with 105mm and M4A4 is only present in French tree, but considering the roundel, meaning it’s a copy, American M4A4 would look and perform identically).
But … British Sherman II? Italian Sherman V and Sherman I Composito? Swedish Sherman III/IV? How do they differ statistically, or at least visually/historically? All I know is that Swedish has better engine and no MG port, but how do the rest differ? Is British variant better than American? Is Italian better than British? American better than Italian? Or all of them, except for the Swede, are identical and only differ in camos?
In-game, the easiest way to spot a difference without considering the appearence and design is the gameplay those vehicle’s offering, I’d say the Sherman II is by far the worse option, and the Sherman V ‘composito’ the best option as it has APDS ammunition that could be handy in some situations.
that one is not 75mm, but rather continuation of Firefly series with 76mm
I think I have found what I wanted to know. American M4A3 indeed has same power as e.g. Swedish Sherman III/IV, too bad not the 75mm gun, the howitzer is painful…
Game models comply with this info, the M4A4 is a bit longer:
And they indeed use different engines. It’s crazy how tiny but powerful the diesel engine of M4A3 is:
Uhh Sherman 4 ofc, not Sherman 3 for diesel engine
interesting piece of info, i believe 76/52 is american gun while 76/55 is 17-pounder?
It is very easy to turn British designation into the US one.
You simply take the number (II is 2 in Roman numerals), and subtract 1. The Sherman II is the same as the M4A1 (2 - 1 = 1).
This works with any Sherman variant. The British then use some extra characters to provide additional information:
- A means US 76 mm;
- B means 105 mm;
- C means 17 pounder;
- Y means HVSS (the suspension type you see on the M4A3 (76) medium tank at 5.7 for the US)
The Swedish Sherman is III/IV because in game it has the hull of an M4A3 (Sherman IV, hence why it has the stronger 500 horsepower engine) and the turret comes from an M4A2 (Sherman III) that the Swedish bought, as in real life the original turret for that “M4A3” was a 105 mm one.
I say “M4A3” because the actual tank in real life is not an M4A3, it was an M4, but that’s not important for the topic.
On the differences between variants themselves, for the most part it is just the engine they mount. The exception is the M4 and M4A1, which use the same engine but the M4 has a welded construction hull and the M4A1 has a cast hull.
- M4 (Sherman I) and M4A1 (Sherman II): Wright R-975 radial engine;
- M4A2 (Sherman III): General Motors 6046 twin diesel engine;
- M4A3 (Sherman IV): Ford GAA V-8 engine;
- M4A4 (Sherman V): Chrystler A-57 multibank engine (this engine was bigger than others and required the hull to be lengthened to fit properly, that is why the M4A4s are longer than other types).
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this info is even easier to understand, and it seems I messed up M4A3’s and M4A2’s engine on my 3D models photo… I thought that tiny engine is the diesel one, producing the most power. These designations are very confusing from the start
This is page 28 of “Catalog of Standard Ordnance Items, Volume I”, which contains images and information on the engines that power the M4 variants (the top says “MEDIUM AND HEAVY TANK ENGINES” because at the time the M26 Pershing was considered a heavy tank and it is powered by the same engine as the M4A3).
As for the images:
- Top left: Wright R-975 radial gasoline engine (M4/Sherman I and M4A1/Sherman II);
- Top right: General Motors 6046 twin diesel engine (M4A2/Sherman III);
- Bottom left: Ford GAA V-8 gasoline engine (M4A3/Sherman IV);
- Bottom right: Chrystler A-57 multibank gasoline engine (M4A4/Sherman V).
The GM 6046 twin diesel is effectively 2 inline 6 cylinder diesel engines connected using a transfer case that turns their 2100 RPM output into 2900 RPM. Meanwhile the Chrystler A-57 multibank is 5 inline 6 cylinder gasoline engines also connected all together case except this time there is a 1:1 gear ratio so no RPM difference.
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