I would like to suggest a decent tank for the Israeli ground forces, the M-50 Mk.2 (cummins) Sherman
the M50 Sherman has been in service in the IDF since 1955 proven to be an effective tank and very reliable as well, only this tank had a lot of flaws that make it inferior to many tanks available in the other countries neighboring Israel. the Israelis went to a second upgrade of their Sherman by the installation of the Commins engine and the use HVSS suspension along with additional storage on the side of the hull… this led to the redesignation of the M50 with the Continental engine into M50 mk.1 and the improved design with the better engine known as the mk.2.
overall the new upgrade was heavier but also much more mobile than the mk.2. this refines the Israeli Sherman without losing any of its best quality. the new tank remained in service for a few years until it was completely replaced by the Magach tanks.
most of those M50 mk.2 were based on the M4a4 but some of the other variant of the Sherman was also upgraded to M50 mk.2 standard.
Firepower
when it comes to the firepower, the tank is having quite a punch for his time. only it did not have much post-penetration damage. the 75mm SA50 built by France incorporated a lot of the knowledge learned from studying the German WW2 guns. the gun offering a high velocity with conventional round was considered for his time very effective for a 75mm, it was even the best of his caliber as to overmatch it, you had to go with a larger caliber closer to 90mm or use subcaliber rounds who deal a lot less damage. the gun has a fire-rate close to 8 rounds a minute’s which is pretty decent for his kind.
the tank also feature a Hull LMG , a coaxial LMG and a 12.7mm M2HB on the roof . this shall allow the players to deal well with the aircraft. for the 12.7mm, this is a feature the French prototype didn’t have (but was surely capable of getting it)
Mobility
the tank will not feature an improved engine who was more fuel-efficient and powerful than any of the standard Sherman engines. it also has a new suspension that gives it a smoother drive in all terrain. in overall, the tank was simply better than the M50 Mk.2 in the matter of mobility. the tank could go faster, accelerate quicker, and drive smoother. this improved one of the major flaws of the Sherman which was the mobility without losing anything if it had not been a bit heavier.
Protection
as for his protection, the M50 has nothing exceptional to offer. it is simply a normal Sherman with a normal armor thickness. only it will feature the add-on plate on the side of his hull to protect the ammunition storage and the additional plate at the front to protect the known weakness on the driver and hull gunner front. the Israelis did additional storage for spare parts and intentionally placed spare track in a place where it could at the same time offer additional protection. they keep the smoke launcher on the side of the turret as the previous M50 version… the crew of 5 men remains unchanged from the usual Sherman
Yes, Israel needs Rank III ASAP
Though most Degem Bets were M4A3s, since those hulls had better radiators, not M4A4s. Most M4A4 Degem Bets were converted Degem Alefs and not new-build vehicles.
indeed, no new sherman was built during the 50s. at least not to my knowledge.
they were all converted from something else. in Israel, the M-50 and M-51 was all built as something else first. mostly with regular 75mm gun. them they where converted into the modernized version.
personally i would have the M-50 Alef and M-50 Bet but with different ammo to give them a different BR.
the Alef (mk.1) could get the POT-51A. while the Bet (Mk.2) could get the POT-51A and PCOT-51P which would make it a slight BR higher while not be too far from the Alef so it would be still a option as back up in the line up
i would not be the first time Gaijin do such thing. they did it will the Sherman family who was all introduce almost at the same time but still have different rounds depending on where they wanted to fit them in the Tech tree
Yes, by new-build I mean new M50s. The majority of Degem Bets were various M4A3s that were then turned into M50s, while M4A4-based Degem Bets were reengined and resuspensioned (is that even a word?) Degem Alefs.
The M4A4 SA50 is already a Degem Alef, it represents the second prototype of the vehicle. The Degem Alef should be identical. Then, the Degem Bet would justifiably be .3 higher between its slightly superior mobility and the superior armour of the M4A3 hull. Both with POT-51P, which both used, as currently on the M4A4 SA50.
This would be my personal idea of bare-bones Rank III Israel, which really should have been included from the start and IMO should be a top priority from Gaijin to add ASAP (with ofc more vehicles coming in due time, a full rank is essentially an entire subtree so ranks may come piecemeal).
Like I said, each new rank adds as many vehicle as an entire subtree, while all 3 would essentially double Israel. There are 2 major major updates per year, in June and December. The summer update is gonna be ARH, so its unlikely we’d also get the 3 ranks of Israel. So if all ranks are added at once that’s 8 months wait at least. Or one rank can be added at a time, each update.
I left for 18 months and all I saw that was added outside the few vehicles in every tree was
French navy
Hungarian sub-tree
I would not say it would be a waste to add the whole 3 ranks all at once, it would only be natural to not have half measure. for me, it sounds easier like that.
besides they already had it on the table. for almost as far as Israel was added. this tech tree was proposed almost 2 years ago. Gaijin may already had worked on it
my mistake, i was normally having it in the expended tech tree which introduces the weaker vehicles. the BR was adjusted for it, and I forget to reduce it back
I remember this one was called the “M-50 Degum Bet,” and the one with the Continental engine was called “M-50 Degum Aleph,” and only abroad they were called the M-50 Mk 1/2. Would this be called “M-50 Degum Bet” in game or “M-50 Mk 2?”
Personally, I would rather it start at Rank 3 instead of Rank 1 to reduce the number of copy-paste/generally not good vehicles that would be in Rank 1-2. Add to that that (as far as I know) the air tree physically can’t start any lower than Rank 3 and then I’d say that starting Rank 3 for air and ground and having Rank 1 and 2 ground be optional would be a better solution.
Degem Alef = Degem “A” or א"" or Mk.1
Degem Bet = Degem “B” or “ב” or Mk.2
Degem Yud = Degem 10 or “י” Mk.10
this is referring to te Hebrew alphabet. Alef is the equivalent of A and the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Bet is the equivalent of B and 2nd letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and Yud does not have any equivalent. it is the 10th letter of the Hebrew alphabet and the smallest too. they took it for the smallest version of the Degem as it’s the smallest letter.
the letter between Bet and Yud is not taken for any model of the Degem
you can see some of those later taken in some other vehicles such as the Shot. it’s like saying it was model A, or model B. but since some don’t have an equivalent, they just translate to model 1 or model 2, and so on.
1 = א Alef
2 = ב Bet
3 = ג Gimel
4 = ד Dalet
5 = ה He
6 = ו Waw
7 = ז Zayin
8 = ח Chet
9 = ט Tet
10 = י Yud
11 = כ Kaf
12 = ל Lamed
13 = מ Mem
14 = נ Nun
15 = ס Samech
16 = ע Ayin
17 = פ Pe
18 = צ Tsadi
19 = ק Qof
20 = ר Resh
21 = ש Shin
22= ת Tav
if you look at the serie Shot Kal, you will find they are all Centurion with Continental engines. the following word is telling which model it was.
