Quote:
Originally Posted by RyanW
For a lot of little reasons that often get missed, the Sherman is a very good tank. Especially by late war - with the 76mm, HVAP ammunition, wet ammo storage, and HVSS, it had became one of the most refined tank designs in operation at the end of the war. A lot of people overlook things like engine reliability, ease of field maintenance, or ergonomics - compare the Sherman's "oh bugger, the tank is on fire" test to that of... anything else.
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OTOH, even at the end of the war, not all Shermans had the 'good' engines... At least even the ones that weren't the best were easy to get at, or to rip out and replace.
By the way, this is one reason why the Valentine was still in service at the end of the war, slow, marginally gunned, and with only a two-man turret though it was - it was reliable and easy to maintain. That it still had decent armour and was small and handy help too.