In Cyrillics, it's written MЧ, so you can see where the Em-Cha designation came from. You might get a kick out of the following reference book:
Posted on 03/18/2013 3:52:39 PM PDT by JerseyanExile
“On Shermans. We called them “Emchas”, from M4 [in Russian, em chetyrye]...Overall, this was a good vehicle but, as with any tank, it had its pluses and minuses. When someone says to me that this was a bad tank, I respond, “Excuse me” One cannot say that this was a bad tank. Bad as compared to what?...
In the first place, this track had a service life approximately twice that of steel track. I might be mistaken, but I believe that the service life of the T-34 track was 2500 kilometers. The service life of the Sherman track was in excess of 5000 kilometers. Secondly, The Sherman drove like a car on hard surfaces, and our T-34 made so much noise that only the devil knows how many kilometers away it could be heard...
In general the American representative worked efficiently. Any deficiency that he observed and reported was quickly and effectively corrected...
For a long time after the war I sought an answer to one question. If a T-34 started burning, we tried to get as far away from it as possible, even though this was forbidden.”
When a Sherman burned, the main gun ammunition did not explode. Why was this?
“Such a case occurred once in Ukraine. Our tank was hit. We jumped out of it but the Germans were dropping mortar rounds around us. We lay under the tank as it burned...We thought we were finished! We would hear a big bang and it would all be over! A brother’s grave! We heard many loud thumps coming from the turret. This was the armor-piercing rounds being blown out of their cases. Next the fire would reach the high explosive rounds and all hell would break loose! But nothing happened. Why not? Because our high explosive rounds detonated and the American rounds did not? In the end it was because the American ammunition had more refined explosives...
The Sherman could never defeat a Tiger with a frontal shot. We had to force the Tiger to expose its flank. If we were defending and the Germans were attacking, we had a special tactic. Two Shermans were designated for each Tiger. The first Sherman fired at the track and broke it. For a brief space of time the heavy vehicle still moved forward on one track, which caused it to turn. At this moment the second Sherman shot it in the side, trying to hit the fuel cell. This is how we did it.
-Dmitriy Fedorovich
Interview with Russian WW2 tank commander
http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/thefgmforum/threads/interview-with-russian-ww2-tank-commander.6905/
Awesome .... Grateful !
Good points. OTOH, they might not have needed all those tanks if they weren’t suffering such huge casualities in tank to tank combat. It wasn’t uncommon for a dozen Shermans to lose half of more of thier force in an encounter with two Tigers or Panthers before they even closed in enough to begin to fight back. Worse than the tanks were the crews. Tanks could be patched up or canibalized, but their veteran crews were gone. Since Lt. Coopers job was to clean out the splattered blood and guts of the crews and clean up the tanks for new rookie crews, he was obviously biased in the matter.
I suppose they might have used a mix of the two tanks, although that would creat extra logistical problems.
Tread head ping.
Oops, re-ping. No matter, this is a great article.
As a former 19k (M60A3 TTS, XM1, M1, M1A1)...this is a great treadhead article! Thanks!
Another reason for not replacing the M4 was rail transportation. You could get two M4 Shermans on a flatcar - but only one M26 Pershing. The folks in charge of logistics thought that twice as many mediocre tanks were a better deal. They were probably right.
In Cyrillics, it's written MЧ, so you can see where the Em-Cha designation came from. You might get a kick out of the following reference book:
The M26 Pershing will indeed fit in an LST [not sure about a LCT] and the 70th Armor's DD Shermans hit Utah beach from an LST launch about half that of the Omaha landing, one reason the casualties at Utah were not as horrible as those at Omaha. And, of course, during the Inchon landings, the 70th's Pershings hit the beach again- their fourth wartime amphib landing. After 4 such jobs, they've gotten to be pretty good at it.
Yep. They had by then captured Panthers. But not at Kursk. Do not believe everything the zampolitniki and their mouthpieces tell you.
The Germans did indeed offer magnificent propaganda film of Panthers being readied for their offensive at Kursk. But the Operation Husky landings in Sicily, 09/10 July 1943 changed that; the Panthers were needed there. Desperately, as it turned out.
Abderdeen had a couple of Tigers, including a armor cutaway King Tiger that was eventually displayed at Knox.
The largest of the WWII German Tanks at Knox when I was there [1960s] was a Panther V. I had to go to Aberdeen and talk very nicely to Col. Jarrett to learn to drive *his* Tigers.
Indeed. Hitler even delayed the start of the offensive so the 200 Panthers then available could reach the marshalling area. At which time it was found that only about one company's worth [circa 40 tanks] were combat ready by 06 July, the others out of service due to fuel system failures and other mechanical failures. It was expected these would be cannibalized and brought up to running condition to be used as replacements for combat losses and would join the understrength *brigade.* Unfortunately the unit got stuck in a minefield near Dubrova on )7 July. The minefield was covered by well dug-in and camouflaged T-34 and AT-guns and most of the 20-30 operational Panthers that had survived to become stuck in the minefield were knocked out, but mostly due to mine damage, not AT gunfire.
Most of the unit's Panthers, still not yet combat servicable, were withdrawn by rail, shipped home for rebuild, and eventually utilized more effectively in Italy or France. t should be noted that of the 200 panthers only 40 were combat ready at nightfall on july 6th. The vast majority lost due to leaking fuel systems, overheated engines and other mechanical problems. Most of these tanks could be repaired and would reenater combat later. So it is quite unfair to blame Von Strachwitz for these losses as was not even in command at the time(!). He was however partly responsible for the way the brigade got stuck in minefield near Dubrova on july 7th. The minefield was covered by well dug-in and camouflaged T-34 and AT-guns and most of the 20-30 Panthers that got stuck in the minefield was knocked out. However the rest of the brigade regrouped and taking full advantage of their superior armour and firepower they simpley blew apart the soviet defences destroying some 30 tanks and a large number of at-guns. After this pyrrhic victory the performance of the Panther units improved steadily throught remaineder of the battle and the Panthers proved highly effective in combat.
Long article, but the “fighting the last war” syndrom is ever-present.
And is still with us today.
Yeah, it’s really a moot point talking about the quality of our tanks in WW2, especially when it was our aircraft that were the real tank busters in WW2, like the Thunderbolt and especially the Lightning with it’s 20mm cannon firing down on the weak upper armor of the German tanks.
Yes indeed, thanks.
Archly, haven’t seen your screen name for ages! Good to see you around.
I believe LSTs came ashore after the first wave, which is what I was referring to. The DD Shermans were deployed from LCTs, which could carry four of the modified M4s. With a weight capacity of 150 tons, these vessels could hold perhaps three M26 tanks. IF a flotation screen had been developed for the bigger tank.
So I stand corrected. Adopting the Pershing would have meant 3/4 the tanks that actually hit the beach. I still don’t think the Pershing was ever modified to “swim,” but I could be wrong on that too!
Of course the US Army could have hit the beach with Shermans and unloaded Pershings for the drive inland one the beach was secure.
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