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[–] jamesed 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

While the Sherman had many flaws it also had its strong points. It's first advantage was it was reliable. In most tank on tank combat on the western front up to 80% of all German armor was dead lined do to maintenance problems. The Sherman had a 90% availability rate in most Tank battalions. The second advantage of the Sherman was its range. A Sherman could run for up to 6 hours on a single tank of fuel. The German Panzers had a range of only about an hour. You must also remember that the Sherman was designed to combat the Panzer Kamph Wagen II and III of which it was a match. When the Germans introduced the Panzer Kamph Wagen IV the Sherman was outclassed. How ever the Panzerkamphwagen IV were made by three different companies in Germany and none of the parts were interchangeable. There were about 8500 PKW IV's produced during the war compared to 49,234 Sherman's. You also must figure in the ease of construction on war materials and the standardization of Parts allowed all but the most severely damaged Sherman' s to be quickly repaired and returned to service. The Sherman also had it's ammo stored in a water filled compartment so when it was hit the ammo did not explode like on the German tanks. According to official U.S. army records for the First Army from D-Day to the end of the war the First army lost 898 Sherman's to all causes with a causality of 848, Or about 25% of the crew of each tank destroyed. So the actual numbers does not live up to the Myth. It seems to be an American Trait that the enemy is armed with better weapons that we have. See the ongoing argument about the AK-47 vs the M-16. Yet when you give a ISIS fighters in the Mid East a choice he ditches his trusty AK for a M4.

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[–] tarnished_spoons 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

It seems to be an American Trait that the enemy is armed with better weapons that we have.

I think it has to do with propaganda. How can we be the bad guys if we're the underdogs?