Video: Graphic - French removing bodies of dead tank crew

[LetsTripOutAndDie]

http://www.apacheclips.com/boards/vbtube/upload/thumb/805_51581.jpg (http://www.apacheclips.com/boards/media/6289-Graphic-French-removing-bodies-of-dead-tank-crew) French tank crew removing bodes of dead soldiers from tank and laying one on blanket in Sees, France.

Knocked out German 88mm gun in Sees, France. French 2nd Armored Division tank crew removing body of dead soldiers from tank and laying one on blankethttp://www.apacheclips.com/boards/vbtube/images/play_thread.png (http://www.apacheclips.com/boards/media/6289-Graphic-French-removing-bodies-of-dead-tank-crew)

[LetsTripOutAndDie]

A little welding, a rinse down, some primer and she'll be as good as new. Any volunteers ?

[Skivvy Stacker]

Shermans. Not enough armor to make them worth putting on the battle field. The boys that drove them called them "Zippos", because they always lit up the first time you struck them.
Only thing that made them effective was that we had so fucking many of them.

[Warmachine]

While shermans were crap, no tank at the time could take a direct hit from an 88mm german gun and survive. The reason they were nicknamed the "zippo" was because most models had a gasoline engine which had a tendency to burst into flames in hit. The m1 abrams has the same weakpoint when using jet fuel or gasoline, the only problem for the badguys is getting above or behind the m1 to actually hit the engine.

[LetsTripOutAndDie]

Shermans. Not enough armor to make them worth putting on the battle field. The boys that drove them called them "Zippos", because they always lit up the first time you struck them.
Only thing that made them effective was that we had so fucking many of them.

The Germans also nicknamed them "Ronsons" for the same reason. The Shermans were so bad they almost caused a political scandal in Britain.

[LetsTripOutAndDie]

While shermans were crap, no tank at the time could take a direct hit from an 88mm german gun and survive. The reason they were nicknamed the "zippo" was because most models had a gasoline engine which had a tendency to burst into flames in hit. The m1 abrams has the same weakpoint when using jet fuel or gasoline, the only problem for the badguys is getting above or behind the m1 to actually hit the engine.

There were many problems with the Shermans from their gun and armor combo to its fuel, but the strategy of how it was meant to be employed created these problems and left them to fester rather than fix them right away. The shortcomings of the Sherman was because it was never designed for tank on tank battle. Instead it was designed as an infantry support vehicle while the m10 tank destroyer and anti-tank guns were supposed to deal with any enemy tanks encountered. So from its inception nothing about the Sherman was designed for tank on tank combat. As for its gun and armor combo, well its armor was never improved or was even able to be, but slowly the gun was able to be improved and upgraded. Initially a Tiger tanks 88mm gun could take out a Sherman at its most armoured spot from combat range around 1800 meters were a Shermans short barreled medium velocity 75mm gun couldn't penetrate the the front and turret armor of a Tiger at any range including point blank range. The Sherman was then slowly fitted with a long barrel high velocity 76mm gun which could then only penetrate a Tigers front and turret armor at 800 meters still not at combat ranges while the Tiger could still penetrate the Sherman at 1800 meters. Finally the British fitted a 17 pounder to the Sherman and nicknamed it the "FireFly" but it still could only penetrate the front and turret armor of a Tiger at 1000 meters and not until late in the war when the new APCBC shell came out was it finally able penetrate the front and turret armor of a Tiger at 2000 meters or combat range. So in the end the sheer overwhelming numbers of Shermans were able to push us through to victory but not without the unbelievable bravery of the men who went to battle day after day in those same Shermans.