how did the us military camouflage sherman tank

The British modified the 37mm turret to give the tank a slightly lower profile and re-christened the altered design with a measure of historical logic as the Grant.įor the first time, the Eighth Army now had a tank armed with a 75mm gun capable of firing a high explosive round, so vital to deal with dug-in German anti-tank guns. M3 Grantĭerived from the American M3 Lee medium tank, the Grant carried both a turret-mounted 37mm anti-tank gun and a dual-purpose 75mm gun. Plus, the tank’s small size meant the turret crew had to be reduced from three to two to accommodate the larger gun. However the Crusader lll still suffered from the same chronic unreliability problems that had plagued the design from the start. The first Crusaders carried the standard 2-pounder gun, but by the time of Alamein the Crusader lll had been introduced which had the much better 57mm/6-pounder gun. The Crusader was a ‘cruiser’ tank, designed for speed. Valentine tanks in transit / Library and Archives Canada PA-174520 3. The Valentine was powered by a bus engine and was very reliable, unlike many other contemporary British designs, but the design was also small and cramped, making up-gunning it difficult. It wasn’t able to fire high explosive shells and was totally out-classed and out-ranged by German guns.

But by 1942 its 40mm/2-pounder gun was obsolete. As such it was slow but well-armoured, with 65-mm thick frontal armour.

The Valentine was an ‘infantry tank’, designed to accompany the infantry in the assault in line with British pre-war doctrine. Most Allied crews regarded the M13/40 as a deathtrap. The frontal armour thickness of 30mm was inadequate by the standards of late-1942 and also had the disadvantage of being bolted on in some areas, a potentially lethal arrangement for crew members when the tank was hit. Powered by a Fiat diesel engine, it was reliable but slow. The M13/40 was best tank available to the Italian Army in 1940 but by 1942 it was totally outclassed by the latest British and American designs. The Italians had only the one design, while the Germans relied on their Mark III and Mark IV, which, unlike earlier British tanks, had been designed from the outset to accommodate upgrades in armour thickness and gun power. The Allied tank strength at the Second Battle of El Alamein was composed of a profusion of designs as a result of the coming together of British and American production plans.

How did the us military camouflage sherman tank