Re: PaulFrederick Re: Stabilty
"They got the Ronson nickname because they light up reliably at the first strike...." Well, yes and no. The British ordered almost exclusively the petrol-engined model which - in its original and unmodified form - proved vulnerable to hits on the fuel tanks setting the whole tank on fire. Later British Shermans had added applique armour over the fuel tanks and ammunition bins to help reduce the problem. But the Yanks used a lot of the diesel-powered version without the same "brewing up" problem.
The Birtish had a fixation with tanks "brewing up" due to a study done on their designs and early battles in North Africa, where the most common cause of a British tank being written-off was due to catastrophic fire in the crew compartment (very few actually exploded in best Hollywood fashion). But the cause of the frequent brewing up was traced to the bad habits of British tank crews, who packed the interiors of their tanks with personal kit such as flammable coats and oil-soaked rags, and often kept ready-to-fire ammunition stacked outside of protective containers. When their tanks were hit by AP shot, hot splinters of metal often set fire to those personal items and the fire quickly spread to the ready ammunition, and it then became a race for the crew to escape before they got burnt alive. Even the old and lighter Crusader II and III tanks suffered much less brew ups after crews started keeping the interior spaces clear and sliding doors were fitted over the ammunition racks.
The original Sherman design was very good, so good that when it made its battle debut in 1942 the Yanks made the mistake of assuming it would stay a top-line battle tank for the rest of the foreseeable War period. And for the majority of the War it was as good or better than the majority of its opponents (the most common German tank throughout the War was the up-gunned Panzer IV with the Panther and Tiger being relatively uncommon in comparison, and the Japanese tanks being little more than target practice). But in many ways it became a moot point - in the latter parts of WW2 the majority of German tanks were destroyed from the air, or broke down and were captured, or simply ran out of fuel (because air attacks destroyed their fuel supplies). And by the end of the War the Brits and Yanks both had tank designs that matched or bettered the Tiger, Panther and even Tiger II in the Pershing, Comet and Centurion.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
