NEW VANGUARD 73, M4 (76mm) Sherman Medium Tank 1943-65
by Steven J Zaloga, colour plates by Jim Laurier
Osprey Publishing Ltd,
ISBN 1-84176-542-2, 48 pages.

by John Prigent

This is the first study that I know of dedicated to the 76mm Shermans, and it's both very welcome and very good. Steve Zaloga starts with a brief look at the 75mm Sherman and the early studies for a new gun - which began early in 1942, before Panthers and Tigers proved that the 75mm gun was outdated as an anti-tank weapon. He also looks at the British 17 pounder gun and the reasons for its non-adoption by the US Army, and at the reluctance to accept the 76mm gun-armed Shermans until the shock of combat in Normandy made folk rethink their objections to a weapon with no worthwhile high explosive projectile.

When the new gun went into production all four Sherman production types were considered for its use, but only the M4A1, A2 and A3 made it to production status. All are examined here, together with their successive improvements. Those improvements included more than the horizontal volute spring suspension, with its better ride and lower ground pressure - better ammunition played a part, as did added armour. Here we have coverage not only of the M4A3E2 Jumbo with its thickened hull and new turret, but also the 'expedient Jumbos' created by welding extra armour onto standard tanks; the famous sandbag armour is here as well.

All theatres of WW2 where the 76mm Sherman served are looked at, from Italy and France to Russia, and then attention turns briefly to postwar exports before the Korean War closed the text.

Most of the photographs have been published before, but this is the first time I have seen some captioned correctly and with even their user units identified. They are well chosen to illustrate points in the text, and even include photos showing the 76mm gun in the standard 75mm turret. US Army trials concluded that this was too tight a fit, but it would be an interesting conversion for modellers - and the Pakistani Army made the same conversions and used them in action. Jim Laurier's colour plates show that Pakistani version, as well as US, Russian and French examples from WW2 and both US and Canadian ones in the Korean War, with for good measure an Israeli M4A1 (76mm) VVSS in the Sinai campaign of 1961. Very highly recommended.