This is something to look forward to - brand-new Sherman tanks.

[theoldnorthstate]

Originally Posted by Dane_in_LA

One can relate. If you have to pick between guns and one of them comes from a company named Rheinmetall, the decision is pretty much made, isn't it? That's a downright Wagnerian name.

Some dark recess of Trump's mind. But Obama mispronounced "corpsman", so Trump is still a stable military genius in comparison. Or something.



They've been unfairly maligned - they weren't actually bad in terms of crew survivability. And unlike some of their German over-engineered unreliable drama queen counterparts, they tended to be on hand at the battlefield, not broken down at the roadside 10 miles away.

When I reported to my first duty station in 1977 as a 2 LT Maintenance Officer, the Army was activating the division. We got all the old equipment to bring us up to readiness level which included National Guard equipment AND Sherman Tanks. So we got the hangar queens.

My Warrant Officers liked the Sherman Tanks as they tended to be reliable and easily repaired.

[Dane_in_LA]

Originally Posted by Pilot1

I love a good tank debate. I think we kind of used the Russian philosophy with the Sherman. "Quantity, has a quality all its own". Yet they had the superior T-34. The Brits called the Sherman "Ronsons" after the popular lighter of the time.

From what I've seen, British soldiers very rarely admit to liking an issued piece of kit. You could give Brit squaddies hydrogen-powered VTOL tanks with forcefield armor and matter disruptor cannon, and they'd come up with a derogatory nickname and complain that the old one had a better tea kettle. Right until the Mark II arrives, at which point in time the predecessor immediately turns into the best tank to have ever been issued and this new-fangled one is a downright insult, what is my Army coming to, thank God I'll retire in a few years, etc.

But I digress - it depends on perspective. If you're a tank commander, the high-tech German WWII stuff obviously seems superior. If you're an armored brigade commander, the idea of having lots of tanks - where you need them, when you need them - takes precedence.

And quantity actually did turn out to have a quality of its own. Referring to armor, Field Marshall Slim said something along the lines of "The more you use, the fewer you lose" as he kicked the Japanese from Kohima to Rangoon - and he was right.

Wrong forum, sorry.