The M4A3 late was built as 75mm (retained mainly for its superior HE round compared to the 76mm), 76mm and 105mm variants, all sharing a common hull. The net result was a Sherman that fixed many of its earlier faults and breathed new life into the tank. Taking all the lessons from the fighting in North Africa, the USA redesigned the front of the hull to make the drivers hatches larger and smoothed out the glacis plate (removing the odd protrusions of the driver positions), replaced the open ammo racks with wet stowage to give the crews vital time to escape, added a hatch for the loader (still sucked to be the gunner – no hatch for you!) and replaced the second-hand radial Wright R-975 aircraft engine (or several lorry engines tied to a common crankshaft) with a dedicated tank powerplant, the Ford V8.

The M4 (Late) in question is the M4A3 wet hull Sherman. At long last Bulge Americans is with us (or a review PDF at least) and its fair to say that it’s the book that gives the Sherman, the tank that arguably won the war*, a chance to shine.ĭuncan is going to be looking at the infantry lists in the book whilst this article will look at the lists centred around the tanks and tank destroyers and boy do we have more than a few to look at! M4 Sherman (Late) Tank Company

Sherman tank battle of the bulge