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I found this picture at; www.thortrains.net/arm...ltnk3.html , I was suprised to see variuos types of Shermans on manuvers together. Was this a common practice or just unavoidable due to the constant upgrades? Differnet gun and suspensions caught my eye.

What you have is usually not credited as training, but as action in the ETO (I can't remember the unit). What the photo shows is a couple M4A3 75mm Wet Stowage with an M4A3E8. Yes, it was common to see various Shermans mixed up. US units drew M4/M4A1 series with Continental radial engines and drew almost all of the M4A3s (that used Ford V8s). Obviously a units maintenance and supply officers would try to keep mostly one model or at least one engine type, but the supply system didn't always allow that. Despite the famous number of Shermans produced, there was a chronic shortage of medium tanks in the ETO due to the long supply chain and higher than expected losses. So units used the tanks they could get. The 75mm gun was poor at AP performance, but it threw a better HE shell than the US 76mm (or the British 17 pounder), but the 76mm became the primary type delivered to the ETO (along with the limited numbers of 105 howitzer tanks). Anyway, many units mixed 75 and 76mm gunned tanks.
Due to tank shortages in 1945 there were shipments of M4A3 75mm Dry Stowage sent to the ETO (long after they "theoretically" should have been sent), the Seventh Army seems to have repaired/rebuild some early M4A1s and issued them in 1945, plus due to high losses in the Ardennes some units drew M4A2s and M4A4s from British reservestocks.

A VERY ROUGH rule of thumb; 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th Armored Divisions arrived in Europe with M4 and M4A1 75mm gun tanks. They added M4 105 How. tanks. 2nd and 3rd were the first to get the M4A1 76 Wet Stowgae. The 4th Armored added M4A3 76W and other M4A3 types.
The later Armored Divisions (9, 10, 11, 12, 14) drew mostly M4A3s as they arrived in theater. The last arriving units in 1945 (8th, 13th, 16th and 20th) were also mostly equipped with M4A3 versions. Obviously, situations changed rapidly as older vehicles were KO'd or wore out and only newer vehicles were available to replace them.

That's one of the fun things about being a Sherman modeler is the opportunities for placing different models with each other (within reason) to add variety.

Gary

Hi Gary;

I just want to congratulate you for that Great piece of Shermanology.
Some of these topics are so damned confusing that one almost gives up, but your explanation of the units fitted with early M4/M4A1, etc and the later arrivals mostly with M4A3 Shermans made it all so understandable.
Thanks again for the input...

George Bradford