[Music] [Music] welcome to our next volume allied armor in the continuing series great fighting machines of world war ii my father along with gel Georges Patton was enthusiastic supporter of the American m4 Sherman medium tank it was a really great fighting machine and wooden fitted with a bulldozer blade his serves the tank dozer it was invaluable at Normandy where it was used to splashed through thick hedgerows and other large obstacles placed in our paths by the retreating German Vermont other Sherman's has series of pipes installed facing the front each equipped with a bagel or torpedo when fired these makeshift guns cleared a continuous path through an enemy minefields the Sherman proved to be the mainstay of our armored force and played a vital role in Patton's Third Army drive through France across the Rhine and into Germany now sit back relax watch the Sherman tank in action along with the British Churchill Soviet t-34 and other great allied armoured vehicles [Music] the very first tanks were designed to break the stalemate of trench warfare on the Western Front during the First World War ironically it was the British Admiralty under Winston Churchill which was most receptive to the idea and the earliest vehicles were accordingly designated land ships the word tank which has subsequently entered the dictionary was a pure cover name designed to deceive the Germans the rhomboid shape of the first tanks which clattered into action on the Somme in 1916 was dictated by the need to cross an 8-foot trench or climb a 4-foot parapet these lumbering vehicles had crews of up to 12 men and were armed with a mixture of six pounder cannon and machine guns inside sponsons the French were quick to respond to the tank concept and by 1917 the sanction wall was in service armed with a bow mounted 75 millimeter cannon and four machine guns it was based on the chassis of the South African Holt tractor the world's first successful Caterpillar tracked design next came the little renault ft-17 which was the first true tank in the modern sense being tracked armoured and having a fully revolving turret over 3,000 were built and amazingly more than half of these were still in service at the beginning of the Second World War the seven-ton ft-17 carried a crew of true at her bone-shaking five miles an hour and was armed with either a 37 millimeter cannon or an 8 millimeter machine gun the French persevered with the light tank concept during the interwar period and in the 1930s both Renault and Hotchkiss produced virtually identical tanks in the 10 to 12 tonne class the H 35 H 39 and our 35 all armed with a 37 millimeter cannon and coaxial machine gun Britain in the meanwhile had been experimenting with an entirely different concept the machine gun carrier the idea was attractive to cost-conscious governments a fast little three-ton tracked vehicle carrying a water-cooled machine gun would they thought give the modern army firepower as well as mobility [Music] the original design company carden loyd was quickly taken over by vicars who developed a whole range of light tanks based on a strengthened chassis the first vehicles of the early 1930s had for road wheels each side on leaf spring suspension and carried a crew of two they were powered by ordinary Ford model-t engines and used many other common car components to save costs one version could swim driven by a propeller and steered by two rudders it was the world's first production and heaviest tank another version was the command tank armed with a 2 pounder gun instead of the usual machine gun [Applause] [Music] yet another mounted for machine guns which could be elevated to fire to aircraft [Music] by this time engine and suspension had been improved to give the Vickers light tanks a speed of 30 miles an hour which was considered very good at the time [Music] the most famous of all vehicles in this series was the Bren gun carrier which emerged from a light artillery tractor design after the Bren became the standard British light machine gun in 1938 it had a redesigned superstructure to give better crew protection and was conceived as a successor to the cavalryman's horse during pre-war exercises mast charges reminiscent of Waterloo were quite common but the reality of war would soon put a stop to these its armor only provided protection against small arms and the lack of overhead cover was a severe drawback in a more sensible role the Bren gun carrier could accommodate up to six infantryman allowing it to act as a personnel carrier alongside real tanks giving them protection from enemy tank destroyer teams Bren gun carriers could also be fitted with flamethrowers the projector itself was mounted about for the machine gun position connected by a hose to a tank of petrol mixed with a gel to give it adhesive properties like napalm compressed air ejected the fuel in one second bursts to a range of about 50 yards the war quickly demonstrated the need for tanks to operate closely alongside the infantry both are mutually dependent the tanks to tackle enemy armor and the infantry to follow through and take the ground although the Vickers range of light tanks being lightly armored and only equipped with machine guns couldn't stand up to heavier German tanks or anti-tank guns when supported by infantry and carriers they proved very useful in the forward reconnaissance role particularly in the western desert another tank which proved it's worth with the seventh Royal Tank Regiment in North Africa was the Matilda designed for the infantry support role it had armor up to three inches thick which made it invulnerable to the standard German 37 millimetre anti-tank gun and even able to survive a hit from one of the dreaded 88 even the suspension and tracks were covered with armor plate weighing 27 tons it was underpowered and could only manage 15 miles an hour their main armament was a 2 pounder anti-tank gun in a hydraulically driven turret the Matilda had a crew of four the under gunner loader and driver when more modern tank designs began entering service in Europe most Matilda's were shipped out to the Far East where they proved invaluable to the third Australian Corps particularly in clearing the Japanese from Borneo the Japanese had no tanks or anti-tank guns capable of seriously damaging a matilda and the Australians found them particularly useful in over running machine gun nests which were pinning down their infantry in the jungles of Borneo the Matilda's low speed was not a disadvantage and the infantry appreciated having its thick armor to shelter behind [Music] the Australians also converted some Matilda's to flamethrowers by removing the gun these were particularly effective at clearing Japanese bunkers another variant of the matilda was the scorpion designed by a south african engineer this had a revolving drum driven by an auxiliary motor and suspended on two arms in front of the tank as the drum revolved at high speed chains attached to it flail the ground to explode any mines in the tank's path sappers then marked the safe flame through the minefield with white tape the invention of the flail tank greatly speeded up the laborious task of clearing minefields with electrical detectors while the Matilda was a useful tank in the early warriors by 1941 it was outclassed and a new infantry tank was brought into service in large numbers this was the 39 ton Churchill which had armor up to almost four inches thick to absorb punishment from the latest German tank and anti-tank guns at the Battle of Alamein in 1942 for example one Churchill was hit 31 times and survived the tank had a crew of five and was driven by a 12 cylinder petrol engine which gave it a top speed of 17 miles an hour despite its weight it's long-wheelbase with 11 road wheels each side gave its superb traction even on very steep slopes early Churchill's had the same 2-pounder as the matilda in their turrets but also mounted a 3-inch howitzer in the hull front the disadvantage of the two pounder was that it could only fire solid armor-piercing shot but the hider could fire high-explosive shells to take out enemy anti-tank and machine gun positions this made the Churchill much more suitable in the infantry support role even though the whole tank had to be pointed at the target before the heights that could be fired later versions of the Churchill had a redesigned turret mounting a six pounder gun and replaced the howitzer with a Beezer machine gun additionally there was a coaxial besa in the turret still later Churchill's were fitted with Americans 75 millimeter guns and some with 95 millimeter Hyde sirs firing 25 pound high-explosive shells the Churchill's operational debut was with the Canadian Calgary regiment during the Dieppe raid in August 1942 which was rehearsed in great secrecy on the Isle of Wight the tanks were specially fitted with deep wading gear including extended engine air intakes and exhausts although the operation was doomed to failure it taught many lessons which contributed greatly to the success of later amphibious landings in Sicily Italy and Normandy after da two brigades of Churchill's the 21st and 25th was sent to join first Army in North Africa they performed very well during operations in the rugged wastes of Tunisia finding they could surmount obstacles other tanks could not while the new six pounder gun proved a nasty shock to German tank crews despite its lack of speed the Churchill had two great assets in its mobility and armored protection which made it well-liked by its crews one impractical idea tried out was towing sleds containing squads of infantry behind Churchill's this was quickly abandoned after field tests but the sleds went on to have other uses much more successful was the Churchill variant known as the crocodile based on Canadian experiments at the time of Dieppe this had a flame projector mounted in place of the hull machine gun 400 gallons of fuel was carried in an armored trailer towed behind the tank giving approximately eighty one second bursts of fire using a trailer also meant that a hit would't immolate the crew of the tank the crocodile was so successful the flame gun having a range of a hundred yards that all late-model Churchill's were built with the modification in mind in total 800 tanks were converted into crocodiles [Music] the sleds came back into their owners carries for fascines rolled bundles of wood which could be laid across muddy ground to provide a carpet for vehicles other bundles could be carried in one of two types of bobbin fixed to the hull for scenes could also be dropped in bundles into anti-tank ditches to provide a bridge this was a bit laborious though and a wide variety of other bridging vehicles were developed particularly by General Sir Percy Hobart of the 79th armored division [Music] known collectively as funnies these included the Churchill arc a turretless tank with two hinged ramps at front and rear and two girders mounted above the tracks the arc could be driven into a ditch to provide solid footing for following vehicles another funny was the armored vehicle Royal Engineers or AV ar e which mounted a large petard mortar in the turret for blowing up pill boxes additionally the AVR II could carry a 30-foot bridge hinged at the front and lowered by steel cables over a ditch or stream [Music] it could also form a ramp up a steep obstacle and had a carrying capacity of 40 tons [Music] a more sophisticated bridge layer also developed by the Royal Engineers was the Churchill jumbo which laid a 60 tonne capacity bridge 47 feet long by means of a hydraulic arm [Music] this was really the forerunner of all modern bridge layers [Music] apart from the light cavalry and heavy infantry tanks the British also introduced a variety of in-between designs one of which was the Covenant er this was developed by the london scottish midland railway company between 1937 and 1942 earlier and obsolescent Cruiser tanks then in service a cruiser was intended to fulfill the same role as the naval warship of the same name combining speed range and firepower but with only limited Armour protection the principal tanks the Covenant er was intended to replace where the unnamed Nuffield Cruiser tanks marked 3 & 4 which saw early war service in France and the desert these tanks had pioneered the type of suspension developed by a J Walter Christie in America with four large independently sprung road wheels each side forgiving exceptionally smooth ride and good maneuverability the mark 4 had extra spaced armor around the turret sides and rear to give all-round protection of just over an inch it was armed with a 2 pounder and coaxial machine gun the 18-ton covenant has shared many common components but had a redesigned lozenge-shaped turret and the drivers position offset to the side its armor was nearly half an inch thicker than the mark force but unfortunately the tank proved mechanically unreliable and although ever a thousand were built it never saw action being reserved for training duties a much more successful cruiser tank was the 19 ton Crusader developed by Nuffield to the same design specification as the Covenant unfortunately even with armor up to almost two inches thick it was very vulnerable to high-velocity rounds from German anti-tank guns despite the 30 mile an hour top speed provided by its Liberty v12 petrol engine the definitive Crusader mark three and a six pounder gun but earlier models just had the little 2 pounder plus an auxiliary machine gun turret an experiment which was not a success removing this allowed the crew to be reduced from five to four despite its shortcomings the Crusader was very popular with its crews and it saw action in all the major tank battles of the North African campaign from the battle ax offensive of June 1941 to the final German defeat in Tunisia in 1943 the operation to lift the siege of Tobruk which lasted from the 18th of november to the 11th of december 1941 was codenamed crusader in the tanks honor ensuring it a rightful niche in history with the end of the war in the desert the Crusader was withdrawn from front-line service but many were used as tractors for the 17 pounder anti-tank gun in Normandy and some were converted into anti-aircraft tanks one problem with the combined arms concept of tanks infantry and artillery all working together was the fact that the guns could not keep up with the armored formations so the Allies developed a series of self-propelled artillery pieces on tank chassés one of the most successful was the British Sexton which carried a 25 pounder field gun on the chassis of the Canadian Ram tank this was crewed by six men and had an open-topped fighting compartment with stowage for a hundred and eight rounds of ammunition [Music] frontal armor was over four inches thick and the Sexton had a good turn of speed at 24 miles an hour [Music] the American m7 howitzer motor carriage was very similar designated priests in British service because of the pulpit shaped machine gun position on the right-hand hull side it mounted a 105 millimeter howitzer in an open-topped superstructure on the lower hull of an m3 or m4 medium tank armor protection and performance were identical with the sexton but the priest could only carry 69 rounds of ammunition both vehicles gave the Allies invaluable artillery support right up in the front line another tank which later formed the basis of a self-propelled artillery piece was the Valentine so named because its design was first offered to the British war office just before Sande Valentine's Day on the 10th of February 1938 it came into being because Vickers were convinced they could produce a better infantry tank than the government-sponsored Matilda the basic design parameters were that it should have Armour two to two and a half inches thick but should not exceed 16 tons in weight this caused numerous problems in particular limiting the crew to only three men in early versions prohibiting the inclusion of a proper all-round vision Coppola for the commander and restricting range to only 70 miles without the use of external fuel tanks despite these drawbacks the War Office finally ordered the Valentine into production in April 1939 partly because the gathering war clouds over Europe indicated that every possible tank would be needed and partly because Vickers using Canadian as well as British production lines estimated they could manufacture Valentines in a of the time it took to produce a Matilda the basic vehicle owed March to earlier Vickers Cruiser tanks and the use of common components helped tooling up in the factories low-slung it had thinner frontal armor than the Matilda but better all-round protection top speed was the same at 15 miles an hour but the simpler construction made the Valentine the more reliable of the two tanks crew accommodation was very cramped and steering awkward despite which the vehicle was well liked by its crews early Valentine's had the standard to pound a gun but the turret was later revised to take the six pounder and eventually a 75 millimeter gun while the crew was finally increased to four the Valentine went through no fewer than 11 different marks before production ceased in 1944 nearly 4,000 were supplied to the Russians who judged it the best of all the Western tanks they operated the Valentine's hull served as the basis for yet another self-propelled artillery piece the bishop which actually preceded the priests and Sexton into service it was very much an improvised design the turret simply being replaced by a slab-sided steel box in which was mounted a 25 pounder field gun this had limited elevation so range was reduced to some 6,000 yards less than half the guns normal capability on top of this conditions inside the gun compartment were extremely cramped despite these drawbacks the bishop gave useful service in North Africa Sicily and during the early stages of the battle for Italy before being withdrawn from service a much more successful design because it was properly planned rather than improvised was the American m10 gun motor carriage as early as December 1941 the American army decided that what it needed was fast moving hard hitting tank destroyers to take on the enemy armor while allowing its own tanks and infantry to exploit breakthroughs the result was the m10 known in British service as the Achilles it was based on the lower hull of the m4 medium tank but had a lightly armored upper hull and open-topped turret mounting a 3-inch gun the British later replaced this with a 17 pounder which was a far superior anti-tank gun the 29th an m10 carried a crew of five and had a top speed of 30 miles an hour camouflage is essential on the modern battlefield an infantryman had long since learned to wear subdued uniforms and use foliage to break up their silhouettes an AFV is larger and more difficult to conceal but imaginative use of brushwood and Nets can disguise its identity from the enemy for long enough to allow it to get the first shot in mobility is just as important as concealment and to allow the infantry to keep up with the tanks the united states army developed the m3 half-track armored personnel carrier a cross between a truck and a tank which is still in service with many armies fifty years after the war [Music] acting in conjunction with armored cars and tanks it was a robust and well-liked go anywhere vehicle [Music] just to confuse the issue the identical designation m3 was given to the general Stewart light tank which first went into service with the British in the desert in 1941 before the United States entered the war normally known by its crews as the honey because it was such a delight to drive and operate it was the American Army's equivalent of the Crusader being both fast and comparatively well armed and armored the high rather box's silhouette caused by the size of the original air-cooled radial engine and the choice of vertical volute spring suspension was a battlefield disadvantage though m3 crews overcame this by using the tank's exceptional maneuverability and 36 mile an hour speed to charge into action in old-style cavalry fashion and engage the enemy at point-blank range on several occasions this so disconcerted Rommels Afrika Corvette ur ins that they shied away from action like most wartime tanks the honey went through various modifications involving different diesel or petrol engines and cast welded or riveted armor with different radio and machine gun arrangements as well but basically it remained the same 14-ton four-man tank with a 37 millimeter main gun in a power operated turret and armored up to two inches thick [Music] one aspect of the honey which endeared it to its crews was the wide window flaps in the front hull which allowed cool air in this feature served them well both in the desert and later in the steamy jungle of Guadalcanal where m3s played a vital role in defeating the Japanese who had nothing to match them [Music] in this sort of terrain the tanks relatively high ground clearance became an asset [Music] because the arrow industry needed the same type of engines as were being fitted to the m3 general motors suggested that a pair of Cadillac v8 car engines could be installed in their place after this was tried and proven the Stewart was redesignated m5 it had the same armament of a 37 millimeter main gun and three machine guns and apart from a revised rear hull shape and increased armor thickness up to two point six inches thick which raised its weight to sixteen tons it was still essentially the same vehicle and had identical performance although well outclassed by 1944 the m5 remained in service until the end of the war by this time a new American light tank had entered the battlefield the m24 chaffee it's clean lines clearly showed the wartime lessons which had been learned the main armament consisted of a 75 millimeter gun firing both armor-piercing and high-explosive rounds complemented by a coaxial 30 caliber machine gun a second machine gun was mounted in the hull front a 50 caliber machine gun towards the rear of the turret provided a measure of defense against low-flying aircraft the torsion bar suspension with five large road wheels and three return rollers was based on that of the m18 hellcat tank destroyer and gave a much smoother ride than on any previous American tank the Chaffee had a crew of four driver a co-driver who also operated the radio and bar machine-gun commander and gunner the tank was powered by the same pair of Cadillac v8 petrol engines as in the m5 Stuart and despite a weight increase to just over 18 tons these gave it a useful top speed of 34 miles an hour the m24 could Ford water over three feet deep and surmount a three foot vertical stet although its armor was only an inch thick the Chaffey's excellent speed and maneuverability coupled with a gun equal to that in most medium tanks of the period gave it a good battlefield survivability and it sewed it on for many years after the Second World War the Allies developed a bewildering array of armored cars and Scout cars during the war for the Conesus and patrolling Humber for example had built a four wheeled artillery tractor on a carrier kt4 chassis for the indian army and these were pressed into service armed with Bren guns with Indian units serving with the eight me in the western desert south african built Marmon Harrington mark three and four armored cars were also used extensively in the desert based on a Ford truck chassis these had either a boys anti-tank rifle or a 2 pounder gun in their turrets as well as a machine gun and could Bowl along at 50 miles an hour one of the most prolific of all armored cars was the Humber which not only saw service throughout the North African campaign but also in Italy and Europe amazingly a number were still in service with various nations until well into the 1980s as internal security vehicles the design was based on the same kt4 chassis as used in the Indian artillery tractors this was married to a hull modified from a pre-war guy armored car design but with a better sloped hull front the three-man crews appreciated the Humber's spacious interior which ideally suited it for use as a command car as well as a reconnaissance vehicle powered by arutz six-cylinder petrol engine it had a top speed of 45 miles an hour and a range of 250 miles which allowed it to range deeply into the desert on patrol [Music] it had a fully traversing turret mounting a heavy Beezer 15 millimeter machine gun or later an American 37 millimeter gun plus a coaxial 7.92 millimeter machine gun like all armored fighting vehicles in the desert armored cars were almost always seen littered with the crews kit which would include great coats and blankets against the coal of the Nights nets a camouflage personal weapons cans of petrol and water food and cooking equipment and on occasion even the proverbial kitchen sink joking aside the Humber's proven engine and chassis with solid axles path elliptic Springs and thick pleated tires made it both reliable and well-suited to all types of terrain [Music] [Applause] [Music] another very successful design was the AEC built by the associated equipment company on the chassis of their Matador artillery tractor this large and robust 11 ton vehicle was an ingenious adaptation with a slab-sided body tapering at front and rear on top of which was mounted a valentine tank turret with a 2 pounder or later 6 pounder gun [Music] [Applause] because the turret had frontal armor over two inches thick the AEC could operate from a hold down position against German tanks something most armored cars would normally try to avoid it had a crew of either three or four and was powered by a six-cylinder diesel engine which gave a top speed of 40 miles an hour the biggest problem that the British had in their early battles was that neither the 2-pounder nor later the 6 pounder gun could fire high-explosive rounds to tackle enemy artillery and anti-tank guns salvation arrived in the spring of 1942 when the first American m3 medium tanks began arriving in Egypt just in time for the Battle of Ghazala in May after the fall of France in 1940 one of the lessons American designers learned was the value of this 75 millimeter gun fitted in the German Panzer 4 and Chrysler secured government permission to create a new tank Arsenal in Detroit to build a new generation of American tanks the first was the m3 which was based on the pre-war m2 and retained a 37 millimeter gun in a small turret but additionally at a 75 millimeter gun mounted first world war style in a sponson on the right-hand side of the hull the Americans appreciated that the m3 was only an interim design pending arrival of the m4 which would have a 75 millimeter gun in a fully traversing turret but in the meanwhile it would serve the British admirably the only modification the British purchasing Commission asked for was a slightly revised turret to accommodate the standard tank radio in this form the m3 entered British service as the grant while the original American tanks were designated Lee general Bernard Law Montgomery newly appointed commander of the Eighth Army in Egypt was certainly as impressed by the m3 as were its crews in the 2nd 4th and 22nd armored brigades weighing 27 tons and with armor up to 2 inches thick it was unfortunately a bulky vehicle over 10 feet tall which made it conspicuous but certainly gave the commander a good view over the m3 was similar in concept to the early Churchill with hull mounted 3-inch gun it was powered by a radial air-cooled petrol engine which gave it a much higher top speed of 26 miles an hour it needed to prove six to man both guns but despite this was quite spacious internally and could carry 41 rounds of ammunition for the 75 millimetre gun this could penetrate the armor of any German tank then in service at 500 yards range the only disadvantages with the side mounting were the limited Traverse and the fact that the tank could not operate from a hull down position the fact that it could fire high-explosive rounds helped to make up for this though and pending the arrival of the first m4 shermans later in 1942 the m3 gave excellent service [Music] a most unusual prototype for an armored fighting vehicle was the alligator this tracked and fibia sign was the brainchild of a retired engineer Donald Roebling to help rescue hurricane victims and downed aircraft LEDs after it was featured in a magazine article the United States Marine Corps became interested in late in 1940 commissioned FMC to develop a military version for amphibious assaults this emerged as the landing vehicle tracked mark one or LVT one which was christened water buffalo and used throughout the Pacific War as well as in European operations the original LVT one was unarmored being fabricated from mild steel but later versions the LVT a one LVT two three and four were lightly armored to give their occupants protection against small arms fire additionally some versions were fitted with turrets from obsolete m3 light tanks or with 75 millimeter howitzers a further improvement on later marks was the provision of a hinged ramp at the rear allowing troops to disembark more comfortably than leaping over the hull sides in addition this enabled LV T's to carry jeeps and light artillery pieces the vehicles were all driven by their tracks in the water as well as on land using specially shaped pleated rubber shoes and could achieve a swimming speed of about 6 knots or 20 miles an hour Overland each LVT could carry up to 30 men and the many thousands built contributed a great deal towards final victory over the Japanese [Applause] when America entered the war in December 1941 an immediate result was a crash naval building program because it was obvious the war could only be carried to the enemy across the oceans this program included not just warships but enormous numbers of troop ships landing ships and landing craft to put men tanks trucks and artillery ashore vast fleets were used in the invasion of North Africa Europe and the Japanese occupied territories in the Far East and Pacific the size of this program can be seen in the fact that for the invasion of Sicily in 1943 for example 2,500 landing ships and landing craft were deployed carrying 600 tanks 14,000 other vehicles 1,800 guns and 160,000 men they were supported by 750 warships for the invasion of Normandy the following year there were an incredible 4,000 landing ships and craft deployed supported by 1500 warships of all types the principle difference between troop ships and tank landing ships was that the former hoped to offshore and debarked the men in smaller landing craft while a tank landing ship had a shallow draft allowing it to be driven right onto a beach the bow doors then opened and a ramp was lowered to enable the tanks and other vehicles to drive straight into action bulldozers some of them armored were used to clear Beach obstacles and create roads leading inland the ubiquitous Bren gun carriers still appeared in large numbers other new vehicles used in Italy and France included a wheeled amphibian known as the duck the British Cromwell medium tank and the American m12 self-propelled gun mounting a 155 millimeter howitzer German prisoners were quite overwhelmed at the quantity and variety of Allied armor at the beginning of the war the Soviet Union had an extraordinary number of different tank types light medium and heavy but they soon discovered the advantages of standardization typical of their light tanks was the t26 which could be equipped with a flamethrower as an alternative to 37 or 45 millimeter guns and machine guns another light tank used principally as a reconnaissance vehicle was the five tonne t 60 armed with a 20 millimeter gun although it had a good turn of speed it was totally outclassed by 1941 the principle Soviet tank throughout the Second World War was the t-34 probably the most successful and influential design of all time although outclassed by the later German Panther developed from the earlier BT range of fast tanks which were greatly influenced by the American Walter Christie the first t-34 emerged in 1936 but was kept a closely guarded secret and came as a nasty surprise to the Germans when they invaded Russia in June 1941 most of its principle features are evident to the eye well sloped armor to deflect enemy shells large road wheels and wide tracks to give excellent cross-country mobility over all types of terrain including snow and a hard-hitting 76 millimeter gun superior to anything the Germans or the Western Allies then had in service the diesel engine specially developed to cope with great extremes of temperature gave the 28 ton t-34 a remarkable top speed of 32 miles an hour the t-34 was also extremely versatile and one variant was the su-85 assault gun mounting an 85 millimeter gun designed for the infantry support role later and operated t-34 with a larger turret itself mounting an 85 millimeter gun was introduced and then the su-85 s were themselves altered to take a hundred millimeter weapons Russian infantry predominantly operated on foot and lacking armoured personnel carriers usually drove into battle perched on the rear hulls of their tanks by Western standards the t-34 was primitive in terms of finish and crew comfort and in fact at the height of the German drive on Moscow tanks were driven straight out of factories onto the battlefield without even a coat of paint only a tiny proportion were fitted with radio so crews had to communicate by means of semaphore what made up for these disadvantages was the fact that the t-34 was almost totally reliable the sloping armor also compensated for the fact that it was less than two inches thick and the diesel engine reduced the fire risk when hit fire unfortunately was a major problem with early versions of the principle Western medium tank of the Second World War the m4 Sherman and British crews who first took them into action in 1942 christened them Ronson's with macabre army humor the Sherman successor to the m3 Lee and grant was built in greater quantity and a larger number of variants than any other allied tank the original m4 s had the same lower hull engine suspension and drivetrain as the m3 some later versions would have stretched hulls to accommodate larger engines as well as horizontal instead of vertical volute spring suspension plus wider tracks to improve cross-country mobility all versions had cast turrets and most had welded hulls although some had cast or bolted noses principal armament of early versions was a gyro-stabilized 75 millimeter gun which could be fired while the tank was moving but this was later upgraded to a higher velocity 76 millimeter weapon in addition there were bow and coaxial machine guns the tank first saw action with the British Eighth Army in the desert and with the American 1st and 2nd armored divisions in Tunisia at the end of 1942 Sherman's were also used extensively in the jungles of the Far East and Pacific Islands here the nature of the terrain prevented large-scale deployment and the tanks usually operated singly or in small numbers in the close infantry support role winkling the Japanese defenders out of their cunningly concealed bunkers with high-explosive shells the Japanese had few tanks and those were of inferior quality so there were no major armored battles in this theater of operations by this time - most Germans had extra armored plates welded on the outside of their fuel tanks blocks of concrete were also sometimes bolted to the hull sides further protection against fire risk was later provided by storing the ammunition in water-filled racks below the turret ring the Sherman encountered still different terrain and extremes of climate in Italy here they encountered far tougher opposition because Hitler had withdrawn some of his crack Panzer regiments from Russia to meet the threat of Allied invasion and Sherman's were soon in battle with the formidable German Panther this had well sloped frontal armor over three inches thick compared with the Sherman's basic two inches and mounted a high velocities 75 millimeter gun which could knock out an m4 at over a thousand yards Sherman crews had to get inside half this distance in order to stand a chance of damaging a panther even with the new 76 millimeter gun which began appearing early in 1944 the Sherman carried between 75 and ninety seven rounds of ammunition for its main gun and loading these by hand through the turret hatch was a tiring procedure additionally 5,000 rounds were carried for the machine guns mines were a constant problem in Italy where the Germans constructed a series of parallel of fortified lines across the peninsula there were never enough flail tanks to go around so the infantry usually had to clear a path for the tanks a tank's hull floor is usually its weakest point the Sherman's armor here being only just over half an inch thick and many fell prey to the German teller mine there were other hazards in the towns and villages too and the infantry were grateful for the armor because you never knew which house was going to conceal a sniper or machine gun the numerous rivers and streams were another constant problem an unmodified Sherman could only wade through three and a half feet so a water proofing kit was developed to shroud the exhausts and keep the water out of the engine with this fitted the Sherman could Wade a river up to six feet deep the modification was also useful in amphibious landings when the slope of the beach prevented landing craft coming fully ashore [Music] [Music] a much more ambitious modification made the Sherman fully amphibious driven and steered by a pair of swiveling propellers mounted on the lower hull rear the whole hull above the tracks was encased in a rubberized canvas screen on the inside of this were 36 rubber tubes which when inflated from a cylinder of compressed air served as pillars to hold the flotation screen upright further rigidity was provided by means of steel struts complete assembly taking about 15 minutes the concept was originally conceived by a Hungarian engineer and first tested on the Valentine but the Sherman duplex drive as it was known became the principal allied amphibious tank it not only contributed hugely to the success of the d-day landings in June 1944 but also to the Rhine crossing in March the following year in water the propellers gave the tanker speed of about five knots once ashore the screens could be deflated in moments and the tank was immediately ready for action again [Music] [Music] America and Britain were not the only countries to use the Sherman the Canadians built two versions which they named RAM and grizzly and they also form the main striking force of general Filipino clerks Free French 2nd Armored Division during the invasion of Normandy [Music] painted with maps of France and crosses of Lorraine they later spearheaded the triumphal entry into Paris on the 25th of August 1944 before that though there was a long way to go and the narrow French roads were soon crammed with Allied tanks and infantry the tanks festooned with spare road wheels track links and other kit just as in the desert although the Americans 76-millimeter was an improvement over the earlier 75 millimeter gun it was the British who produced the most effective Sherman of all the Firefly this was fitted with the 76 point two millimeter 17 pounder gun firing a new high-velocity armour-piercing round at long last capable of taking on the Panther on equal terms another Sherman variant was the dozer designed to allow engineers to clear roads and fill in craters while under enemy fire these were first used that Anzio in April 1944 and afterwards some 2,000 of the 45,000 Sherman's built were fitted with bulldozer blades which also gave extra protection against enemy fire a major problem Allied tanks encountered in Normandy was the dense hedgerows five or six feet thick sergeant Cullen of the hundred and second cavalry squadron received the Legion of Merit for his idea of a welded on hedge cutter to get through them Sherman's so fitted were given the name rhinoceros most Allied tanks in Europe had olive drab paint schemes sometimes with mottle of other colors this was fine during the summer but when winter came they stood out like sore thumbs though the tank crews were kept busy mixing up buckets of whitewash to help conceal them against a snow-covered landscape this was just one of many tricks developed to help survival another who was fixing spare track links on the Hulk to give an extra layer of armour protection large numbers of Sherman's were adapted to carry the flail man clearing device originally used on the Matilda for some reason m4 s so modified were known as crabs because the revolving drum was wider than the tank other vehicles could safely follow in its track marks inevitably Sherman's were also fitted with flamethrowers which experience had quickly shown were the most effective weapons for dealing with enemy strongpoints invulnerable to high-explosive shells the standard v4 flame gun simply replaced the turret machine gun it was normally fired in two to three second bursts but continuous bursts of up to 25 seconds duration could be directed against obstinate targets [Music] the gun could either project Nepal or ordinary liquid petrol by turning a valve to a door cut out the adhesive gel US Marine Corps Sherman's used in the Pacific had a different flamethrower which fired down the barrel of the main gun yet another Sherman version was the Calliope which fired banks of sixty high-explosive rockets from tubes above the turret as they advanced across Europe continued the Germans responded with renewed desperation and there were dozens of clashes between Sherman's and Panthers which the Allied tanks could only win by closing in hard and fast this was not always easy because the Panther could manage nearly 35 compared with the m4s 25 miles an hour by early in 1945 though the Sherman's were being reinforced by the 42-ton m26 pershing heavy tank this was fitted with a 90 millimeter gun which exacted a heavy toll as the Allies pushed into the roar [Music] the drive into the German heartland was no Pusha every town and city was fiercely contested and the men of the Allied armored divisions were constantly being ambushed they also had problems to contend with in clearing roads and bridges and the Sherman was roped in to perform many unlikely tasks [Music] [Music] everyone had his sights set on Berlin but this final goal went to the Russians because the Western Allies halted by arrangement at the river Elbe then suddenly Hitler committed suicide on the 30th of April and a week later Germany's surrendered unconditionally the war against Japan would continue until the 15th of August but in the meanwhile there were victory parades throughout liberated Europe in which the Sherman as of right featured prominently [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]
