why did the sherman tank fail?

Answer 1

not enough armor

Answer 2

Three reasons.
poor armor. One hit and it was out if it took on a Tiger tank. The German Mark 3 or 4 was no problem for the Sherman.

The main gun wasn't powerful. It was a 76mm. The shell was slow and won't punch through most tank armor, and it didn't have range. The British had a 17 pound gun called the firefly, this could take out German tanks at a 1000 plus yds. Americans didn't want it as this wasn't American.

Lastly, it was run on gasoline. Doubt idea.. Gasoline is really flammable.

The only things that were good about the Sherman was it was built in large numbers. And it was versatile. The 17 pound gun was proof. Israel showed it again when they bought Shermans, and put 105mm guns on them. The Sherman had speed and the turret could turn faster, and it had good cross-country mobility.

Answer 3

Sherman tanks were inferior compared to Tigers and la little compared to Panthers, but they were comparable to PanzersIII and IV.
But germans hadn't a lot of these kinds(heavy tanks) of tanks.
So with the support of aviation or navy allies managed to destroy them,(a lot finished fuel during the battles) .
And German tanks being most powerfull destroyed 3 sherman tanks in the time allies shipped 5 new sherman tanks to European front......the number sometimes is more important than quality, (but think about the poor crews of the first 3 tanks!!!)

Answer 4

It wasn't a failure. It just took a lot of M4's to make a fight with PzV's or PzVI's fair. All armored vehicles have their strengths and weaknesses, and the balance of speed, protection, and firepower is always a compromise.
The M4 was quite reliable and simple to maintain, a point of which the Germans were quite jealous.
The basic design was limited by the engine. No better engine was available at the time. Other than its reliability and field-repairability its most striking features are that it required that the entire tank be built too tall, and it ran on gasoline, which flares up like a Ronson lighter (Zippo was not the brand it was tagged with).
The shape and power of the engine to a large degree dictated the shape and armor of the tank built around it, and that in turn limited the size of its main gun.
The M26 might have come on line sooner, but it seemed better to continue the high-volume production of the M4 and delay the introduction of the M26 rather than suffer a shortage of tanks earlier. Better a platoon of less capable tanks when you need them now than the promise of a better tank next week, one might say.

Answer 5

Well, I don't think it failed. We won the war didn't we? I have heard (on the History Channel) that the reason there were weight limitations (and thus armor limitations) on the Sherman was that the tanks had to be light enough to transport on board ships.

Answer 6

Sherman tanks had petrol engines most tanks have diesel.
Apart from the power they burned easily.

Answer 7

A couple of things that come off the top of my head. It gave a large profile, had poor armor for the type of weapons it was up against.

But we cranked em out in enough numbers to just wear down the Germans who were making pretty quality equipment, but they were too complex for their own good and were harder to replace espicially with their resources dwindling with our bombings.

I agree with the guy below me, I wouldn't call the Sherman a failure as it did get the job done. But yeah, it did have its drawbacks.

Answer 8

It wasn't entirely a failure but it did have it's drawbacks. It's armor was too light and it's gun was inadequate against German armor. It's nickname was the Ronson or Zippo after it's getting blown up after one strike. It's strengths however were it's speed and ease of manufacture. The American manufacturing plants were able to produce much greater numbers of them than Germany could produce of it's Panzer and Tiger tanks.

Answer 9

I think the main drawback was it's firepower, the shells pretty much would bounce off the german tiger tanks. (remember that movie Kelly's Heros with Clint Eastwood?). In the movie they fired cans of paint at the german tanks hoping to scare them. Anyway in the movie they do knock out some tiger tanks by getting up close behind them and shooting them in the butt. They was the only way to kill one.

Answer 10

It didn't fail, it just wasn't a monumental success on an individual basis. It had weak armour and caught fire easily (Troops referred to it as the "Zippo" do to it's habit of catching fire with one hit) but it helped win the war due to the vast numbers of Shermans used in combat.

Answer 11

i wouldnt say it failed, because its simplicity allowed us to turn out thousands of them throughout the war
basicaly the tigers and panzers of the germans were too good and they couldnt make enough
apparently durign the war a german engineer who was captured said that the americans would never win cuz they would need about six shermans to one german tank to win the war
and the american replied well good were already on about ten to one