Next question: I see the aftermarket add-on armor kits for the Sherman. When and where were these used? I have seen pix of USMC Shermans with bolted-on wooden planks on the side of the hulls, but no pix with add-on armor appliques. Was this something that was done post-WWII?

I've also seen pix of sandbagged Shermans, and also the aftermarket kits. I would suspect that sandbagging the tanks was a pretty common practice, as vulnerable as they were to German tanks and AT weapons.

The Sherman had comparatively thin armor on it's flat sides and was extremely vulnerable to most anti tank weapons used by opposing forces. As a result a number of efforts were made in the field and at the factory to try to improve the level of protection, with varying results.

There were basic applique armor plates attached to Sherman hulls-usually the three piece set. Some were field improvised but they started putting them on at the factory on the "dry" hulls. Marines used wooden armor on the M4A3 and some M4A2 models as protection against magnetic mines. You would have to check a reference site to verify the exact layout. Hardcorps models is a good website reference. Or google any of the M4 Sherman series and images will come up. Sometimes the Marines put a layer of concrete between the tank and the wood. There are photos for tanks in Europe with additional armor attached to the front and side of the hulls and sometimes on the turret. I have seen this on the M4A1 and M4A3 models. Dragon offers this on their M4A3 HVSS kit. Sandbag armor varied greatly, from a few bags thrown on the tank to framework attached to the tank to hold the sandbags on. I have not seen any tank from the Pacific theater using the framework. Also, lengths of track, road wheels, and anything else that could be attached for some protection was added. If you can find photos from Okinawa, almost anything you can imagine was attached to the tanks to try to improve armor protection.

Some of the measures were more successful than others. Patton was against the practice of adding sandbags and such to the tank because he had been told it actually increased the danger to the crew, and more importantly it added weight and slowed the tank down, which defeated the Sherman's best two assets-speed and maneuverability. He was the one that authorized the placing of extra armor from destroyed Shermans and German tanks to the front of the Sherman hull.

There exists a notorious set by Verlinden with fantasy side hull plates. The nose ones do depict some up-armored ETO Shermans. The side ones are completely unsubstantiated (although they roughly approximate some used on some PTO Shermans)

The mid-production M4A2s of the 3rd Battalion on Iwo Jima sported home-made applique armour plates roughly similar to the factory-made kits supplied for reworking M4s in NWE.

David

The Verlinden set that Roy mentions is the one that I've seen. If the side plates are not authentic, that pretty much eliminates that set as an option for me. Well, I could always build a 'fantasy Sherman' with it, I suppose.

Applique armor was routinely added to various "dry" models of the Sherman to give added protection to the ammunition lockers. There was also an armor plate added to the right cheek of some turrets to cover a weak spot there, as well as plates added to the diver and co-driver's hoods. These were officially authorised and produced additions. The armor for the ammo lockers was generally not used on "wet" hulls, which also had a redsigned glacis plate that removed the hoods. Unofficially a lot of armor was added, especially after the success of the M4A3E3 Jumbo tank. Sandbags and concrete, as well as welded on track links were often used as well. The wooden planks seen in the Pacific are not armor per se, they were generally used to make it hard for the Japanese to stick magnetic charges to the hull.

J Dynia wrote "The armor for the ammo lockers was generally not used on "wet" hulls"

Just to clarify for you John: the hull applique slabs weren't used at all on wet ammo storage tanks. The only time you see them on the 47 degree hulls is with late production M4A2 75s which retained the dry stowage bins. The late 47 degree M4A3 75mm (as in the Tamiya kit) had wet stowage -- so one should never use the patches on the side of one of them. Also all 76mm gun tanks had wet stowage ammo bins, which were also moved to the hull floor.

This isn't to say that all sorts of armor in general wasn't used -- just the 3 commonly seen patches on Sherman hulls were reserved for dry stowage 75mm gun tanks.

Thats what I thought, I've just learned never to say never when it comes to Shermans!

hi the americans cut the armourplating off panther tanks to upgrade the armour there is a book called deathtraps the survival of a us tankdivision in ww2 by belton y cooper a very good read lots of written info on uparmouring of the sherman in europe also the pictorial book called panzer wrecks3 has a picture of a panther with there armour cut off by american engineers

Thanks, baker! That's useful information; I'll have to look for that book.

You sometimes see the glacis plate from another Sherman welded on as well.