They are similar to Pz IV track in appearance, but I'm pretty sure none of the details match up at all. I haven't checked myself, but I seem to remember someone asking that question some time ago and getting the negative answer.

ANOTHER SHERMAN QUESTION:

What is the story on the composite hull Shermans? Were these cast hull bodies that had flaws and so they salvaged the front plate and used it?

Also which had better survivability, the cast hull or the welded hull? I am guessing the cast hull otherwise they would not have bothered with the composite hulls.

They weren't cast-offs. They were cast specifically to be mated with the welded bodies. If you see, they have an additional ventilator cover that's not part of the M4A1 hulls.

Yes, the cast hull had better ballistic properties

Mike, the cast hull was cheaper to produce as it eliminated a lot of man hours required to weld the steel plate hulls together but the United Stated didn't have enough production capacity to cast all Sherman's,

The composite was a production short cut to eliminate the man hours required to weld all the features of the front plate.

Hope this helps, John

The Original Sherman prototypes & A1's were very large castings, (Baldwin Locomotive works springs to mind here?), but in order to ramp up production, other engineering firms with no experience with large castings were tasked to manufacture as well.
Since they were more familiar with armour plate, they built with plate.

The composite Shermans had a cast front because they were thought to have greater frontal protection, but were discontinued more because of manufacturing difficulties & wish to simplify rather than a perceived difference in levels of protection (SFAIK).

Thanks to all who replied. This settled a question that has been bothering me for a long time.

Yes, from my steam locomotive background, Baldwin, Lima, Alco and the Pensey shops were all set up to do large scale castings (much larger than a Sherman hull) but more as a one off situation than a volume production operation.

Hi Micheal,

why not you try this site as I am right now building up three difference Sherman tanks and this site really help: http://the.shadock.free.fr/sherman_minutia/index.html

Thanks Kenny, I am getting a lot out of the site.

Someone else recommended the same site earlier but when I went there it failed to load!

Thanks to all!

Mike

Not quite.

They were phased out because the use of the Continental radial was being phased out and the composite hull was only in large scale production (yeah, I know about the very few M4A6s ) on the radial-engined M4s.

The very few M4A6s used another engine and that was found to be unnecessary, so very few (like, under a hundred) were made and none were sent overseas, so they are normally discounted.

Paul

Gonna take this chance to brag on Big John Hale's work and show you his latest creation: Cobra King. At the Dayton show it took First Place in Closed Topped Armor. It also took Best Armor and I believe he is working on an arrangement with Archer for the lettering he patterned for this vehicle.
(Big-John please feel free to correct - or add to - my list of your Awards.)

Hey Mike, Thanks!

Great looking picture.

Yes, I did the research for Archer on this one. The Archer set was used on this model.


BJ

Just throwing in some Sherman photos from the hey days of the Patton Museum:




(All photos copyright Michael Koenig)






(All photos copyright Michael Koenig)

The cast hulls had no welds and were thought to have a better ballistic shape (arguable) but inch-for-inch cast armor was weaker than rolled plate. The "Ultimate Sherman" or 1944 series tanks were to have standardized designs and production methods and included larger driver's hatches. The cast hull front (originally designed by Chrysler as a cheaper and stronger alternative to multi-piece fabrications) was seen as an expeditious way to fit the larger hatches and the design was planned for all welded hulls. As it turned out, Fisher Tank Arsenal created a design wherein the glacis was a single plate tilted slightly upward. This was better protected and easier to produce than even the cast glacis. Chrysler had had ordered them into production for their M4 gun tank orders and used them for those vehicles, but not their M4 and M4A3 howitzers or M4A3 gun tanks.

KL