Hi Group,

Are any of you familiar with The Sherman Tank Site ?

It has interesting technical information but some of the operational and combat performance seems skewed.

never heard of this site,but it does have plenty of great and useful info that will sure come in helpful.

I've been there quite a bit as there are many photos to study. I have even been able to contribute some information to the captions on a couple of items.

It's clearly a labor of love but the owner needs assistance b/c way too many things (wrong captions, poor analysis or conclusions on some technical things)get posted that need correction. The photos are cobbled from many other sources. While many, I don't think I've come across one I've not seen previously published before.

Glad you're lending a hand, Russ.

Hey Roy, sorry to shanghai you but I have a chance to get the tank workshop m4a1, Should I?
Gord

I saw some statements posted there about Tigers, which are my area, and those statements seemed very weird to me. So I asked a few questions.

Not one question has been answered. Instead l was told to "check my references" (a list of 100 books!) or he would answer a question that WASN'T the question I asked, or he would accuse me of being in love with the concept of German wonder weapons!

I repeat: not once could he back up his claims when challenged.

David

A lot of the WWII-era German "Wunderwaffen" weren't really very wonderful, if you can get past all the hype about them. For example, the vaunted Panthers and Tigers I & II were prone to Transmission failures, leaking Fuel Lines & Engine oil leaks, and Engine bay fires, due to the Engines being under-powered, with the resultant excessive heat, which in turn, would ignite the accumulated fuel and oil which had collected in the bottoms of their respective Engine Bays. Great stuff! Conversely, US-built Shermans, Stuarts, Chaffees, Hellcats and in very limited use, Pershings, were vastly more dependable, and much simpler to maintain...

And as far as US-built Soft-skins were concerned, there simply is NO question as to their all-around superiority. Enough said...

Dennis: I think David is not looking to debate the pros/cons of German WW2 AFV technology. Please don't threadjack this into another interminable US vs German technology thread. That site owner accused David of being in love with German wonder weapons -- which you seem ready to repeat. David has not said that nor represents himself as such. I completely respect the work that David Byrden has done to advance the knowledge of the Tiger I tank.


The original post asked about a Sherman info site (which I posted that I found to be rather dodgy). David B. reported that he saw some incorrect info on the site as well, challenged the site owner, and was met by poor or no answers. I think that's a very important point to share with the OP who asked about the quality of the site in question.

As I said above, the site is clearly a labor of love and contains interesting photos (which he cobbles together from other published sources -- I've not seen a single "newly discovered" M4 picture for me (granted, I pore over tons of Sherman publications and photo collections)) and tech manual pages. However, as a serious research site based upon the text and captions, it falls very very short.

Basically: It's nice to look at. Just don't take much you read at face value.

Heya guys, the site belongs, to me. I am open to any corrections as well, if they are sourced or have better sources, on the technical articles. I will go to great pains to correct any I got wrong on the technical posts.

I am not going to go out of my way to point out what posts are opinion based, it should be obvious to most readers, I am always willing to discuss my opinions. I think I have the biggest download section of manuals and period documents on the Sherman, for free, on the internet right now. I wish I could have gotten some of the stuff that was on Lone sentry before it went down. I think I have the largest collection of high res Sherman photos anywhere on the net, and more info on the Sherman tank as well. Considering this is something I do for fun, I think I’m doing pretty well.

If I recall David’s objection was really that I said the Tiger I was basically a big useless waste of resources that never had much impact. He kept bringing up a specific battle in North Africa as if it proved some point, Sidi Bou Zid. Of course, I did find something that really did prove my point about that particular battle, I just haven't gotten around to updating the site much due to some personal problems. The site points out only a few Shermans were killed with 88mm guns, meaning the tiger had 0 impact on the battle.
http://www.dupuyinstitute.org/blog/2016/08/23/counting-holes-in-tanks-in-tunisia/
Great site BTW.

Now I will admit, I do, on occasion, get a tad snarky about German Armor, but the amount of BS spread about how superior it was on the internet is really a far bigger problem if you want to know the truth about WWII Armor.

So again, if you think I'm wrong on an opinion section, I'd love to discuss it, my contact info is all over the site. The comments are open, and on the factual stuff, by all means, if I got something wrong let me know and I’ll fix it ASAP.

It is all a hobby, and I have a day job and wife, so sometimes that gets in the way of the Sherman obsession, but I do try very hard to keep it accurate, sometimes updating things takes time in particular when life gets in the way and your 17 year old lab has to be put down, and then your wife has a major medical problem, and work decides to have a crisis all in the same two month period. Things are much better now though.


P.S. for the guys already helping, thanks, I really appreciate it, many of the high res versions of the photos came from a Russian site, and the caption info was pretty bad. In most cases I try and only remark on the model of the Sherman and maybe a guess on location based on whats in the photo. I also have tons of Sherman books, and have seen many of the photos in those books, but finding a photo, then finding the same photo on the site can be a bit of a challenge.

Not true.
I asked questions. A question is not an "objection".





Not true.
I asked about 5 specific factual statements of yours. I didn't ask about your opinions. I certainly didn't ask about THAT opinion.

And my questions were not "really" something else; they were exactly what I wrote and no more.





Not true.
I raised it exactly once.





Yes, you have now answered that question. But you are ignoring the other 4 questions.


David

Once again, I was only making a few comments on the German "Wunderwaffen", vis-a-vis their US-built counterparts, and NOTHING about David's vast knowledge of WWII German weapons. My statements were about "Wunderwaffen" not being so wonderful, and I wasn't disparaging ANYONE's interest or affection for them. I only offered up WWII US-built Equipment's superior reliability as a counterpoint to said "Wunderwaffen", in and of themselves, and I don't feel that I was "threadjacking" ANYTHING...

Jon T should be commended for creating his site, AND welcoming open discussions on it.

I've had personal problems in my lifetime, and I can honestly say that THEY took precedence over ANYTHING ELSE that was going on in my life at the time...

KUDOS to Fred, for originally making some of us aware that Jon T had opened his Sherman site!!!

Jon T-- beautiful job and a very useful website, continue to do well!
DJ