Well my thoughts are that their is no doubt that the German tanks were better. If I had been in the war, I would not have liked to have served in the Sherman tank!......however, I belive that the overall stratigy to win the War was correct. The Chife of staff, I belive considered many factors when it came to picking a tank design to mass produse in order to win the War:...(1)Quanity, not Quality would win out in the end. In other words wear them down. This proved to be true...(2)More Shermans could fit into a "LCT" than say, tanks the size of a German Tiger...this also proved to be the right desision. Consider Normandy, the Allis had to get an enormus amount of stuff ashore, and do it fast, or the invasion would fail, and the War would be lost. To quote Nathan bedford Forrest"git their the firstest, with the Mostest"...Well, this also applies to getting as many tanks into Europe as fast as possible...(3)It stood to reason that as the Germans retreated they would destroy all bridges behind them. Therefor Allied tanks would have to be light enough to cross our pontoon bridges built by the Engineers.
I think the Army considered all these facters early in the War and came up with the right solution. The Sherman was fast, relieable, and easy to operate, and being 75mm, this ment that it fired the same round as the common "pack Howitzer. That could be a big addvantage at times.The War department had considered all the angles from the beginning, on how to go about winning, and what percentage of losses would be acceptable, weather talking about b-17's, Infantry, or tanks. They knew they would lose many more Shermans than the Germans would lose tigers...BUT, in the end, they would prevail because they would produce more medium tanks, instead of fewer heavy tanks.One on one, no doudt the German tank was better, but I think the right U.S. tank was picked to do what the Allies needed to do, which was win the War.....I realize, if I were the one in a Sherman going up against a German tank I may feel that the War department had not made the right choise, but the people who plan the war must look at the overall picture, and not consider how to minimize causalities....sad but true...thats one of the things that makes war so terrible.