CrazyD: I had choose the Sherman as the number 1 tank of WWII. Not becouse it was actually the best. But appeared to me the most versitile in terms of how many different types were modeled for different roles and the simplicity of it's design, that allowed it to be produced cheaply and in massive numbers. In addition almost any version had parts that were easy to interchange with another Sherman. Very easy and quickly repaired. The Jumbo was mentioned by me to show just how versitile the Sherman design was along with what it's chassis was capable of. The Sherman does have a poor reputation as a tank that just couldn't hold up to enemy fire. It's chassis design did allow for it to be made a whole lot tougher. The prime example of that was the M4A3E2 Jumbo.

The Panther and Tiger I were tank for tank better in terms of battlefield performance, If tanks were going head to head. I don't believe any US or U.K. tanker would prefer to be in something they had as apposed to being in a Panther or Tiger if they were going to be in a strait shooting match. Let's forget about reliability and running out of gas and stuff like that. The Americans took on a different approach to tank fighting. Sometimes it appeared to work and sometimes it didn't. If one were to look at tanks like the M18 Hellcat and M36 TD's. These two models had very favorable kill ratios against heavier German tank models becouse how they were employed against them. It wasn't that they were so much better or anything like that. Shermans just didn't provide enough protection for themselves for the roles they were thrown into. It was becouse of the well known deadlyness of the German 88mm gun that the Jumbo's were designed to counter them. The planners in the U.S. war department felt 250 or so of them would be enough to counter those heavy German AT gun defenses. allthough the Jumbo's were considered highly successful in their assault role. They were considered in very high demand and units complained about not having enough of them. The war planners were dead wrong. And tank crews motoring around in regular Shermans were getting plastered over and over again.