Proportion of 76mm M4's in US service

I have a set of statisitics listing the proportion of M4(76) tanks in US armored divisions from August 1944 and it would appear when I sdd them all up that there were only a handful in August (6-7%) and around 20% for the rest of 1944 with the magical 30 odd % (allowing the theoretical 1/3 per company) not reached until January and February 1945.

(9th AD is specifically excluded from this calculation as it distortes the figures) but all the other divisions in France/Germany are included.

It would also appear that newly arrived divisions frequently had the greater share of the M4(76) tanks.

Anyone have a contradictory set of figures to this?

 

No I think I can post it; will dig it out when I can get to my home PC.

 

Does [76] mean mm if it does I have read about 76 mm guns being used

 

Well, since the post is deleted, I guess I'd do it again.

At December 1944 the long-barreled 76s already made 30% of 12th Army Group's total number of M4 tanks so that number was achieved before 1945. During the Ardennes counteroffensive the percentage of Sherman tanks actually fell to 27%, , in my opinion a reflection of the disproportionate burden of tank-to-tank fighting the M4(76) had.

By the conclusion of the Normandy fighting I think it dawned on the army how important anti-tank performance is for the medium tank class and the production of 76mm gun armed variants was vastly increased. Some old units that refitted during the Roer and Hurtgenwald battles were replenished with many 76mm gun armed Sherman tanks, such as the 4th AD.

After the Battle of the Bulge Bradley ordered the 12th Army Group to take nothing but 76mm or 105mm gun armed Sherman tanks.

 

bradley would have to had taken whatever m4s were available,would he not?.cheers.

 

No, Bradley decision effectively discontinued M4(75) production because 12th Army Group replacement centers no longer accepted it as replacement for lost tanks. This means factories would have to work overtime to make good the Army's losses with M4(76) tanks. Dever's 6th Army Group had already have half of its Sherman tanks armed with the 76mm main gun in December '44 because the 6th could be supplied through the port of Marseille, getting a larger number of replacement tanks.

Also note that by May 1945 more than 50% of all M4 tanks were armed with the 76mm because regardless of previous doctrine M4A3(76/105) had officially replaced all other M4 models in the US Army.

 

Even worse was the supply of newly developed HVAP ammunition was completely inadequate for the job at hand as the US Armaments industry was beginning to cut back on their manufacturing orders of critical arms and ammunition with the coming defeat of the Axis Powers in Europe.

 

Hello, new hear, thanks for letting me share in your forum, don't want to highjack your thread but does anyone know why the 105mm Sherman couldn't be introduced earlier in the war and in greater numbers?
I imagine it had to do with availability of ammunition or cannons themselves but can't help to wonder of the effect it would have had on the effectiviness of our Armored units throughout the war. Thanks for your time and comments, great site you all have here.

 

There was a critical shortage of US Shermans in late 1944. I would think that a commander would have been happy to get a Sherman of any type. The British had to transfer 351 75mm Shermans to US forces 26th December '44-1st January '45.
US Artillery ammo was also found to be in short supply. 106 25 pdrs and 30 6 pdrs were lent to the US because there was more than enough ammo in theatre for those guns

 

In addition to German Guns too.

http://www.ww2f.com/battle-europe/22259-us-army-units-use-captured-german-artilley-europe.html