Quote:
Originally Posted by David Dunlop
There seems to be at least three different types of power plants used in various Shermans. One reads of the massive supply of these tanks leading up to D-Day and of how crews from knocked out Shermans could get another vehicle out of reserve stock so quickly and be back in action. It sounds so easy on paper, but what if you have been operating a tank for months with something other than a radial engine and the next tank you receive is radial equipped? Your learning curve for safe operation of the radial is going to be very short. Makes me wonder to what extent engine failures from inexperience took Shermans out of action. David
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Actually there were 5 types of engines used with the M4 Sherman: the Continental R975, GM 6046 Diesel; the Ford GAA V8 , the Chrysler A57 multibank and the Caterpillar D200A diesel. Diesel engined tanks were in relatively short supply, because the US Navy had first call on diesel engine production.
The way Shermans were allocated tended to avoid problems of units coping with different engine types. So diesel-engined Sherman IIIs (M4A2) generally went to the USSR. which preferred diesels, the Americans kept the Ford V8s Sherman IVs (M4A3) for themselves, the UK largely standardised on radial engined Sherman Is and IIs (M4 and M4A2) passed its Sherman Vs with multibank engines (M4A4) to Canada. The Chrysler engine was not the Canadian Army Overseas preferred choice as it was complex to service but it did deliver more power and torque than the Continental R975 on the Ram, Grizzly and Sexton. The R975 C-4 was certainly used down to July 1945 when the last Sextons were delivered.
As an aside the Germans are often criticised for their lack of standardisation of their armour, but when it came to engines, their principle battle-tanks and their assault-gun Jagdpanzer variants, essentially used only two engine types: the Maybach HL120 TRM on the Pz.III and Pz.IV and the Maybach HL230 on the Tiger and Panther. In addition to the Sherman's array of engines the British also had the Nuffield Liberty engine on their Crusader and Centaur tanks and the Meteor on the Cromwell and Comet.