The Sherman 75mm

[Bob Cohoon]

I think changing the length on the 75mm barrel would have increased muzzle velocity, but this probably increases chamber pressure too, so tests and calculations would have had to be made to see if the breech block, chamber, recoil mechanism, mounting, etc. could stand this. I guess the priority at the time was developing the new 76mm design which was suppose to be the answer to equalizing things. The 76mm with HVAP(hyper velocity armor piercing) ammo,scarce at the time, cold perform about the same as the Panther 75mm.The M18 tank destroyers had this and the Sherman 76mm crews would try and trade for a round or two of this for emergencies, I read that in the book "M4 Sherman".