Swedish Sherman tanks

[Hanno Spoelstra]

In 1946-1947, Sweden bought four Sherman tanks from the British Army, and tested them to gain experience with foreign tank designs. A report on one of the winter trails in 1948 is published on the webpage linked below. Not surprisingly, the reliability of the vehicles stood out and inspired confidence with the crews.
Sweden did try to buy another 50 surplus Shermans (at less than GBP 1,000 each), but this deal fell through because of difficulties with finding enough spare parts.

Part 1: http://tanks.mod16.org/2016/09/30/sw...f-the-sherman/
Part 2: http://tanks.mod16.org/2016/10/01/sw...herman-part-2/

Stefan Karlsson, curator at the Swedish Tank Museum (https://www.facebook.com/arsenalen.s...fordonsmuseum/), commented:
"In total Sweden had 4 Sherman tanks all bought from UK as far as we know:
- 1 M4 105 mm, still in the collection but missing engine;
- 1 M4A2 (diesel engines), still in the collection and quite complete apart of missing gun;
- 2 M4A4 Firefly, one scrapped early 1950's and one still in the collection - on display in the museum.
We are trying to track more info about these tanks where they came from, what units they might have belonged to etc. As far as I know the M4 was never modified to UK standard, no British fittings etc. to be found. The M4A2 and Firefly has all the correct British fittings etc."


Sherman VC Firefly, one of two which were tested. Note the remains of shipping stenciling on the hull side denoting it was shipped to Stockholm.
One Firefly was preserved in the Swedish Tank Museum, it is unsure if it is the same example depicted in this photo.
firefly-01.jpg


M4(105) or Sherman IB with WD census number T-270894. It was marked "IV" denoting this was test tank number 4. It survived to this day and is on display at the Swedish Tank Museum:

iv-01.jpg idk-man.jpg firefly-02.jpg iv-02.jpg