Thanks to such officers as George Smith Patton, Jr., who became the U.S. Army's premier tank officer and armor advocate in World War I, the United States came into World War II with a fairly well-developed doctrine for the use of tanks. While it did not have the most advanced tank designs--and, indeed, retained the obsolescent M3 Stuart light tank long after it had been clearly outclassed--the nation had the industrial capacity to produce and field many thousands of the tanks it did have. The most famous American tank of the war, the M4 Sherman was produced in greater quantity than any other tank of any other nation. Like the Soviet T-34 (see Armor, Soviet), the Sherman, inferior to the best German tanks on a tank-for-tank basis, enjoyed three paramount combat qualities: it was highly mobile, highly reliable, and highly available.

Availability was, in fact, the decisive strength of the Sherman. Far simpler and therefore more reliable than German tanks, it was much more dependably available for service. Even more important were the numbers produced. A total of 49,324 Sherman tanks rolled out of 11 plants between 1942 and 1946. The vehicle was employed not only by the U.S. Army and Marine Corps but also by British, Canadian, and Free French forces, and it was used in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and western Europe as well as the Pacific theater. Whereas the Germans produced some 1,835 Tiger and King Tiger tanks and 4,800 Panthers (most deployed against the Soviet T-34s on the eastern front), the Allies deployed more than 40,000 Shermans, which often were used in coordination with close air support targeting the German tanks. In general, thanks to the Sherman, the Allies enjoyed something approaching a 14 to 1 ratio against the Panthers and a staggering 50 to 1 ration against the most advanced Tigers and King Tigers.

Overwhelming superiority of numbers counterbalanced the one-on-one inferiority of the Sherman. In both armor and firepower, it was vastly outclassed by German tanks. Its 75-mm or 76-mm gun could not penetrate the front armor of the Tigers, even close in, while its thin armor rendered it vulnerable to the Tiger, even at considerable range. The Sherman's profile was also a weakness. Taller than the Tigers, it was difficult to conceal. The Sherman's gasoline-powered engine was another liability. Gasoline is far more explosively combustible than diesel fuel, and a direct hit on the Sherman would often send it up in a fireball. The five-man tank crews nicknamed it "the Ronson," after a popular cigarette lighter that advertised its "lights-upfirst-time-every-time" reliability. Quickly, Allied tank crews learned to use their single great advantage: numbers. They attacked German tanks only when they outnumbered them, so that they could outmaneuver their target and hit it from the side or from behind, the only angles from which the Sherman had a chance against its superior foe. . .

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