Hey everyone… I took some photos last year of a Sherman tank in front of a gun store here in PA. And I am trying to pin down the type…
I’m pretty sure it is a M4A3 with extra armor welded on. With the M34 mount I think that is the 75mm gun but not 100% sure.
Thanks
Delbert
Never seen that kind of gun on a Sherman. Looks like they just put a muzzle brake on the end but also looks like the end of the barrel towards the muzzle brake is thicker. Looks to be in great shape though. Not sure what version of M4 it is though.
yea that is what is confusing me is the gun
I’m no Sherman expert but it seems to be a bit of a frankenstein - A3 engine grilles but with later torsion bars (to make it easier to open the grilles). That’s a post-war(?) upgrade that I associate with HVSS Shermans. It’s also got a dry storage turret.
The spare track links on the turret is something I associate with British Shermans (27th Armd Bde primarily) but I’m open to correction on that. Spare roadwheels on the rear deck? (never seen that before).
The hull & turret are definitely an early M4A3 dry stowage tank, but with upgrades as John mentions - it has the later torsion-bar hinges on the engine decks. My guess is it went through one of the late-war rebuild programmes before ending up with a NG unit. The early A3s were rebuilt after years of training service in the US with the idea they’d be a stop-gap to fill losses in Europe and a few managed to get shipped overseas before the war ended - this might be one of the tanks left behind in the States. The spare tracks and wheels may be part of that kit, but might also be some kind of tarting-up for use in a post-war film. That gun is odd - it looks like the barrel of an M41, but without the bore evacuater can. At first I thought they welded on the end of a different gun, but if the barrel was genuine it would have more of a taper-out towards the base instead of looking like a smooth pipe. Not sure if the M41’s 76mm tube could be retro-fitted as a working gun in the Sherman mount or if it’s just decoration. Either way it’s a very late modification!
Someone has welded a fictitious muzzle brake on the gun. A few Sherman’s here in MN have 90mm muzzle brakes welded on the Guns as well.
Its a Ford built M4A3.
http://the.shadock.free.fr/sherman_minutia/manufacturer/m4a3ford/m4a3ford_variants.html
Heres a rare small hatch A3 with a 90mm muzzle brake.
Aitkin, MN
I agree. The barrel looks like it had some welding done a couple of inches aft of the dimple on the side… about 12-15" behind the muzzle brake connection.
That gun definitely looks like an M41’s gun. The dimples are for the bore evacuator. So some kind of post war modification. The question is was it a functional mod or just done for display. The other upgrades (spare track blocks, road wheels, torsion bars on the engine hatches) look like the vehicles that were passed around to various allied countries during the 1940s and '50s.
Ken
@Delbert If you are close by you could go in the store and ask them about it. They seem to have a pretty nice collection of weapons there, besides the tank.
Ken
Also, the size of the gun’s travel lock on the upper glacis plate seems to suggest that the original turret was the 105mm howitzer version.
Consult page 5 on this document:
http://the.shadock.free.fr/Surviving_M4A3_Shermans.pdf
“M4A3(75) Sherman – John W. Rich Auto Museum, Reading, PA (USA)
Serial Number 2779, built in October, 1942. Formerly part of the Littlefield Collection. Fitted with an incorrect 76mm gun that comes from an M41 Walker Bulldog tank”
If the barrel travel lock is incorrect, that wasn’t what was installed at the factory .
I was right! Do I get a prize? 
