About the M4A3

[Anlushac11]

About the cast hull Shermans...

The cast hull Shermans came about because the Army approached some of the locomotive manufacturers such as Alco who had the experience and equipment to cast large heavy one piece steel objects.

The only Country that had the skill to cast steel with the same quality as rolled homogenous armor plate was the British. The cast hull Shermans had roughly same thickness armor but not as high a quality of armor.

[Neighbor Kid]

Anlushac where have you been I havent seen you in forever!

[THeTA0123]

About the cast hull Shermans...

The cast hull Shermans came about because the Army approached some of the locomotive manufacturers such as Alco who had the experience and equipment to cast large heavy one piece steel objects.

The only Country that had the skill to cast steel with the same quality as rolled homogenous armor plate was the British. The cast hull Shermans had roughly same thickness armor but not as high a quality of armor.

The early M4 types had this, but this was something fixed gradually

[th_battleaxe]

Sure I wouldnt mind an Easy Eight, 105mm Sherman and so on, but I hope to see as many variants of the T-34 as we have variants of the Sherman. 

Seconded!

Want!! +1 for MOAR T-34

[Mud Buddha]

The only Country that had the skill to cast steel with the same quality as rolled homogenous armor plate was the British.

Weird then that all their WWII tanks look bolted together.

[Butcher]

i always wondered why the brits didnt use sloped armour. and especially on the cromwell you see vertical bolted steel plates. however, the cromwell was a design made in 1942/43 and by then even the germans started to copy the concept of sloped armour form the russians (in their new designs).
if you look at the turret of a crusader Mark III you see that it is sloped - so that aspect of tank design must have been pretty well known for the brits.
yet churchill and cromwell remained unsloped. - the churchill however was designed in 1940 (where german tanks also used unsloped armour), but what about the cromwell?

on topic: i am all for that "easy eight" sherman but i think a sherman 105 should have priority because it would affect gameplay more imo.

[Lightning]

The Cromwell design is actually largely from 1941.

[THeTA0123]

The Cromwell design is actually largely from 1941.

^this

The Cromwell came from the Centaur wich in turn came from the cavalier. All of these tanks used an armor layout like the KV, PZIV and such.

Actually, the lower hull plate should be able to withstand a shot from PZIV and stug gun. as this is 70mm sloped armour. But the above hull and turret is a diffrent story

[Josh094]

Yeah, the Cromwell was designed during the early Africa campaign but didn't enter service until 1944.

[THeTA0123]

Ye the problem was the engine always. Wich was fixed with the cromwell. The cromwell was very fast and had great terrain crossing capability though.However the switching to the 75mm gun proved to be later a mistake.

Just like with the churchill in italy, 50% 6PDR and 50% 75mm was a great combination.

[Flippy Warbear]

This aint no Cromwell thread. Buzz off.