(June 5, 2014 at 5:27 pm)Minimalist Wrote:(June 5, 2014 at 3:45 pm)Cato Wrote: Rhinos! I believe that a lot the metal came from the Czech hedgehogs the Germans deployed on the beaches.
Yes, but not invented until July and by the time of Operation Cobra the Germans on the American fronts had been whittled down by constant combat and troop detachments to the Caen area.
There were many innovations tried for the Sherman - particularly on D-day itself when different types of mine clearing tanks were developed. They all worked to one degree or another but also all suffered from the same drawback: They were mounted on the Sherman which was no match for the German 75 and 88 mm A/T guns.
Shermans were pretty much garbage compared to what Germany was fielding across the board (save the obsolete crap that was pretty much all destroyed by 1944).
Had we not been able to produce them in massive quantities, we'd have been screwed.
