M4 Sherman “Ginsling”

Type: Medium Tank
Nation: USA
Period: World War 2
Location: Wibrin, Belgium

The sleeping giant

At the beginning of World War 2 the US Armys’ tank force was virtually nonexistent. Even Poland possessed more tanks when they were attacked by Nazi Germany in September 1939. The Great Depression and long years of isolationism had drastically reduced military budgets, but the success of the German tanks in the 1940 invasion of France made the Americans recognise the need to build up a modern armoured force as soon as possible. They soon pressed the M3 Grant/Lee into production as a stopgap solution, because they simply needed more time to develop a satisfactory medium tank with a turret-mounted 75 mm dual-purpose gun – which eventually became the M4 Sherman. First introduced in 1942, this solid, versatile and very thoroughly tested design quickly became the ubiquitous standard tank of the Western Allies for the rest of the war. When production was halted in 1945, almost 50,000 units of the Sherman’s numerous variants had been completed.

Light it up

The early Shermans infamously gained a poor reputation of catching fire when hit. Many unpleasant nicknames such as “Tommy cooker” and “Ronson” (after a brand of cigarette lighters) have piled up over the years. The reason for the (very real) fire hazard was not the petrol engine but the propellant in the ammunition. It had a tendency to ignite within a matter of seconds after the tank’s armour was penetrated. Starting in summer 1943, the Sherman was therefore provided with additional appliqué armour patches welded over the ammunition stowage racks in the sponsons: two on the right and one on the left side. These and other upgrades certainly improved the M4’s survivability, but it was still common practice for crews to abandon their tanks as soon as they were hit – resulting in a surprisingly low death rate among American World War 2 tankers, especially when compared to the infantry. In reality, the Sherman’s burn rate was not considerably worse than that of the Panzer IV, the Cromwell or other tanks of the time.

Countering the counterattack

This particular vehicle was named „Ginsling“ after a cocktail. In a TV interview with the German veteran Hans Herbst he claimed that he and his crew had been with a troop of Panthers which knocked out this very M4 on 14 January 1945 during the Allied counteroffensive in the final phase of the Battle of the Bulge. Allegedly one of their shots had bounced off the Sherman‘s glacis plate and destroyed its gun barrel before multiple hits eventually set the vehicle on fire. However the M4 was actually knocked out in the vicinity of Wibrin which detracts from Mr. Herbst’s memory’s reliability. There are indications that the gun’s recoil cylinders had been drained from the damage and that a 75mm round which was still in the barrel was safely detonated by the Belgian explosive ordnance disposal service after the end of the fighting.

Identity crisis

Wibrin‘s major Monsieur Delacolette arranged for the tank to remain in the town to serve as a war monument. In 1950 local scrap merchants were tasked with removing wrecks in the area and started to cut up the tank – as they did not know that it was to be spared. When the major heard about this and came to stop them, it was almost too late: The rear end was already gone. After that incident the tank was moved to its current resting place next to the local church. The text written on the inside wrongly identifies the vehicle as an M4A3 built on 16 January 1942, but it is in fact an M4. The vehicle‘s features indicate that it was produced in the second half of 1943 by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) – a manufacturer that never built the M4A3. And what remains of Ginsling’s engine bay certainly looks more like the mounting arrangement for the M4’s radial engine, not the M4A3‘s Ford V8.