Tank Chats #59 Sherman Grizzly | The Tank Museum 

"Most armored vehicles don't like being outside..." well, I know that feeling.

The Tank Museum is lucky to have two very distinguished presentators in David Willey and David Fletcher: It's a joy to listen to either of them.

Yeeeesss to Vienna! I live like 15 minutes away from the HGM and can't wait to say hello to the Grizzly there! Thank you for cooperating with them.

As a kid, in Portugal, I remember going past one of the junkyards where these tanks were stored by the dozen. Even without guns, they were an impressive sight!

Hey im from right by granite city. Its nice to know they made something besides meth.

"Borrow a tank." Can anyone do that? Asking for a friend.

yasss finally us Canadians get our grizzly mini showcase xD

Makes sense that a tank named Grizzly was left out in the cold and rain.

Chap from vienna here - thank you so much for the sherman lads

That Grizzly does have the CDP track system on it, if you look at the track links they almost look like a Panzer III/IV track. Don't forget that a lot of the Ram chassis without turrets were sent to Europe to become Kangaroo APC's.

I live right by granite city steel. I had no idea we did anything related to tanks down here during ww2. Thats awesome to learn.

The only difference in the Sherman Grizzly, is that the Canadians added a megaphone. It blares an apologue every time the main gun is fired, as is tradition.

A wise gentleman with a beautiful voice, what else can u ask?

Interesting vehicle - I never realized Canada made so few of these Grizzlys.

hahaha....we dont have any Sherman tanks can you loan our museum one? Of course! Give em the Canadian version we left out in the rain for the past 5 years....

The M4 is becoming my favorite tank

Another epic video from the Tank museum

Love these videos, thank you.

Brilliant a most proper presentation about the Grizzle. Thank you.

Great video thankyou to you and your team

I stood next to this wonderful example on my way out once. I was told by a passing member of staff that it was a Grizzly. The Ram is very good as well. But Shermans rule.

Well done for getting the point across that a major role for Museums is to loan their collections out.

i cant wait to have this tank finally in our museum of my hometown. thank u sooo much for giving me that opportunity to see a sherman finally. greetings from vienna :)

It was sensible of the Canadian’s to build the Ram etc on the M3 and M4 platform, for part standardisation.

Thank you for the loan and best regards from Vienna.

Another great video from The Tank Museum. My favourite channel on RU-vid.

Thank you .

Great episode!

One would think there would be a lot of various Sherman's laying around. Given the huge production runs and that they were in service for years after the war.

Brilliant thank you!

Good to see you wearing the poppy, I don't see that very often anymore.

Very informative.

Very good vidéo. Thx.

The Sherman was so versatile and numerous it spawned more mutations than an irradiated cockroach.

Cool piece of a history

During the early 20th century the newly formed American Locomotive Company (Alco) acquired MLW's predecessor as a means of opening new possibilities in the Canadian market.

They have a Sherman Grizzly at the Muckleborough Collection if anyone wants to see one.

Thanks.

(Thank you for pronouncing Illinois properly. So many, including Americans don't )

Too sad that this tank had been forgotten.

I’ve seen a few sources say the 188 grizzly tanks got little or no combat use. They got some. There is a video showing the 1945 liberation of Appledoorn with one pictured near the end. Another of one somewhere else in Netherlands in 1945 that i believe is Grizzly with the barrel of the 76mm cut off by a near miss about a meter out of the turret.

Now we need one on the Sexton!

I think the tank being unloaded at 3:46 is at The Ontario Regiment Tank museum in Oshawa Ontario. If you are in the area it is well worth a visit. Last weekend for Remembrance Day they had 5 Leopard tanks, an M60, 2 Shermans, an M3 Stuart, an M24 Chaffee, a Scorpion a Scimitar, the whole AVGP family, several M113, Ferret scout cars and a whole bunch of trucks, all running. It was awesome to see. They have many more vehicles on static display. The Chieftain has even done videos from there.

Despite its deficiencies, the M4 Sherman was the most important Allied tank of WWII. Every Allied army, including the Soviets, used it. 53,000 Shermans were built.

The casting is actually by US Steel, from their plant in Granite City, Illinois, which is just across the river from St. Louis, Missouri.

I like the Grizzly, very nice.

It would be interesting to see a video of the preparation, transport, and set up of this tank for its loan to the museum in Vienna.

Another great video, also congratulations on the Netflix show I was excited to see a familiar face in a Netflix documentary

I love a good Sherman. They really are iconic aren't they.

In case you didn't know, Granite City, IL is across the Mississippi River from the St. Louis, MO area. It is a suburb of St. Louis with a lot of heavy industry, especially in the 1940s. It's kind of interesting that something as warlike as a tank hull would be sold to Canada, then participating in WWII, despite the US laws (Neutrality Acts) prohibiting US companies from supplying belligerent with weapons.

You adjusted the volume of the intro. Very nice :)

Raining in Britain? No way...

The only Sherman I saw was in Bad Hersfeld, West Germany when I was stationed there in 1970-71. It was by the flag pole in front of the headquarters building. The night before I left for home I hung my boots over the gun tube.

Thanks for giving this tank to the HGM! No Austrians also can have a look on this iconic vehicle.

Granite City Illinois represent!!

Canada is a great sidekick

Nice. As good a reason as any other to go to the HGM.

That was a Grizzly tale.

If you happen to visit the Military History Museum in Vienna in the next weeks, there's a nice Christmas market nearby in front of Belvedere Palace and several more around other parts of town. And the Museum itself has it's own Christmas Market between 29.11 and 01.12 (free entry)

The M4A1 sherman my brother and I own has the G casting mark on the transmission cover our hull was cast south of Joliet Illinois by the Pressed Steal Car Co. It is as much of an all Illinois sherman that you can get. No turrets were cast in Illinois. We live about 20 miles from Granite City.

I actually live about 10 minutes from granite city. My dad works down the road from where these hulls were cast.

Thanks for posting! The M4A1 (c) Grizzly is an unsung icon of the era! The Myriad Ways The M4 story was punctuated with doctrinal and mission specificity changes. Maintaining several types of different chasses--say, jeeps, deuce and a halfs, motorcycles, 7 ton trucks, in a single unit's Equipment is a logistical nightmare, both at the depot and at the railhead. Naturally, it would be nice if somewhere, someone, could make a common chassis and just mount whatever was needed on it . . . sort of like the Italian As42. Attempts to create a "Combat Vehicle Family" based on a single chassis for commonality of components, supply, and repair, were made on all sides, with the Sherman, Panzer IV, and Type 97 coming closest to realization. 75mm and 105mm versions of the M4/M4A1/M4A3, were augmented by the 76mm armed variants, the standard self propelled artillery vehicle was the M7/M7B1, of which the latter was a Sherman variant. Crab Flails, Demolitions versions (AVRE), Beach Rescue, and Gun Tractor, variants all enjoyed at least limited production. Kangaroo versions were IFVs, more or less. In fact, the only variant lacking in this litany of useful machines was an AA version. Considerable research and testing were done to find an effective means of placing AA fire where needed, much of it resulting in hardware manifestation atop the Sherman chassis. Self Propelled 90mm prototypes were overbalanced, too tall for tunnels, and ill protected (meaning they would not make good tank destroyers). The T52-A Sherman, with disc turret mounting a Bofors 40mm Gun and a pair of .50cals, looks cool as heck, but only made crews dizzy. Still, it was moving in the right direction, engineering-wise. The idea found its most elegant expression in the Canadian Skink, not a Sherman variant, but based on the Ram, which was, in itself, a rationalized, improved, M3 Grant. One thing is common in recollections of the war: don't stand in front of a 2cmFlak(v)38! Well, the Skink was armed with a close cousin: 4 Polsten guns; in an armored turret . . . a reasonable index of AA and close support characteristics. Naturally, an all armored turret is not optimal for AA duty, but it sure was good at shooting up stuff on the ground. If they'd put a few Skink kit turrets on Shermans, it would've made the Combat Vehicle Family a reality. Balance of Factors-A racehorse designed by committee We think of armored combat as quick, but that's only compared to marching infantry. In reality, most tanks of the war were designed specifically to be able to keep up with a typical truck convoy. That limited overall size, weight, and weapon size, while forcing bigger engines on any mobile tank. Compare Char B1 or Churchill Mk VII to Sherman. The first two are seriously overarmored and, consequently, underpowered, while the other is quite lightly armored and well able to keep up with Jeeps on a soft road bed. In other words, the Churchill and Char to end all Chars were hard pressed to keep up with trucks on a concrete or block road, while the Sherman could make a high speed run to pass them on the straights. This is one factor in Strategic Mobility. Referring to my earlier point, the other main factor in Strategic Mobility is commonality of parts and ease of maintenance. What ifs considered. A 17 tank Company could field three platoons-each with three gun tanks, a Skink, and a 105), could be considered either a weaker, but more versatile, US Army Tank Platoon, or a stiffened, beefed up, UK style Troop. Command Section might be a Command Tank with extra radios and an FOP tank for Artillery/Air Liaison. You could slow the unit to a crawl by fitting an M1 Dozer blade to the 105 tank, and a Crab Flail on the Skink.

Good grief. That Austrian museum's name is a bit of a mouthful. Again, a good interesting video. Thanks Tank Museum.

It might not be one of the variants that won the war, but it has a cool name.

And I"m from Granite City, IL that made the hull! You're welcome. Lol.

I recently found out my uncle taught tank crews in ww2 at Kingston Ontario. I wonder if he used the griz. He died before I was born and I live at the other end of the country so my guess is I'll never know the details. His brother was an air gunner with the RCAF who lived thru some serious combat. They had an American cousin who died on D-Day. Sadly I'll never hear war stories from any of them. Be sure to ask your elderly relatives about their lives if you get the chance!

Interesting.

I like that

I would love to see the inside of a ram someday and see how it compares to the inside of the Sherman and the Sentinel.

Never heard of this type of tank

we have a RAM, I think a MK 3 in vancouver. I'd love to see it run someday, but its been a gate guard for so long, all the engine components are probably siezed. That is, if it even has an engine in it at all still.

Thanks as usual, can you do a show on Diesel powered Sherman’s?

FYI: The "G" stands for "General Steel Castings," not "Granite City, IL." Just to clear that up.

Are there any other surviving members of the Grizzlies tanks that are going to be restored to working order or as museum pieces as Grizzlies? I found this video to be very interesting as I had never heard of the Grizzly until I watched this video! Big thumbs up from me as I found your presenter to be absolutely personable and knowledgeable about the Grizzly! Great video!

I saw a bunch of Portugese army Shermans dumped outside one of their army camps in 1991

The New Zealand Army Museum has a Grizzly in it's collection. I think it came from your museum in exchange for on of our M41 'Walker Bulldog' tanks???

Canuck tank mentioned, swell with maple syrup and beer

When you're unsure if your team-mate can even make it onto the field

The Ram would have been deadly in combat for its time.

For a moment I felt like the background with the tank is not real. So authentic and static that feels like a colorized photo.

Somehow, I really can see a group of austrian craftsmen with special-purpose toothbrushes cleaning the Grizzly until it's shiny as mercury...

I was given a Westinghouse fan, black color, and was told it was for a tank, I thought the A12 fan was for Navy.

Can you do the Strv 103? :)

As featured in Red Alert 2!

If memory serves, there is an example of the Grizzly on display at the Worthington Tank Museum at Canadian Forces Base Borden in Ontario.

I live 5 mins away from the Vienna Military museum , I will let you know how it looks :=)

amazing thing is its left outside in the weather but looks like all it needs is a tank of gas and some ammo and off it would go to war.

There is an example of a Ram and a Sherman Tank at an armory in Vancouver BC.

20 mils from granite City Illinois

vienna? fitting, most tanks in there are so covered in moss and dirt you cant recognize what you are looking at.

That Sexton SPG is juicy! hope to see a video of that soon!

well hi frome montreal! i know my citys made some parth ! in Quebec canada

Are they the original boggies on it? thought grizzlys had the smaller track skid like on the sexton 2?

The 17 tooth sprocket was for the shorter pitched CDP track which is fitted to THAT Grizzlie. Unfortunate that the editor didn't catch such a glaring error... 😯

So, was it selected as the gate guard because the tracks didn't have rubber?

looks like panzer 4 tracks!!!!

We need a remade modern technology using, armoured truck BISON!

So... A Grizzly is just an early specification M4 Sherman assembled (not build) in Canada from US produced parts.. Also the Canadian style sprockets and tracks dont tell it all: they are easily exchanged with the American style sprockets and tracks because all the rest of the running gear and gearbox is standard U.S. M4.

This tank was seriously improved by the Israelis, who used it to defeat the most modern Soviet tanks in the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War - it only left the service in the IDF in the early 1980s.

I always wondered why these tanks had tracks that looked like their from panzer 3 or 4