The American Tank Meme 

Imagine dying in a fricking war, then 70 years later footage of your tank with your burning corpse in it is used in a dubstep remix, lmao

The Sherman tank actually really struggled with killing tigers. That is because their transmission broke before the shermans could find them

I feel like the sherman is a classic example of the survivor bias. We think they were death traps because people actually SURVIVED to tell the stories how their sherman burned up.

Sherman: Mom I want to be a big, strong tank like Ferdinand over there! Ferdinand over there: *Tries to go over a speedbump and explodes*

*"Because when it ran into an ambush it didn't magically deflect the shells and throw them back at the enemies who fired them."* I see you haven't played WarThunder.

"...being the right tank, for the wrong war." *proceeds to upgrade the Sherman and was used extensively until the 1970's*

I love how the Sherman had a 3% crew death rate and is called a death trap, while the t-34 with a 15% crew survival rate is called a robust, reliable war winner.

Sherman: 3% mortality rate. People: Death trap Sherman: What else do you want from me?

“The U.S economy was so big that it could sick their economy on their economy to fix their economy” *Roosevelt intensifies*

“Johnny, we’ve driven all the way from Normandy to Rhineland and the tank didn’t break down!” “Hans, we’ve driven all the way from production line to the front gate of factory und ze transmission did not break down!”

The M4 "Deathtrap" also had the highest crew survival rate of any tank in the war.

*Tiger gets knocked out* German crew: We're infantry now *Sherman gets knocked out* American crew 1 day later: Attempt 2. EDIT: Thanks for the 2K likes. Didn't expect it

The Ignorant Public: Sherman’s were death traps! So many of our men died! American heavy bomber losses: *begins sweating profusely

"Because when it ran into an ambush it didn't magically deflect the shells and throw them back at the enemies who fired them." Wait an secs, that's not how it happened in Fury!

What's better than 1000 broken down tanks of 50 different designs? 20 000 working tanks of one design.

Sherman: "They call me a deathtrap despite having the highest survivability rate?" Churchill: "Second, actually..." T-34: "You comrades have crew survivability?" B-17: "You guys can survive combat missions?" Lancaster: "Oh you sweet little kid" U-Boat: "You guys are so innocent!" Liberty Ship: "Like you folks know what death is" Kamikaze: "Suicide is baddass!" Ferdinand: *(hits speed bump and catches fire)* Panzer IV: "Well, there he goes again" Tiger 2: "Why did we even try making that failed science project work?" Panzer III: "Oh shut up you heap of trash like you were any better!"

REAL BIAS HOURS WHO UP???

A 100 Sherman's destroyed = worst tank in history A 1000 t-34 destroyed = greatest tank ever devised by mankind?

“Those Shermans are so bad, I could kill 10 in a-“ *”Hans ze transmission broke”* “...”

"Why didn't the Americans send in M4s faster?" It's the blue stuff in between America and Europe.

*TO SHOW YOU THE POWER OF THE US ECONOMY, I STARTED A WORLDWIDE ECONOMIC CRISIS, AND FIXED IT WITH THE US ECONOMY* oh yeah and War Thunder is removing the Maus send help

>Ends of being the most survivable, most upgradable, and most reliable and repairable tank of the war. "Shermans are death traps"

Sherman: shoots the back of a tiger's turret Tiger's driver: HOW IN THE FRICK DID THE TRANSMISSION BREAK.

It’s fascinating to learn about these. My grandpa drove a Sherman in France. Two actually: one got destroyed in battle. I guess the point about them being easy to exit gives the story good context lol

Potential History was sponsored by World Of Tanks This enraged War Thunder who punished him severely

The real meme about US R&D is the designation system system. "A soldier armed with an M3, is riding on the back of an M3 which is being escorted by an M3 while an M3 is scouting ahead of the column"

Some random writer: The Sherman is a death trap. Me: *Laughs in Italian L3 Tank*

I’m actually writing a paper on cost benefit analysis surrounding the M4 Sherman and the M2 Stuart. Essentially, I’m running cost per unit, then estimating our net loss vs net investment. From what I’m seeing so far, it’s a fucking brilliant design, with production being so damn good (what with the expense for metal per unit) that with its absurdly high survival rate being what it was; it deserves to be recognized for its quality. Yes; it wasn’t perfect against big cats, but it wasn’t supposed to fight em one on one anyway. You move as a unit, and with support; then you kill the big mean kitty cat, without loosing all your crews, if you lose a tank that’s fine. There are 50 to 60 in the depot a few miles back where you can go back, refit, and catch up with your unit/grab a new guy in case you lost someone. As opposed to losing a Tiger, or other big cats, which were expensive and borderline irreplaceable in some places. Big cats are astounding in their own way, and deserve some respect; but so does the Sherman.

He...he's still alive. More alive than a Ferdinand's engine after going up a hill anyway.

Something else that I think should be added was that the term "Ronson" was a term used after the war. And even still, the Sherman had a very small chance of it catching fire compared to the German and ESPECIALLY the Russian tanks. It was only called the ronson cause after the war American tankers complained how weak their tanks were against tanks such as the tiger and the king tiger.

"the right tank for the wrong war." proceeds to win that war.

Let's put it this way. We fight a battle. On one side you have every Tiger I ever built, vs. every Sherman ever built on the other. And let's be generous and let each Tiger kill 10 Shermans before being destroyed. At the end of the battle, you'd have zero Tigers and I'd have more than 36,000 Shermans. That's what a war of attrition is.

Should have been Chinese tanks because that’s what we’re going to be seeing a lot of in Hong Kong

Sherman: *"Death trap"* Panzer: *Laughs in broken transmission*

_"The Sherman is a death trap."_ "What? Sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of all this WINNING!"

That moment when you realize that a youtuber and unrealistic game researcher did more research and fact finding than the crew at history channel

"5 shermans 1 tiger" *Plays P hub opening theme*

Ive never heard the Great Depression referred to as "the Big Sad" but Im gonna use that from now on

5:43 This was the quickest lesson about the "New deal" I ever had.

"So big in fact that they could sick their economy on their economy to fix their economy" STONKS

“Sick their economy on their economy to fix their economy” made me bust up laughing 😂 best joke I’ve heard all day

“A minor stock market incident”

"The Sherman was a death trap!" "No! It was the best tank of the war" "The M3 Lee is shit" "Yes"

"Amateurs study tactics. Armchair generals study strategy. Professionals study logistics." This sums up why Wehraboos love to talk down non-German tanks - they ignore the operational realities that brought the tanks to the field.

"Cult of the Machine Gun" sounds like the name of an epic heavy metal ballad about war

Yo, you should make a video about the "Vietnam War Tank Meme". Or just a video about Vietnam Era armored doctrine in general.

The Sherman also had a very high survival rate compared to contemporary tanks, and survivorship bias has probably played a big role in people thinking it was bad. More soldiers survive to say what happened to them, more people think it was a death trap.

This is a bit late but something to add, the Sherman's size was planned as they needed to be able to fit on a liberty ship. So instead of making new ship for a new tank they built the tank with ship in mind. I'm always awe struck how much thought went into the planning and future proofing of the Sherman.

Very succinctly put. I approve. (The locknut was on an M18)

FDR haunts my dreams. I can not escape him. He may not be able to walk, but he catches up to me easily, and in the most uncommon of places.

I really liked the Sherman. It's a good all rounder; plus it's cute with it's bubbly body.

I’ve watched this video more times than I can count, but laser eyes FDR still gets me every time

"The right tank, for the wrong war" Panther: Yeah that make sen- *drive sprocket disintegrates* Panther: Sh*t

Tiger tank commander: I can knock out 20 Shermans before lunch 50 Sherman tanks show up.

If there would be one WW2 tank that actually WAS a death trap, it would definitely be T-34, not Sherman... Not to mention the general crew comfort.

“Use a fkn tank!” - Sun Tzu, probably

I love how the History Channel Talks about shermans and Shows a m10 gmc

The Sherman did everything asked of it, in every theater of war, from the volcanic islands of the South Pacific, to the frozen steppes of Russia, and, did it reliably, and, well. Then, the Sherman 76 was much preferred by crews over the Pershing in Korea, because, the narrower width, and, lighter weight were better in the mountainous terrain. Plus, the 76 was more than enough to handle the T-34s of theNorth Koreans.

"so your friend can finally see their dream of panzers in London" Had me laughing so hard lol

So the T-34 is a fucking godsend with 45 millimeters of sloped frontal armor, but the Shermans were death traps with 60-something millimeters of sloped frontal armor... alright, I see.

>cult of the machine gun ALL OOGA BOOGA, DAKKA TRAKKA, PAPER SAY, CHUM CHUM

America-“Why is it when something goes wrong it’s always you three” The Three Idiots- UK,France,Germany

Let’s not forget the crocodile variant, which had a flamethrower. A *Sherman* tank, with a *flamethrower*

The Problem with the sherman was, that it did not have enough mgs. It has like not nearly enough MGs

“Sherman the right tank for the wrong war” Tiger: *transmission breaks* *fire happens*

When you get requests for ads from both WoT and War Thunder

Actually, the T-34 and M4 Sherman were the right tanks for the right war. They were both made to be produced in massive numbers. No matter how many Tiger II's and Panthers Germany could produce, they would always be outnumbered. Furthermore, both the T-34 and M4 Sherman were continuously upgraded throughout the war with most of their fault being forked out and fixed.

Another reason, if not the main reason, that the 75mm Sherman was prefered over the 76mm was that the former's low velocity gun had better HE rounds. Since tank encounters were relatively rare for the Sherman, good HE for dispatching infantry was more useful for them than the good AP and worse HE of the high velocity 76mm gun. Meanwhile, for the usually outnumbered German tanks good AP was a must.

It always cracks me up when people talks about “the Sherman was terrible, my grandpa GI joe had to bail out of six Sherman’s.” It’s like, yeah but that means he served the equivalent of seven crewmen of many other tanks. So many of the American tank crews had survived so many tank losses. One of the things that’s been the focus now is: don’t focus on the tank, focus on the crew. The crew is much more valuable than just the tank. A good crew can compensate for an outmatched tank, but a good tank can’t do much for an outmatched crew. See Israel vs Jordan in the six-day war.

“75 mm freedom launcher” The lesson here? Stay out of the way of freedom.

"It didn't magically deflect shell and through them back at the Germans." Soviets: oh don't mind if a do

"sherman had no armor" M4A3E2: am I a joke to you?

"Sic the economy on the economy to fix the economy." - Franklin Roosevelt was an absolute legend.

That song in background... Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, because of you I have to replay it now. Thanks.

"You can see how the Sherman tank was the wrong tank for the war, considering the United States actually lost the- wait, what's that? Han? I'm sorry there seems to be a problem in the teleprompter, so we are just going for the next news: The Ferdinand!"

Crews: That thing is a death trap! I don't want to get in it ever again! American engineers: *Looks like the couldn't handle the neutron stile*

4:52. Sun Tzu said that! AND I'D SAY HE KNOWS A LITTLE MORE ABOUT FIGHTING THEN YOU DO PAL' BECAUSE HE INVENTED IT! AND THEN HE PERFECTED IT SO THAT NO LIVING MAN COULD BEST HIM IN THE RING OF HONOUR!

I love how much you use the original "Medal of Honor" theme.

Germany: ah fine specimens this tiger I will destroy the allied tanks for the upcoming assault US: pew goes 105 Sherman Germany: **Sobs**

Intro: “Right tanks for the wrong war” *How dare you*

"What's that? 'Sherman bad'? I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over the sound of the Battle of my Bulge"

Maybe a french tank meme video?

As a historian, I must say your argument is interesting and to a point a good one. Having said that, there are few things I would like to point out. First, the Sherman was not first encountered by the Germans during Normandy. The Germans first encountered the Sherman while in Soviet hands as part of the lend and lease program. They noticed the huge difference between the soviet armour and this new "much weaker tank" (quoting the German tankers). They also faced the Sherman during the Italian campaign of 1943, in which they performed poorly due to the Italian topography and were knocked out I'm droves by the German tanks and Italian anti tank forces. In fact, even the Soviets were not impressed with them ither and the crusader and sherman tanks which were provided to replace losses were quickly discarded by the Soviet as T34s and Kv1s became available in sufficient numbers. So, tje Sherman was very known to the Germans by the time it appeared in Normandy. In fact, some German commanders called them steel or iron coffins. Thus, the reputation as a mediocre tank did not come from the normandy campaign but from the German experiences with the Sherman in soviet hands and during the Italian campaign. Another important reason for this reputation, was the fact that the Germans were by then used to face effective and lethal Soviet tanks such as the T34, and KV1 series, later on the IS 2, so the German expectation about enemy armour was not fulfilled by the much more inferior Sherman tank which in reality was miles away from German and Soviet tank designs at the time.

Sicking the economy on the economy to fix the economy might be the best description of FDR I’ve ever heard

"sick their economy on their economy to fix their economy...... *Roosevelt intensifies* "

"The US economy was the biggest in the world, so big that they could sic their economy on their economy to fix their economy." My sides went higher than a V2

I love that the narrative has completely shifted where the Sherman used to be the worst tank that has ever existed, but now it's second-only to the most perfect tank ever conceived in the eyes of God, the Bob Semple.

It should be worth mentioning that while the Sherman may have struggled in the European theater it performed incredibly well in the Pacific theater all the way to the end of the war as the Japanese never had any heavy tanks of their own and island hopping nature of the Pacific war made tank combat less viable. It was so good Infact that marine tank crews asked for more he shells as ap shells would over penetrate Japanese tanks

"The big sad", i think i spat out all of my food in laughter

Here is my thing about Sherman tanks that many people dont realise. Specialization kills Basicly the more things that are different means the more parts and that can easily kill Which is why having fewer variaty is better than having too much

i have to say this. THE SHERMAN IS THE BEST TANK USED IN WW2. my reasons, reliable, easy to use, and can be compatible with just about anything

i remember hearing a story of a German Panzer commander being asked his opinion of the Sherman. as i remember it went something like " Ve could easily knock out a dozen shermans in our panthers und tigers. but ze Americans always seemed to have a no 13 lurking somewhere..."

You see comrade, shermans dont work because of the ammount of capitalsm in them. But our stalinium T34 on the other side *_just works_*

"Muh Big Cats, amerimutt." *Laughes in 50 km breakdowns*

Either solidly made or easily repairable. Americans: yes

Why do people think that they made one Sherman design and stopped there.

Sherman: "I'm a death trap" T-34: "Hold my Vodka"

Tiger tank: our armor is to strong for shermans Apcr: allow us to introduce ourselves

The M4 is what I consider to be the best tank of WWII. It was the most reliable and ergonomic of the medium tanks of WWII, while being highly competitive in hard stats with vehicles like the Pz IV, StuG III, and T-34. It's only real drawback was that it's 75mm gun that early variants were armed with was slightly behind the curve in anti-armor performance, and it's gunsight lacked magnification. This was quickly addressed with the high velocity 76mm gun and an improved gunsight.

Ships 10,000 tanks across the Atlantic: "Oh wait, send them back; new model came out!"