Sherman Tank Myths - The Misery of Having 'Facts' To Work With

Can anyone blame anyone for not being able to get the facts right . I was researchi
ng the question of whether or not the 75-mm rounds used in the Sherman tank s M3 c
annon would chamber in the 76-mm M1 series gun. I had only basic numbers to work
with (overall length, cartridge case length, etc.) courtesy of TM9 1901 (Artill
ery Ammunition) dated 29 June 1944. So I started with picture compares.
My process was to take a snap-shot from case bottom to projectile tip from the T
M9 1901 pdf. Using a scale of x100 pixels per inch I laid them out as close as I
could get, knowing I d never be perfect: the 75mm M61 APC round was 26.29 long an
d hence 2629 pixels long and the 76mm M62 APC round 35.59 or 3559 pixels.
The first pictures I used were misleading. They did not show the bell on the 75mm case. I later found pictures that clearly showed that the 75-mm case was bott
lenecked (if only slightly) while the 76mm was straight-cased. (Narrowing toward
s the projectile; a line drawn along the side confirmed there was no neck.)
That was a let down. Still, I wondered about the story of Shermans using 75-mm h
owitzer ammunition on Tarawa. It is also a bottle-necked case like the 75mm gun
case with the shoulder further down on the case. So, perhaps the 75mm gun could
fire 75mm howitzer rounds, since the worst result was likely a blown out case, and
perhaps erosion in the throat if too many howitzer rounds were fired.
If that was true, would the 75mm case fit the 76mm breech despite the different
design? I was curious as to how different the 76mm and 75 cases were and decided
to crudely measure them using pictures.
I did some test measurements and things did not add up. It took a while to figur
e out that the US Army s technical manual was wrong. Or perhaps only miss-leading.
According to the manual: The 76mm M62 APC round is 33.8 long and has a 9.8 long sh
ot. But, the M42 HE round is 33.3 long and has a 12.4 long shot. How could the HE
round have a projectile 2.6 inches longer than the APC round but be a half inch s
horter? The 76mm M79 AP round (no ballistic cap) is 29.8 long with a 9.2 shot. Ho
w could the M79 be shorter and yet have the same length of shot as the M62?
I looked at the 3-inch rounds for the M5, M6, and M7 guns (there were two types
of 3-inch guns in use in the 1940s and the T9 chosen for ground force use in tan
ks and gun motor carriages was a derivative of a 1918 weapon). My brain was bogg
led yet again. Since the 3-inch gun used the same projectiles as the 76mm (used
them first at that), I ll list them out in M62 APC, M79 AP, M42 HE order: overall
length 35.6 , 35.4 , and 34 and projectile length 9.8 , 8.9 and 12.4 . The M79 is quoted w
ith a different length projectile than the 76mm M79 (BUT THE DESIGNERS USED THE
SAME PROJECTILE, DIDN T THEY!). The 34 long M42 HE round had a 12.4 long shell while
the LONGER M62 and M79 AP rounds had a shorter shot.
I used my pictures and measured down from the tip of the 3-inch and 76mm M62 pro
jectiles and found that length of 9.8 (980 pixels) stops about 1.6 inches (160 pi
xels / 100 = 1.6 ) short of the crimp on the case. My surmise was that either the
lengths of the M62 projectiles given for the 3-inch and 76mm were totally wrong
or they were measured without the ballistic cap. It looks like the M61 APC round
for the 75mm was measured with the ballistic cap since it is quoted as being 3.
2" longer than the capped M62 projectiles. And yet they are the same weight.
I did not expect the M42 HE shell used in the 3-inch and 76mm to be as long as t
he M48 HE round of the 75mm because it was lighter. And it wasn't.
Unless I can find a different source with the dimensions broken down, I guess I ll
never know what the correct overall length of the M62 APC projectile is.

I was working on a different project

comparing shot weight to overall length
the erratic measurements given in TM9 1901 fouled that up.

and

Well, to answer my curiosity about which round might fit in which cannon: my rou
gh measurements indicate the 76-mm base is perhaps 3.5 thick and the 75-mm base p
erhaps 3.2 (the cartridge case body, not the rim/lip) and the 75-mm howitzer base
is a tad smaller
although any of those could be in error given they are based o
n pictures scaled using data that could very well be inaccurate. Overlaying the
75-mm case onto the 76mm at the base, it looks like the 75mm might have fit the
76mm chamber, though with a good potential for jamming.
HINT: Amatuers might make the mistake of casually using the term "shell" for the
complete round. A "shell" is a projectile filled with high explosives; a "shot"
is a solid projectile (no explosive). As it is, the AP rounds used might be ref
erred to as either since some did have a small explosive charge, although they
were not built to be high explosive shells.