The year is 1942 and American doctrine is being reformed to accommodate future plans for invasion for the Pacific island hopping campaign after the smashing victory at Midway and anticipated landings in North Africa and Italy. To achieve all this Lieutenant General Leslie McNair has been in charge of authorizing what equipment will be used, how battalions and regiments will be equipped and the suitable methods of dealing with German armament in Europe. McNair thinks that tanks should never engage the enemy’s tanks but that this job should be left to designate tank destroyers such as towed artillery, halftracks with mounted 75 millimeter artillery, and lightly armored open turret tanks used as ambush weaponry.

Where does this leave the US main battle tank-the Sherman. It is a very mobile, quick turning turret armored vehicle that handles all terrain every well at excellent speed. It is designed for troop support though not dueling with 60 ton Tiger tanks and Panzer IV battle tanks! At best the 75 millimeter cannon on a Sherman can only penetrate Tiger tanks at 100 yards and only penetrate side armor or the rear at greater distances. The American ordnance simply bounces off the angled glacis plate of the frontal armor of the Tiger or Panzer IV at over 100 yards giving the German tank much greater standoff advantage. When a US Sherman tank can be hit and burned from 1100 yards there is little chance of that crew getting within 100 yards for a kill shot! As a result, Sherman crews must lie in wait for ambush rather than maneuvering into open ground to trade with the heavily armored Tigers.

Lieutenant General McNair has seen the reports coming in from North Africa and finally after D-Day in June of 1944 stating that Sherman crews are getting slaughtered when facing German Panzer divisions. For 2 years Lieutenant General McNair has obstructed efforts at putting larger guns on US tanks instead thinking that the existing arsenal of tank destroyers in the US Army should be sufficient! However, continuing news of US tank crews suffering heavy losses and the deterioration of morale convinces him to observe the situation in France near the Allied front. He takes a DC-3 over the Atlantic to see for himself!  The philosophy was that tank destroyers cheaper to make, much faster than armored tanks, carrying high velocity armor piercing weapons, could use hit and run tactics before the enemy could retaliate! Problem was these tanks destroyers like the M-10 Wolverine and M-18 Hellcat were fast but their firepower was not always effective and with opened turrets the crews were vulnerable to shrapnel and sniper fire! As well, these units could not be everywhere all the time.

McNair had arrived at the time of the proposed Project “Cobra” an all-out combined offensive to break out of St. Lo and the hedgerows and use a narrow targeted corridor of 1500 heavy bombers to clear the path for combined ground forces to pierce the German resistance and speed up an end to the war! Lieutenant General McNair was near the front when US B-17’s began unleashing their bombloads! There was a problem though! Friendly fire was dropping all around him and he had to dive into slit trench, but an AM-N64 500 pound high explosive bomb landed within a few yards of his position. The only thing left of McNair to identify was a unit insignia and a West Point ring! That was the end of a major obstacle to the redesign of a more lethal tank killer for the US Army!

In quick succession the M-36 Jackson with an enclosed turret to protect the tank crew and a 90 millimeter adapted anti-aircraft artillery piece that would punch through any German Armor at greater distances was put into production, churning out hundreds in Fischer manufacturing facilities! Not only was this vehicle fast, protected its crew better, but the 90 millimeter cannon made this tank destroyer the most formidable of the war! Soon, German Panzer units would be on high alert seeking the M-36’s and when spotted were ordered to disengage rather than risk heavy losses as they would soon find out!

Two Sherman tank designs were also outfitted with heavier firepower. A Sherman “Firefly” adapted with the British 17 pounder cannon, and the 90 millimeter Sherman that German crews also feared and were told to identify the American tank with a longer barrel! No longer would the Germans enjoy a deadly advantage on the battle field as they were pushed back on the inevitable road to the Siegfried Line and ultimately to Berlin, but the Battle of the Bulge would have to be won first in those final months!