"Sherman's Debut " Topic

"American M4A1 tanks first saw battle without American crews. This happened in Africa, towards the end of the summer of 1942, when things weren't going well for Anglo-Canadian forces. Tobruk fell, an important port city and foundation for Allied forces. The possibility of the Germans reaching the Suez Canal was very real. About 100 kilometers separated the front lines and the city of Alexandria.

The British Prime Minister Winston Churchill requested help from the USA. He needed tanks, as many of the newest Shermans as possible, sent to Africa. American President Franklin Roosevelt agreed and promised to send George Patton's 2nd Tank Division to reinforce the front, a rushed and impossible move, as in order to fully equip the division, all Sherman training tanks would have to be confiscated from other units. The division lacked tanks and trained crews. Simply sending it to Egypt would be impossible before November. The Afrika Corps was unwilling to wait while the Allies got help, so it was decided that just the tanks could be sent to the British…"
Full text here
link

Amicalement
Armand

I gather that the first Shermans sent had food parcels inside. Sent my the US workers for the (soon to be) crews. The British dockworkers took them.

While that sounds in character for British dockworkers, did the Shermans not reach North Africa directly from the USA via the Cape and Suez?

I have looked and cannot find anything about the route taken. Which do think better, across the Atlantic (and Liverpool) then down to Africa, or across the Pacific (looks as if they would have had to kept close to Australia to be safe) and through Suez?

The general routing for convoys from the US for Africa was East or South Coast down to the south Atlantic, around the horn up to Egypt from the Indian Ocean.

This is about 1/3rd the distance compared with going from the West Coast across the Pacific through the various SE Asian straights and across the Indian Ocean. Going south of Australia was avoided, as one spends as little time in the Antarctic (or Arctic) Ocean as possible when transporting by sea.

Some of the Shermans for the British in Egypt were indeed taken from active forces. I believe it was the US2AD that was stripped of most of it's Shermans for British use, and so went ashore in French North Africa (Op Torch) equipped largely with M3 Lees (a tank which the U.S. Army had never never intended to use for combat service overseas). US1AD, which was already deployed to England and embarked for Torch from there, retained their Shermans for Torch.

But that's all from recollection at this moment. Away from my sources (and time) to confirm. No doubt I'll be corrected below if I got it wrong.

;)

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)