The last heavy tank, that reached service.

[phalanx]

The benches, set up for a troop transport. It was a PITA switching around this stuff all the time. By the way, the rear of a C-141 would open up like two big clam shells.The ramp was behind them.

[Bob Riebe]

IG:
Do not know your finances BUT, if you can before you go to the big Tanker Club in the Sky try to get to this one in the U.K.
The tanks are all in running condition, and you can take tours behind the scenes if you schedule one.

In an oddity, a British HGTV type buying a new house show, had a feature on The Tank Museum, just before I printed this,  because it was close to one of the houses people were looking at.

https://tankmuseum.org/

They have both a British Conqueror and U.S. M103A2; I tried to find a list of what they have but that does not seem to be online, even their  web site only lists a small portion of what they have but other sites listing best tank museums in the world say they have M60 and M103 tanks.

[ironglow]

  Can't afford any excess tanks today.. 
  ..But I did find this old photo of when I was a 19 year old "185 pounds of romping, stomping, tanker HeII" as the tanker NCOs used to say.
   This with a 90mm HE (high explosive) round. Not the proper way of holding or moving the round...one hand covers the primer, the other hand protecting the point detonator.  Don't want to bump either end..especially on hard steel,
   and there are no soft places on a tank of that era.
 
  No, I didn't pee my pants, that's a stain on the old photo.  

[ironglow]

The Chrysler was 5 Dodge 6 cyl engines arranghed around a central axis point.  The Sherman's also had 9 cylinder Wright radial aircraft engines, as well as toward the end of the war, a 1100 cu in Ford V8 engine.

   The Wright and Chrysler engines particularly, contributed to the Sherman's high silhouette, one of it's
  negatives.

  Despite the varying engine configurations it was quite likely, the most dependable tank of WW2.

  Those things, plus the manufacturing methods, made logistics easier..despite the production facilities being an ocean
  away from the battlefield.

[Bob Riebe]

Thanks for the video TM7!
It looks like one restored tank early in th video has a gloss seal coat, AAARRRGGG!

Most, and I mean most, dudes nowadays who are into gearhead stuff, have no idea that flat-head engines did not die out until the mid to late sixties; trucks kept them the longest.

[Lloyd Smale]

Damm 5 slant 6s or were they flatheads?

[Bob Riebe]

Damm 5 slant 6s or were they flatheads?

Flatheads

[ironglow]

  A very informative video...Somehow I didn't even realize it was a video until Bob mentioned it.  Old age creeping up..
  Those Chrysler industrials were ubiquitous in industrial circles.  Massey-Harris used them in their 'big' tractor of the 40s and 50s...the Massey Harris 101.. Oliver used the later 318 slant 6 in some of their choppers.

 New Holland used them in some of their field choppers, and when I was the welder for the 508th tank battalion
  (see avatar), My welder was a Hobart, powered by a Chrysler 6 flathead. All mounted in a trailer of course, so it
  could go tom the field.

  'Cmon Lloyd, those old flatheads most often ran quieter than their later OHV counterparts.  That was because the valve clatter was surrounded by a cast iron "blanket" and a full water jacket !   

  Guys, although in most instances (except the Firefly) the Sherman was under gunned in relation to the German tanks they occasionally came up against, but they had a couple great things going for them, no matter which of the three engines it had...  One of those was RELIABILITY, compared to the enemy tanks.

  Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, when asked to explain the meaning of "logistics' explained it this way;
  "you have to be there firstest with the mostest"!

  The M4s reliability worked pout something like this...

  An armored battle is about to take place, and the enemy columns are likely to collide with the Shermans, in a pass 40 miles to the east, since that is about where they will meet the German forces.

  Just for explanatory purposes, the Germans have 20 PZKW 4s, 30 Panthers and  10 Tigers.
   Gen Patton has 60 Shermans. 
  Out of the German PZKW 4s  12 arrive at the pass, of the Panthers 14 arrive, along with 7 Tigers..a total of 33 tanks. 
  The Shermans might arrive at the pass with 48 combat ready operation... 

    "Amateurs talk about strategy, professionals talk about logistics"  (Omar Bradley)

[ironglow]

The Ford V8 engine, as used in the later Sherman 
   It was also used in the M26, introduced late in the WW2 and later,  kicked butt on the Russian T-34s in Korea.

  Lloyd will like this one..  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2ghTjFtNPo

   

[phalanx]

But the Sherman M4 tank kicked the shat out of the Japs in WWII. And what they were using. I saw where Rick the picker on Pawn Stars, just bought one. For one million $. And they went to a range to shoot it. They are less expensive selling for $250,000 elsewhere on the internet.

[ironglow]

But the Sherman M4 tank kicked the shat out of the Japs in WWII. And what they were using. I saw where Rick the picker on Pawn Stars, just bought one. For one million $. And they went to a range to shoot it. They are less expensive selling for $250,000 elsewhere on the internet.

   Yes; for some reason, much of the Japanese military equipment did not IMO come up to world standard during WW2.

  It seems that the Japanese PTB at the time, favored the Navy over the Army. Don't forget, Admiral Togo, with the assistance of the "divine wind", had defeated the Russian fleet, just about 36 years before the Pearl Harbor event.

  Their Army weapons...Arisaka rifle, Nambu pistol, their tanks...whether light or heavy all seems second place to
    anything the allies had.
  Still, their Navy ships, planes, aircraft carriers etc., were very competitive.

[ulav8r]

Quote: " Yes; for some reason, much of the Japanese military equipment did not IMO come up to world standard during WW2.

  It seems that the Japanese PTB at the time, favored the Navy over the Army. Don't forget, Admiral Togo, with the assistance of the "divine wind", had defeated the Russian fleet, just about 36 years before the Pearl Harbor event." End Quote.



They probably figured that with their relatively small land are that a good navy would keep them from having to have a strong ground force.  That assumes that they had not planned that far ahead to be an invader.