The M4 Sherman medium tank was regarded by many as the workhorse of the US Army during World War II. In fact, virtually all of the Allied armies employed the Sherman in their armed forces, including the British, who developed an upgunned variant called the "Firefly". Eleven different US plants manufactured six basic models of the Sherman, and by June 1944 over 49,234 battle-ready vehicles had been produced. While it was no match for the German Panther or Tiger tanks, the Sherman soldiered on, using its weight in numbers to wrest control of Europe from the Wehrmacht. The M4A3 was fitted with a long-barrel M1A1 76mm gun, which replaced the shorter and less effective 75mm gun, and sported a larger, more angular turret to house the bigger gun. In addition, the slope of the M4A3's frontal armor was changed to 47-degrees to increase frontal protection and simplify the production process.

During the 1930s, many innovations in the components of light tanks would make US tanks considerably reliable. These included rubber-bushed tracks, rear mounted radial engines and the vertical volute spring suspension.

The vertical volute spring suspension system is a type of vehicle suspension system. This type of suspension system was mainly fitted onto US and Italian tanks and armored fighting vehicles starting in the 1930s and up until after the end of the Second World War in 1945.

A volute spring is a compression spring in the form of a cone (a volute). Under compression, the coils slide over each other, affording longer travel. The result is more stable and powerful than any leaf, coil, or torsion bar spring in the same volume. Mounted vertically in a road wheel bogie for a pair of road wheels in a tank made for a very compact unit.

The Rock Island Arsenal produced a small tank for the cavalry which used vertical volute spring suspension instead of leaf spring suspension. Standardized as the M1 Combat Car, it entered service with the US Army in 1937. The design was used in the M2 light tank and subsequent Stuart tank series. Design features of the Stuart were scaled up for use in the first M2 medium tanks which would evolve into the more successful M3 Lee and M4 Sherman, all using the vertical volute spring suspension system.

This particular 1:32 scale diecast replica of the famed US M4A3 Sherman medium tank was attached to the 6th Armored Division and used in the Battle of the Bulge winter counteroffensive. Sold Out!

Dimensions:
Length: 7-1/2-inches
Width: 3-1/2-inches
Height: 3-3/4-inches

Release Date: July 2004

Historical Account: "Super Sixth" - The 6th Armored Division was created February 15th, 1942 at Fort Knox, Kentucky and was made up almost entirely of citizen draftee soldiers. Its training stations were Camp Chaffee, Ark., Louisiana Maneuvers, the Mojave Desert, and Camp Cooke, CA. It arrived in England in February 1944 and landed at Utah Beach on July 18th, 1944. During the next 9-1/2 months, the 6th Armored fought in five major European campaigns including Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes-Alsace, the Rhineland and Central Europe, The majority of this time was spent in General George S. Patton's famous Third Army and played an instrumental role in the relief of Bastogne during The Battle of the Bulge.