So apparently this tank was featured in Blues Brothers, or so that's what the tour guide claimed when we were up there. Never seen the film so that's probably something I'll have to check out. Anyways, let's talk about the tank.

So here we have an M4A1 Sherman with 76mm gun; for most of the war's duration, the Shermans themselves were primarily armed with the "short" 75mm gun, and even when the 76mm was introduced most Shermans still came equipped with the 75mm. From my understanding, the 75mm gun wasn't as weak as a lot of media claims it to be, but that's a can of worms I'm not really wanting to get into here. In any case, American armor doctrine during the war was typically went along the lines of using tanks to support infantry (which was not a unique thought by any means, a lot of other armies had that same thought for some time until WWII unfolded), while enemy tanks would be dealt with using fast-moving armored vehicles known as tank destroyers.

Of course, expectations sometimes don't correlate to the reality of a situation, and by around 1944 the US started putting 76mm guns into their Shermans. Technically speaking, the Army had already been toying with the idea of upgunning the Sherman, but for a while it wasn't really taken seriously on account of most of the German tanks prior to the appearance of the Panther could still be easily dealt with (yes there was the Tiger but there usually weren't enough around anyways). This of course changed when it became apparent that the Panther was going to show up in large numbers, but even then the Army was slow to really get the ball rolling.

In addition to serving in the US forces, the M4A1 and it's 76mm conversion also saw use among the Commonwealth forces, and to a lesser extent with the French army in exile. I'm pretty sure they also saw some postwar service as well, as some of the Shermans used in other countries after WWII appear to have the distinct hull shape that the M4A1 had. Bear in mind however that I'm only referring to the M4A1; there were a ton of other models of Sherman, and those models saw a lot of use in a lot of places.

Arguably one of my favorite exhibits from this museum. I just think the Sherman is a really good looking tank, especially with the 76. That's just my opinion of course.