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Visiting Fort Moore - M51 Sherman (or Super Sherman)
by theFluffi
Autistic Tank Nut
Posted 4 months ago
...Or "Isherman", if you want to be even more specific. Since the M-50 also uses the Super Sherman designation.
Essentially an obscenely upgunned Sherman, as the main armament in question is a 105mm long-barrelled gun capable of cracking open T-62s from a distance. From what I can recall, nearly all M-51s use the M4A1 hull. Past the obvious gun upgrade, this model (and the M-50s) had the original engine replaced by a Cummins diesel engine, likely to provide better propulsion while also reducing the risk of catching fire (or so that's what my understanding of video game logic tells me). HVSS suspension was also something both models had, though I have no clue if that was something these tanks had before making their way into Israeli inventory.
From the historical side of stuff, the M-50 and M-51 (I'm gonna cover both because I don't think I'll ever see an M-50 ever in my life) were basically the result of Israel's purchasing of the (at the time) new AMX-13 light tanks. Finding the 75 mm CN 75-50 to be pretty impressive, the Israelis would make the decision of taking these guns off of the newly-acquired tanks, and grafting them to the more familiar Sherman tanks that had formed the bulk of Israel's armored corps during the country's infancy. The first 50 or so units of this "M-50" were derived from M4A4 hulls, and still had their original VVSS suspension and Wright-Continental R-975s; due to increased vehicle weight putting strain on the engine and poor off-road mobility from the narrower VVSS suspension system, the remainder of the M-50 (and afaik all M-51) conversions were given their HVSS suspensions and Cummins engines. Fast-forward to the 1960s, the M-51 shows up, featuring a modified 105 mm F1 gun. About 300 M-50s and 180 M-51s were made through conversions.
Operationally, both the M-50 and M-51 have seen some combat, the former of the two having had a longer service history than the latter. First baptized by fire in Operation Kadesh during the Sinai War (also known as the Suez Crisis), the M-50s were pitted against Egyptian M4s that were also similarly armed (in Egypt's case, taking the whole turret of the AMX-13 and putting it on the hull of the Sherman), effectively putting both sides on equal footing in of firepower. Following that, there was also the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War, but by that point Israel had more modern Sho't and Magach tanks in service, and by the 1980s most of the M-50s and M-51s still in service were on their way to being phased out. Some M-50s would see action in Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War, operated by Israeli-ed militia groups like the South Lebanon Army. To what extent their effectiveness could be measured by then is anyone's guess, but it would likely still have had some relevance given the circumstances of that conflict. Overall, the M-50 and M-51 tanks are the poster-child examples of Post-WWII Shermans, having had service lives that reached almost into the 90s (even if by then they were just in reserve) and having faced (and in some cases even defeated) more modern adversaries like the T-55s and T-62s of the Cold War.
They're also cool-looking as hell in my opinion, but that's just something I wanted to add. Anyways, back to my tomb I go. Next thingy I post here will be the Scorpion. Toodles!
Essentially an obscenely upgunned Sherman, as the main armament in question is a 105mm long-barrelled gun capable of cracking open T-62s from a distance. From what I can recall, nearly all M-51s use the M4A1 hull. Past the obvious gun upgrade, this model (and the M-50s) had the original engine replaced by a Cummins diesel engine, likely to provide better propulsion while also reducing the risk of catching fire (or so that's what my understanding of video game logic tells me). HVSS suspension was also something both models had, though I have no clue if that was something these tanks had before making their way into Israeli inventory.
From the historical side of stuff, the M-50 and M-51 (I'm gonna cover both because I don't think I'll ever see an M-50 ever in my life) were basically the result of Israel's purchasing of the (at the time) new AMX-13 light tanks. Finding the 75 mm CN 75-50 to be pretty impressive, the Israelis would make the decision of taking these guns off of the newly-acquired tanks, and grafting them to the more familiar Sherman tanks that had formed the bulk of Israel's armored corps during the country's infancy. The first 50 or so units of this "M-50" were derived from M4A4 hulls, and still had their original VVSS suspension and Wright-Continental R-975s; due to increased vehicle weight putting strain on the engine and poor off-road mobility from the narrower VVSS suspension system, the remainder of the M-50 (and afaik all M-51) conversions were given their HVSS suspensions and Cummins engines. Fast-forward to the 1960s, the M-51 shows up, featuring a modified 105 mm F1 gun. About 300 M-50s and 180 M-51s were made through conversions.
Operationally, both the M-50 and M-51 have seen some combat, the former of the two having had a longer service history than the latter. First baptized by fire in Operation Kadesh during the Sinai War (also known as the Suez Crisis), the M-50s were pitted against Egyptian M4s that were also similarly armed (in Egypt's case, taking the whole turret of the AMX-13 and putting it on the hull of the Sherman), effectively putting both sides on equal footing in of firepower. Following that, there was also the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War, but by that point Israel had more modern Sho't and Magach tanks in service, and by the 1980s most of the M-50s and M-51s still in service were on their way to being phased out. Some M-50s would see action in Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War, operated by Israeli-ed militia groups like the South Lebanon Army. To what extent their effectiveness could be measured by then is anyone's guess, but it would likely still have had some relevance given the circumstances of that conflict. Overall, the M-50 and M-51 tanks are the poster-child examples of Post-WWII Shermans, having had service lives that reached almost into the 90s (even if by then they were just in reserve) and having faced (and in some cases even defeated) more modern adversaries like the T-55s and T-62s of the Cold War.
They're also cool-looking as hell in my opinion, but that's just something I wanted to add. Anyways, back to my tomb I go. Next thingy I post here will be the Scorpion. Toodles!
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The Israelis also had several Sherman-based self-propelled artillery modifications, like the Ro'em and the MAR-240 (the latter is an ungodly creation involving a Sherman hull and a 36-tube 240mm rocket launcher battery sitting on top).
Come to think of it, a lot of post-war Sherman variants seem to come straight out of Israel, granted that a lot of them might've been one-off prototypes that got pressed into action due to circumstances.