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Great post.The Tiger was a much superior tank to the Sherman. British experience in Normandy showed that only the Firefly variant of the Sherman armed with the 17pdr gun stood a good chance of knocking the Tiger out. This was probably the largest gun the Sherman could carry (77mm as opposed to the 75 and 76mm guns of US and other British variants) - fitting the powerful 90mm gun required a larger turret ring, and ultimately a new tank (the Pershing).
While adding TDs like the Hellcat might have given US tank formations more firepower, sucess still depended on being able to hit the Tiger before it hit you - the Hellcat's armour was even weaker than that of the Sherman. The Hellcats would only be useful where a tactical advantage could be guaranteed...
The Tiger was a much superior tank to the Sherman. British experience in Normandy showed that only the Firefly variant of the Sherman armed with the 17pdr gun stood a good chance of knocking the Tiger out. This was probably the largest gun the Sherman could carry (77mm as opposed to the 75 and 76mm guns of US and other British variants) - fitting the powerful 90mm gun required a larger turret ring, and ultimately a new tank (the Pershing).
I've read that to knock out a Tiger generally required five tanks...three to act as cannon fodder (poor guys), and two to zip around to the sides and back where their guns could pierce the Tiger's armor. Also, another weak point was the fuel supplies. The Tiger was a gas hog. Am I correct in remembering that the Tiger usually towed its spare fuel on a cart behind the tank? Talk about easy targeting!
I have heard the ratio of 4 to 5 Shermans to take out 1 Tiger before, feel sorry for the Sherman crews. The Tiger was a great tank, but as has been said, it was hard to manufacture which hurt Germany as they could not produce enough of the Tigers and all their other tanks to replace their losses. It was way too technical for a country with Germany's resources to be able to supply the numbers of tanks that were needed. But I do not think Hitler foresaw a need to produce huge numbers of Tigers(am i right about this?). The weight of the Tiger was also a problem, many of the roads were not designed to handle the Tigers weight. Also, the Tiger was a open country tank, and was not really suited to urban combat, except for cities with wide streets.
You're more or less correct about the "5-Shermans-to-one-Tiger"; I'm having trouble locating my source now, but I remember reading that the Allied tactics were to send five Shermans up against one Tiger and, if they were lucky, one Sherman would live to fight another day (or another Tiger!). The Allies didn't really have anything that could go 1-v-1 with a Tiger until the advent of the M26 and the JSII.
One of the nicknames for the Sherman was the "Purple Heart Box"...