Donald M. Scheef wrote:I believe that the "modernized" in "M4A1 75mm Sherman - Modernized" refers to GHQ's casting rather than to the original tank itself. It's a new model of the same tank.
I would be quite suprised if that were the case. There are two other M4a1s in the catalog. The "older" casting is armed with the 76mm gun. This was the first 76mm-armed Sherman, and was first issued to the troops after the D-Day landings while they were fighting in the Boccage of Normandie.
The other M4a1 in the catalog is the original M4a1 -- this was armed with the 75mm gun, and was the first version of the Sherman to go into mass production (being accepted concurrently with the M4, but being easier to mass-produce by more factories due to the cast hull). It was the most common Sherman in US formations in Tunisia and Sicily. But this is a very new casting, having only been introduced within the past year and a half.
The new model is clearly labelled as a 75mm-armed M4a1. So I do not believe it is an update to the older M4a1 casting (a 76mm-armed Sherman). Rather, I believe this new model is something that has been on the "Wish List" several times -- a Sherman for D-Day.
After the Tunisian campaign a review of the Sherman lead to several product improvements / modifications. The gun mantlet was widened (the original mantlet is referred to as the M34, while the wider mantlet is the M34a1). Plate armor was added to the hull sides where the sponson ammunition-storage racks were, as well as to the turret front-side (usually on the right, sometimes also on the left) where the armor had been thinned to allow for the power-traverse mechanism to fit (designed-in late in the process, after the turret ring had been set). Also plates were added in front of the driver and co-driver "bumps" on the hull front, and spaced a bit so that they could lie at a sharper angle (the almost vertical bump fronts were more easily penetrated than the rest of the more sloped front plate). On the turret roof, a seperate hatch for the loader was added.
Not all of these improvements appeared in all tanks. They were introduced in series rather than all at once. Field workshops welded on the applique plates and extended the width of the mantlets in tanks held in depot inventories, but those in the hands of units in combat were not removed for upgrading. The "extended" mantlets have a rather distinct appearance vs. the factory-produced M34a1 mantlets. Not all depots added all plates (the turret plates being the hardest, and least likely, to be added as field mods). The appliques were applied to finished tanks in US factory inventories before shipment. There was no program to install extra roof hatches on existing turrets, whether in depots or factories. Only turrets produced after late-1943 had that. Over time extra armor was incorporated during manufacturing into the rolled plates of the M4s and M4a3s, and the castings of the M4a1s, and so the extra armor was no longer visible. This was often the case on tanks with the extra turret hatches.
These upgrades, put into production throughout 1943, were prominent on M4 and M4a1 Shermans that came over during the build-up for D-Day. On the day of the invasion the 1943 product-improved M4a1 was the most numerous version of the Sherman in US service.
A good "D-Day" Sherman model should at least have the 75mm gun, the M34a1 mantlet, and hull side applique armor. The driver/co-driver applique, turret cheek applique, and/or extra turret hatch might, or might not, be present as well.
That's what I think the new model is.