M4A1 sherman vs StuG III ausf. G — what were the odds in favor of the Sherman?
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The low silhouette of the StuG III (7 feet high vs 9 feet) made it ideal for ambush tactics. Against the Americans it's likely going to be on the defense and well hidden. It will probably get one or two aimed shots off at an advancing Sherman before the M4 can return fire. The StuG III's 75 mm KwK 40 L/48 gun could penetrate the M4A1's front armor at 1000 meters or more (except the gun mantlet).
Unlike other, heavier Wehrmacht armored vehicles, the StuG III was built in large numbers, over 10,000 though the best information I have says only 1,600 were deployed on the Western Front. And it was mechanically reliable. Unlike heavier German tanks which look fearsome on paper but few were built and many broke down, Shermans faced a large number of Stug IIIs.
The most important variable is the M4A1's gun. Is it using the low velocity M3 75mm/L40 gun or the M1 76mm high velocity cannon? Despite its poor anti-armor performance, the 75mm was retained because of it's superior high explosive shell. US tanks spent most of their time fighting infantry.
If our M4A1 has the 75mm gun, it's in trouble. It will struggle to penetrate the StuG III's 80mm of frontal armor at 500 meters. It is seriously outgunned. Its best bet is to fire a white phosphorous round to blind the StuG III while the M4 maneuvers for a side shot, or withdraws and calls in artillery, or calls in a buddy to flank the StuG III. WP could even cause a German crew to panic and bail out believing their vehicle is on fire.
An M4A1 with the 76mm high velocity gun is in a much better position. With a normal AP shell they can reliably penetrate a StuG III at 1000 meters. With an HVAP (High Velocity Armor Piercing) shell they could do it at 2500 meters. Unlike the Germans, the US was well supplied with specialty ammunition. If they can see the StuG III, they can destroy it.
In a close range fight, the M4 has some clear advantages. Not only does the M4 have a turret, but it has a powered turret allowing it to put the gun on target fast. The StuG III lacked a turret and could only traverse their gun about 25 degrees, and had to do it manually, before they had to turn the entire hull, a clumsy operation after which the gunner would have to reacquire the target.
Armored vehicles, if they're smart, don't operate alone. They operate with infantry. Here, the M4A1 has the advantage. The M4A1 was well suited to fighting infantry with three machine guns (a 30 cal in the bow, another mounted co-axially, and a commander's 50 cal), two of which could be fired while buttoned up. The StuG III G usually had only one machine gun. It was mounted behind a gun shield on top of the vehicle meaning a crewman had to expose themselves to operate it. Some StuG IIIs were modified with a co-axial machine gun as well.
Unfortunately I don't have specific M4 vs StuG III statistics. For further reading you might look into Steven Zaloga's books particularly M10 Tank Destroyer vs StuG III Assault Gun. The M10 was built on the M4 chassis, and carried a 3-inch gun similar to the M4's 76mm. On the other hand, it lacked armor and had an abysmally slow turret.
Upvote:0
The Stug series, including the Stug III, were self-propelled infantry support guns. The other primarily infantry support weapons used in anti-tank roles included towed anti-tank guns, the infamous 88, and personal weapons such as the panzerfaust and panzerschreck.
The US lost a lot more tanks to infantry support weapons than it lost to tank on tank combat simply because the US was attacking most of the time. Of those losses the Stug III probably killed the most tanks, more than the 88. It's just that US soldiers blamed 'the 88' for any kills where they could not identify the source of fire, and even some that they could.
Tank on tank losses are greatly overstated. There are some notable instances, particularly with the most ubiquitous models (M4, M4A1 and M4A3). The later Shermans had better performance. For example the M4E8 of Brad Pitt fame had a reasonably powerful gun and in ETO it had additional appliqué armor to to 6 inches in the front. Despite the Brad Pitt movie, the ETO version of the M4E8 could actually penetrate the Tiger I's armor at a greater range then the Tiger I could penetrate the M4E8's armor. However, movie producers play to misconceptions rather than realities.
Upvote:1
It really depends on a number of factors.
Who has control of the engagement? Distance to target? Is the armor angled thereby improving the effective cross section? The list could go on. What variant of the M4(M4A1, A2, etc.)? What about the skill and experience of the crew? All these directly impact the outcome, but take these and other factors out of the equation and set up a straight "head to head" engagement in 1944 at 500 meters, with an M4A1 using the M1 76mm firing APCBC and the StuG III Ausf. G using the 7.5cm KwK 40 L/48 firing APCBC, the M4 might survive the first salvo. Again this is totally dependent on on all other factors being equal save those of the vehicles, guns and ammunition as they were at that time.
Hope I helped.
Upvote:1
As nerdy teenagers, me and my high school buddies wargamed this type of confrontation out with miniatures on a living room floor using simultaneous movement rules, a pair of dice for combat resolution, and what data we had on the performance of both vehicles. In head-to-head matchups, both vehicles were approximately equal in terms of speed, firepower, and armor. The Sturmgeschutz with the short 75 mm howitzer wasn't as effective against armor as the Shermans or the Sturmgeshutz with the long-barreled anti-tank canon. We didn't have any models of the 76mm equipped Shermans.
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