Yes read back, who other then ground troops did any Sherman that landed on D-Day fight. No German panzer divisions were there for the Shermans to fight. Operation Cobra was scheduled for July 18th, but weather delayed it until the 24th. You gave me book pages to one book . I have posted many other internet sources. How many people here have the book you are quoting from, my guess is very few. All anyone interested in this topic has to do is google it. They will find many many reference sources to anything from board gamer web sites to online WW2 forums that all indicate that in fact 76mm armed shermans were in Normandy . Did any see combat until operation Cobra? No! But no mention anywhere does it say that had to specifically ship out 76mm Shermans just for operation Cobra or hold any back until then.
There were no 76mm Shermans that took part in the Normandy landings, none were on the invasion ships sitting offshore. I've already posted my source information so I'm not going to post it again.
The First Army didn't receive the 76mm Sherman until July of 1944 (source listed in previous post) and the 3rd Army didn't start to receive them until later September of 1944.
Even though there were sufficient numbers of the 76mm Sherman to start fielding units prior to the Normandy landings, standard US Army doctrine at the time emphasized the importance of the infantry support role of the tank. The HE round used by the 76mm Sherman was much weaker than that of the HE round for the existing 75mm Sherman. As such, many US Armored Division commanders initially didn't accept the 76mm Sherman. This was probably the main reason why the 76mm Sherman did not take part in the Normandy landings.
It wasn't until the 75mm Sherman started to encounter German Panther tanks that finally convinced US Army commanders that better main gun was needed, which resulted in the 76mm Sherman finally being deployed in July '44. The Third Army still held out with the 75mm until they got chewed up by Panthers during the Battle of Arracourt, only then did the Third Army started to deploy the 76mm Sherman.
take up valuable space? What space? Space for more 75mm Shermans?
If the 76mm Sherman were on the invasion ships like you claimed and since they weren't used during the invasion, yes, all they did was take up space that could have been used for resources needed for the invasion landing. Since we've already shown that there weren't any 76mm Shermans that took part in the Normandy landing and didn't land on mainland Europe untill July of 1944, it's a rather moot point.
All the reference material I have read say the first Shermans to be fitted with 76mm guns was introduced into the production lines in February of 1944. Now considering that the Americans were stockpiling 75mm armed Shermans long before the 76mm came on line. It would make sense that only a small number of 76mm Shermans were mixed in with the standard 75mm Shermans for the D-Day landings.
Yes, by the time of the Normandy landings there were sufficient numbers of 76mm Shermans to start deploying them to front line units. However, as I explained earlier in this post, US Armored Division commanders were hesitant about accepting them due to the weaker HE rounds it used.
Now ...again speculation. I would have to say the the allies knew they would have trouble with the German tanks, why up-gun a Sherman with a British 17lber gun and with a 76mm gun if your current tanks could do the job. The first documented action for the 76mm armed Shermans was in July of that year, a few weeks past the landings. Since the Germans didn't deploy their panzer divisions for 2 weeks after the landing and some up to 4 weeks it would make sense that no real armor battles took place with the 76mm Shermans until operation Cobra. That being said below is more information on the 76mm Shermans indicating that indeed there were 76mm Shermans available for the Normandy landings. There is more information out there that supports the fact there were 76mm Shermans that landed in Normandy then not. All you have to do is look.
The US Army never tested the 76mm Sherman against the Panther, all they did were tests against armored plating that suggested that the 76mm gun was adequate for their needs. Had they tested it against the captured Panthers they had, they would have found out that the 76mm could not penetrate the glacis plate at any range and only the center of the mantlet at 100 meters. Unfortunately, 76mm Sherman crews found this out the hard way when they encounted the Panther in July of 1944.
Sherman tank with 76mm gun:
To increase firepower the Ordnance Department developed the 76mm gun M1 and M1A1, starting in July 1942. Tests showed that the existing M4 series turret was too small to accommodate the extra length of this weapon and the turret of the T20/T23 medium tank was adopted and suitably modified. The 76mm gun installation was standardised and introduced in production lines from February 1944 and vehicles so fitted were available in time for the Normandy landings and subsequent combat in NW Europe. Suffix '(76mm)' indicated vehicles with this gun. A modified 76mm gun M1A1C or M1A2 with muzzle-brake was later introduced.
The above shows nothing other than a brief development history of the 76mm Sherman and not its deployment history.
ack-ack
