I do like the man and most of his videos are informative and fun. This is not one of them. While I agree that the Sherman has an undeservedly bad reputation The Chieftain is clearly cherry picking data to support his point of view here. He is also neglecting to mention some very important problems that plagued Allied tanks in the crucial period following D-day.
Most important was perhaps the quality problems with the APCBC ammo for the 75 mm and 76 mm guns. The infamous "shatter gap". A most unusual situation where rounds with too high an impact velocity would fail even though their penetration capability should be more than adequate. This phenomenon plagued the effectiveness of US 76mm and 3" guns against Tigers, Panthers and other vehicles with armor thickness above 70 mm. The caps of the APCBC ammunition turned out to be excessively soft. When these projectiles impacted armor which matched or exceeded the projectile diameter at a certain spread of velocities, the projectile would shatter and fail. In France Allied tankers often found themselves in the ridiculous situation of being too close to achieve penetration against German armor.
Another point I find very hard not to criticize is his extreme cherry picking of data on Tiger I encounters. Only three? Really? Some of the most famous and published tank actions in France after D-Day involved Tigers from the Heavy SS-Panzer Battalion 101. SS-Hauptsturmführer Michael Wittmann alone accounts for more Tiger battles in France than what The Chieftain claims as a total in his video. Including the battle where he died in a Tiger I, at the hands of a Sherman Firefly gunner.
"The Tigers now attacked from the flank against the Polish Armoured Division. They opened fire from 1800 meters. The first enemy tanks blew apart. The wave of Shermans which was rolling toward Cintheaux was smashed. One Allied attack after another broke down in front of the thin front held by the handful of Tigers. The battle raged for hours. One of the Tiger commanders who survived reported that Wittmann's Tiger had destroyed three more enemy tanks."
He is also very careful in specifying Tiger I which I find deceitful since this model was out of production by this time of the war. Historians generally agree that the Tiger I and II had a 12:1 kill ratio against all models of the Sherman tank.
