The M4 Sherman has seen use across the globe in a multitude of conflicts since its introduction.
With this widespread service has come quite a number of strange modifications whether
that be the Super Sherman in Israel or the many wacky variants from the Second World
War.
Though you may be familiar with many of these, there is another place which has seen the
use of the Sherman which is largely overlooked by Western audiences, that being China and
the Asian continent in general.
Probably the most famous example of a Chinese Sherman would be the M4A4 used by the 1st
Provisional Tank Group.
Though it did sport a unique paint job featuring a tiger face and paws on the turret and hull
front this tank was not significantly different from other production line M4A4s.
Following the end of the second world war a small number of Shermans along with US personnel
remained in China for several years to oversee the return of Japanese nationals to Japan.
These troops were eventually withdrawn in 1947, however the remaining operational M4A2s
they had were given to the Kuomintang along with the 1st Tank Battalions camp.
Although it is not known if these tanks were even used by the Kuomintang at least one was
eventually captured by their enemy.
How exactly this single example of an M4A2 fell into the hands of the People's Liberation
Army is unclear, a common theme with the rest of the tank's story.
Basically all we know about this tank is thanks to this one photograph showing a parade featuring
a Sherman numbered “012403”.
What’s strange about this vehicle is the main armament.
Typically the Sherman would have featured the 75mm cannon but the example here clearly
has a much smaller armament.
Unfortunately the image is not the best quality so it is unclear what exactly this weapon,
if it even is a weapon, could be.
Currently there are 3 popular theories on what it could be:
1.
A 20mm cannon or another .50 cal machine gun 2.
A repurposed Japanese 37mm 3.
Some sort of dummy gun With no further info to go on and only a blurry
photo it is all but impossible to know for certain but we do have some evidence that
it is more than likely a dummy barrel.
With so few Shermans in the country the barrel of the 75 could easily have been damaged causing
it to be replaced by a dummy barrel for the purposes of the parade.
This is supported by the apparent unchanged nature of the Shermans mantlet which would
likely have needed some sort of modification to mount an alternate armament.
Alternatively it is entirely possible that the gun was swapped instead due to lacking
ammunition for the 75mm cannon.
If that were the case my guess would be that it is some sort of machine gun since you could,
in theory, simply stick the barrel through the existing hole if the 75mm breech was removed.
With not many tanks present during the conflict this would not really hinder the effectiveness
of the vehicle especially if there was no ammo for the 75 to begin with.
The gun could even have been removed prior to the tanks capture if the Kuomintang took
the gun for another of their tanks.
Keep in mind this is entirely guesswork based on the single photo so I could easily be wrong.
The fate of Sherman “012403” after the photograph, which is said to have been taken
October 1st, 1949, is as unknown as its life in the PLA.
To make this even more confusing there is a chance the M4A2 at the Beijing tank museum
is actually Sherman “012403”.
This tank not only is missing its cannon, but was repainted in a US camo scheme which
could possibly be due to its capture originating from the aforementioned 1st Tank Battalion.
I have some doubts about this though since we see in the photo that the PLA Sherman featured
the markings of the communist Chinese forces.
Considering other tanks in the same museum still have their PLA markings I can’t imagine
a nation which values nationalism as much as China would repaint one of their first
captured American tanks back to how they found it.
What do you think is the most likely armament this tank had?
Let me know in the comments below.
I know this video is a little different than my other Cursed by Design videos and was a
bit on the short side, but this is a topic I found fairly interesting and thought deserved
to be shared.
Thanks as always to my growing number of Conely Fans as your support helps keep this channel
going.
If you enjoyed this video I recommend checking out my previous episodes on the WZ-111 or
WZ-122, I’ll see you there.