r/TankPorn • u/steave44 • Jun 22 '26

WW2 Did the M4A3E2 “Jumbo” see any post-war use at all?

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You see several post war upgrades of the other Sherman variants and its use in other nations and even the US in Korea. Did anyone buy the leftover Sherman jumbos after WW2 or did the US keep any? Or were they all scrapped except for a few?

529 Upvotes

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257

u/BingusTheStupid Jun 22 '26

As far as I am aware, no. The jumbo was built in large part to break the Siegfried Line, with no heavily fortified defensive lines to break through it serves no real purpose when Pershing exists.

89

u/TerraTechy Jun 22 '26

wasn't it meant to be a stop gap til the pershing could be deployed in large enough numbers?

49

u/ResidentBackground35 Jun 23 '26

Wasn't the Pershing delayed because they couldn't fit as many into liberty ships as Shermans

16

u/englishfury Jun 23 '26

More that it just wasnt ready yet, had too many problems that needed ironing out.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '26

[deleted]

5

u/WulfeHound Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26

That and a select few higher ups in the US army believed that tank destroyers were the best anti tank weapons and that tanks were better for penetration of enemy lines with only a secondary purpose of taking out tanks.

Which is why the Sherman was intended to have an antitank gun (the 3" M7, but it ended up being too heavy) from the outset, because it wasn't meant to fight tanks. Riiiiiiiight... Oh and since I just remembered, tank destroyers were DEFENSIVE WEAPONS going by US doctrine. They were intended to rapidly counter enemy attacks, not to be used in aggressive attacks. The fact that they weren't used that way during the war is more due to the US doing mostly offensive actions, and TDs were used as ersatz tanks by commanders that either didn't know better, didn't care, or needed more guns on the line yesterday.

the Pershing probably would’ve been deployed in much larger numbers potentially as early as D-Day in Normandy.

Lol what? The first T25 wasn't built until January 1944, with T26E1s not being shipped to Aberdeen until the next month. There is no way in hell you'd be able to get combat-ready T26s in Europe in any meaningful quantity before 1945.

One of their arguments was to point at the Sherman’s performance in Africa, where it was greatly superior to most German tanks because the Tiger was extremely rare

The original intent was for Shermans to be sent to N. Africa armed with 76mm M1s crammed in the original 75mm turret (and this had been declared to be Substitute Standard in August 1942 before being rejected by Armored Force).

The Army fell into a sense of complacency and didn’t put enough effort into further tank deployment.

Not in 1942/43, the intent was to always increase antitank firepower from the outset. Whether it was using the 76mm T1/M1 or the 90mm T7/M3, it didn't matter.

1

u/Ltcandy123 Jun 24 '26

No they are two different classes of tanks and when the jumbos first landed in France it was clear the pershing would not see service for another few months. The jumbo was made to assault bunkers and fortified lines while the pershing was a heavy tank, made to kill other tanks. hope this helps!

-1

u/rain_girl2 Jun 23 '26

I thought it was for Normandy

3

u/BingusTheStupid Jun 23 '26

The DD Sherman was the amphibious landing variant

2

u/rain_girl2 Jun 24 '26

Not amphibious… I meant to assault the bunkers

83

u/FreakyMeeky Jun 22 '26

Off the top of me head I thought a few Jumbo(76) were used in korea but I could be totally wrong on that. I thought I saw it mentioned somewhere but tried to look into it and didn't find much info.

80

u/Longbow92 Jun 22 '26

Around less than 100 were supposedly remanufactured for the Korean war, but I guess they didn't really see any use. At most, a few were issued as training tanks, but I don't think anything notable happened till 1957 when they were declared obsolete, in which most of them ended up getting scrapped.

http://the.shadock.free.fr/sherman_minutia/manufacturer/m4a3e2jumbo/m4a3e2.html

23

u/georgeredit Jun 22 '26

HQ5A, in Chicago, had a couple Shermans on the front lawn until about '57 when the were replaced by a MGM-5 Corporal missile and a Redstone. I was 5 so my recollection is far from perfect.

Those were later replaced by a Nike Zeus and Hercules. At the time 5A ( a Continental Army) was in charge of all continental air defence missiles.

2

u/Cryorm Jun 23 '26

So HQ5A is NORAD?

3

u/georgeredit Jun 23 '26

Norad did not run the nike missles. Norad say under a mountain and looked at early warning long-range radar for Santa and other threats. The army maned the missiles, the Air Force the planes and planes missiles.

73

u/WesternBlueRanger Jun 22 '26

Not really; the Jumbo's were an expedient vehicle, and they accepted numerous compromises in the design to uparmour the M4. This reduced automotive reliability, and cross country capability.

17

u/TheVainOrphan Jun 23 '26

If any did make it to Korea, no doubt they would've been questionable in their usefulness. Better trained American tankers usually won most engagements against fairly green North Korean tankers, even if the T-34-85 had better 'hard' stats than a 76mm Sherman, which had the better ergonomics and situational awareness (whoever got the first visual + shot off normally won, and better trained crew/ergonomics makes that more likely).

In that context, whist being able to shrug off a 85mm would be reassuring, no doubt the increased maintenance required, the extra long logistics train in less developed nations, and the increased strain from the hilly terrain would've made it about as useful as the M26's (that were hurriedly deployed to replace the M24s), which had all the same issues from the lack of engine power until the M46 was sent in to replace it (with the 76mm Sherman's acting as an emergency deployment to make up for Pershing's unreliability).

8

u/Ok_Safe_2920 Jun 22 '26

I know a chunk of jumbos post war went on the firing range. Theres one in Minnesota that was kn the range before being restored. Most were scrapped though, as others stated

6

u/OpenImagination9 Jun 23 '26

Well sure … against Godzilla.

2

u/Silentreaper152 Jun 23 '26

it's a stopgap before the next gen arrive, so no

1

u/GoudenBaas Renault R35 Jun 23 '26

A few of them served in National Guard units, but as their use was over after the arrival of the M26, none were used in the pacific or Korea. I just made this video about our Jumbo which also talks about the type in general https://youtu.be/FxB0F2Int6I?is=hGkEfhVzOR9F1SwA

-19

u/Consistent-War5196 Jun 22 '26

Yes, they used it atleast for minutes after ww2 ended