Right! so you found an image of a conventional Israeli Sherman (any Israeli Sherman with a turret and cannon)

there were lots of different variants used by Israel, and some modified variants, I will not go into immense detail about the normal unmodified Shermans as they were explained in detail in this video done by the YouTuber and great friend Eta320.

M-3 Sherman

An M3 Sherman is any Sherman armed with the 75mm M3 cannon, sub-variants may include M4, M4 105, M4A1, M4A2, and M4A4. some are rarer than others, M4 105s are rarer due to their purchase time and purchased amount.

On the 28th of June 1948, Yerocham Kafkafi (Technical officer of brigade 8, and ex-British army technician during world war two)

Wrote that there was a lack of replacement parts for the tanks, and at the same time, the IDF wanted to expand its tank force. on the 12th of august 1948, Mr. Kafkafi was told he is going to Italy, to search for and buy Shermans, and he was told to get three dozen (36) Shermans, he inspected 120 Shermans in different Italian scrapyards full of leftover vehicles of American and British origin from world war two, 30 M4 Sherman 105s were purchased and brought to Israel. 

most were re-armed with the M3 75mm cannon making them even rarer.

only one was destroyed

So in short, only 30 were in Israel until 29.12.1948 and 37 from then onward, to add to that not all of the 30 received the M3 75mm cannon, so they are quite rare to see, however, some remain in museums (The picture below shows ab M4 105 rearmed with the 75mm M3 cannon making it an M-3 Sherman)

So how to identify an M4 105 in Israel? well it’s pretty simple, first, make sure it’s an M4 (watch the video linked at the start), and then look at the mantlet, and if you see a line around the gun it is a 105, then you want to look at the cannon, if its an M3 75mm cannon, good! If not, then its a 105mm M4 cannon, and please look at the next section (Note this picture shows a Sherman with the mantlet and cannon of a 105mm M4, a 75mm M3 would look different)

Additionally, some may have received the Cummins engine such as the Sherman “Moreg” (Sherman Crab) can be seen in this picture, these are rare, contact me if you can find more pictures of them at  shiryonarchive@gmail.com. 

M-4 Sherman

Confusing I know, but in this context, M-4 Sherman means an Israeli Sherman. armed with the M4 105mm howitzer, as mentioned in the previous section, they were bought from Italy, the picture above is of one such vehicle, these are rarer than the M3 Shermans, even rarer than the M4 105 based M-3, however, some rarer ones exist, being mismatched hulls, in the picture below you can see an M-4 Sherman on a small hatch hull (this picture is of the tank on top of Latrun’s tower), all 105mm Shermans were produced on large hatch hulls, and as such a small hatch M4 Sherman is rarer.

M-1 Sherman

In Israel M-1 Sherman refers to any Sherman with the M-1 76mm cannon, there are 2 things you should look for, hull variant, and suspension, Israel only had two hull types for M1 Shermans, M4A1 and M4A3, M4A3 being extremely rare! And the suspension is less exciting either being VVSS or HVSS, in case it’s an HVSS Sherman it’s a Super Sherman.

M-50 Sherman

The M-50 Sherman is quite recognizable due to its new gun, specifically with its muzzle brake, which is flat and square, additionally, the mantlet looks way different as it protrudes from the turret face and looks like a spear.

There are 2 main types of M-50, Degem Alef and Degem Bet.

The Degem Alef was the first and is rarer, it is identifiable by the engine deck and suspension, the Degem Alef would have the same engine and same engine deck as the M4A1, and the VVSS suspension.

The Degem Bet would have HVSS and a new engine, the Cummins VT-8 460HP, and a new engine deck, which resembles the engine deck of the M4A1 but taller and split in the middle, there’s a picture I took of a Sherman with the new Cummins engine in Yad La-Shiryon museum.

Also, M-50s based on M4 Composite hulls are quite rare as well

There was also one Degem Yud, which was the doing of two officers, it’s just an M-50 Degem Bet shortened by 30cm off the top of the hull, meaning the hull machinegun touched the roof of the hull.

as only one was made and it was most likely scrapped shortly after its creation only two known photos exist if you find any others contact me immediately at shiryonarchive@gmail.com.

M-51 Sherman

The M-51 is an M-1 Sherman converted to use the French 105mm, they can be identified by the long cannon and the unusual muzzle brake, with double baffles and a rounder shape.

there were two main variants of the M-51, one with the older engine same as the M4A1, these were named Degem Alef, and so its engine deck would be the exact same, these are super rare as they were from the first production runs, very few pictures exist, the more common type had the new Cummins engine, same as the one on the M-50 Degem Bet, and so were named Degem Bet as well, a picture of that engine deck can be found above. The really rare M-51s were M51s based on welded hulls, as they were always made from M4A3 76s, which as stated in the M-1 section, were super rare! Not too many pictures exist of them.

Krupp Sherman

With the purchase of 30 M4 105 Shermans mentioned at the start, there were a few issues, namely, the howitzers didn’t work, and some were repaired or replaced with M3 or M4 howitzers, however, due to a shortage of cannons, in April 1949 6 M4 105s were repaired with an M1903 Krupp cannon, by late 1950/early 1951 they were all re armed with either M3 or M4 howitzers, and so, due to the low amount of tanks converted and the short time frame, pictures of these tanks are very very rare, additionally its hard to identify them as they use the same mantlet at the M4 howitzer, identify them look at the barrel’s base, if it looks like something is covering it, that because it is, its a part of the M1903 Krupp cannon, also as the M1903 is shorter than an M4 howitzer, if it looks like an M4 howitzer but it’s too short, look again as it may be a Krupp Sherman, barely any pictures exist, these are really really rare.

Here it is, with the M1903 Krupp cannon for comparison

Full article on the Krupp Sherman can be found here