![]() ![]() ![]() Without a doubt, the Sherman was the essential building block of Israel’s tank corps. ![]() Maintaining hundreds of Shermans for a quarter century taught the IDF to repair and overhaul tanks and modify them into ambulances, mortar carriers, and self-propelled guns. Israeli Sherman tanks had careers that stretched much longer than their American counterparts and a few were even passed on to Latin American clients and the South Lebanon Army in the 1980s. The IDF’s 300 or so Shermans, most of them imported from France, had a crucial role defeating superior Egyptian tanks in 19 but these were slowly retired from the 1970s onward. By the 1950s Israel and France collaborated to upgrade these aging models with larger guns and engines. The three or four Shermans that were collected later in the conflict made a good enough impression to become the IDF’s tank of choice and hundreds were subsequently imported. It’s a long and fascinating evolution that may never end.Īt least one ex-British M4A1 Sherman was used by Israeli forces in the 1948 war, where it fought against five armies with just 16 tanks. The urgent need to always have better weapons continued for the next 65 years. Israel’s desperate need for armor goes back to its War of Independence in 1948, when it relied on modified trucks and old French tankettes for leveling the odds. The results have been and very much are, for lack of a better word, spectacular. Often outgunned by its Arab foes, Israel spent years harnessing the knowledge and technology needed for producing tanks that could fight and survive against extremely dangerous adversaries. But examining the origins and development of its armored corps reveals many decades of hard lessons and improvisation. The best proof of this remarkable convergence is Israel’s impressive tank fleet and its vanguard, the unique Merkavas. Rather than crumble from repeated attacks by hostile neighbors, the Jewish state tipped the scales in its favor with a huge conscript army supported by a world-class manufacturing base. No other modern country thrives in constant warfare the way Israel does. ![]()
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