After World War II, the Sherman tank quickly became obsolete (some may say that happened long before the end of the war). After serving a brief stint during the Korean War, its service life with the United States was pretty much over. Used Sherman tanks were sold to a number of countries post-war, and saw sporadic service in several conflicts around the world. There are even a few that are likely still in service today.

However, the twilight song of the Sherman tank must certainly have been with the Israeli army from 1948 to the late 1970s. The Sherman tank (and several derivatives) saw extensive service with the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) not only due to its ruggedness and reliability, but also because of its availability and relatively cheap prices on the surplus armaments market. The IDF breathed new life into this old design through a series of modifications and improvements that ultimately resulted in a new generation of Sherman tank, culminating with the M51.

As can be seen in the References section of this website, there have not been very many quality reference books available to us until recently. IDF Shermans had been mentioned in passing in some general Sherman tank references (such as Osprey, Concord, etc.), and there was a single photo-reference book from Verlinden in the '90s, but I think the majority of the limited information then available was contained in military history and modeling magazines. That changed in 2007 with the publication of Gannon's excellent book, and another photographic reference book for the M51 from WWP in 2010.

But the real breakthrough came with the series of books from Robert Manasherob, called Lioness & Lion of the Line, published from 2007 to 2015 (with more supposedly on the way). They simply cannot be beat for extremely thorough and accurate information on IDF Shermans. I highly recommend this series of books.

The Tanks

Although this is not an official breakdown of versions, I like to view the Sherman tank as having four 'generations' in IDF service. Notice that the terminology used by the IDF is very different than the original US designations:

Original 75mm or 105mm-armed Sherman tanks - These were standard, small-turret Sherman tanks of a number of variants (M4, M4A4, etc.) armed with either the 75mm M3 cannon or 105mm M4 howitzer. Examples of most variants of the Sherman were acquired and put to use in one form or another by the IDF. I have sometimes seen these referred to as either M3 or M4 Shermans based on their gun mounts, but that doesn't seem to be universal.

M1 Sherman - Named for the 76mm M1 gun mount. These were the later versions of the Sherman tank that had been upgraded late in WW II with the T23 turret and 76mm cannon. Again, the IDF obtained and used multiple variants, such as M4A1, M4A3, etc.

• The M1 Sherman with the HVSS suspension was referred to by the IDF as the M1 Super Sherman. This was the only version of the tank called Super Sherman by the IDF, and not the following M50.

M50 - This version saw the introduction of the high-velocity, 75mm gun from France (CN-75-50) mounted in a modified Sherman 75mm turret. It was never referred to as Super Sherman by the IDF.

M51 - The ultimate version of the Sherman tank was the M-51, which mounted the French CN-105-F1 105mm cannon in a heavily modified T23 turret. It was never called "Isherman" by the IDF. That was a name created by the foreign press and adopted by the modeling community.

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