25. The War’s Most Survivable Tank
Contra the myth that Shermans were death traps, they were actually relatively safe by WWII tank standards. Crews on average suffered only one fatality for every Sherman destroyed: the tank might be lost, but most crewmen lived to fight another day, helped by a plethora of large escape hatches.
A US First Army study of losses suffered by its 456 available Shermans from June to November of 1944 revealed 129 killed and 280 wounded. That amounted to a Sherman crew loss ratio during half a year of intense combat of only 0.3% killed, and 0.6% wounded.