In WWII, did Russians find American tanks useful? (metric vs. imperial measures)?

Question

The US sent Russia about 7,000 tanks. But were these useful, due to the differences between Am.imperial measures and the metric Russians used? Or were Americans trained to make tanks using the metric system?

Answer 1

Good question.  I've never come across any info on your question.  I have read a little about Sherman tanks being used.   Wish I could give more info.  You might be able to google this.

Answer 2

The main advantage of US tanks in WW2 was their ability to make a lot on the assembly line.  The advantage of numbers.  That means no changes in how they were made.  Definitely not metric.

The US tanks were actually inferior to the Russian and German tanks and it would be difficult to figure out what the Russians did with them.  They were too proud that their own tanks were better.  They did like US Jeeps though and put them to good use.

Answer 3

  Of course they were useful!  When you send a tank, you also have to send all the spare parts, tools and ammunition and fuel to make it run- or you could  just send chunks of rock to throw.

  d**n, I know the Soviets were stupid, but don't you think they would have asked the US to stop cluttering up their docks with scrap metal if the tanks were useless?

Answer 4

What's funny is that the T-34 was built as a replacement to the Soviet BT series, which owed it's design to John Walter Christie, an American. The US Secretary of War rejected Christie's design calling it excessive. So Christie sold the design to the Russians. Which allowed them to build the BT series of fast tanks and were then improved into the best combat tank of WWII, the Soviet T-34.

Had Christie's M1928 design been purchased by the US war department the M4 Sherman might have been a better tank than the T-34. It incoporated both speed and sloped armor. And sloped armor was the more important of the two because it allowed for thinner armor that acted as if it were the same as thicker armor. This was due to the fact that it could better deflect incoming rounds, something that really made the T-34 the best combat tank of the war.

Answer 5

American tanks were inferior to Russian tanks very quickly. The T34 outclassed the Sherman so much that its funny. Even with the conversion right, the M4 would have been useless in Russia. Its too tall and the treads are too narrow.