Looking at the ERAs served, which is a better tank, the Sherman or Abrams?

I love the old sherman for some reason. As for a medium battle field tank, it sucked. Though, the maintenance was easy. A blown out tank could be cannibalized in the field easily to fix other down tanks. Germans could not do that with their mighty tigers.
Over all, the M1 is a better tank in comparison to it's era.

The Sherman was outclassed by just about everybody's Main Battle Tanks at the time. It was inferior in armament and crew protection, and only through force of numbers and guts did they prevail against the Germans.

The Abrams on the other hand is clearly the gold standard of tanks. Some would argue for the Leopard II or Markava, but the Abrams has proven itself over and over. Even the Army's last two attemps to improve upon it for a new tank have both failed to prove to be "better enough" to justify the investment.

With honorable mention to the Tiger II and T-34C, the M-1 will likely go down in history as the best tank ever.

Abrams

The Sherman was a grayhound for the era, fast and maneuverable, also had the added joy of just being so damn many of them. But that's about all you can say about them, they had a high profile, light armor, and wimpy gun

The Abrams, almost falls victim to the same thing the Germans had of over engineering but all in all it has the best of armor, weapon systems, and speed

To be fair you would have to add the M48 series and M60 series in Korea, Vietnam and the Cold War actions. There are so many variables based on terrain it is hard to answer. Sherman fought far superior German armor and loss ratio was high, but it is considered one of the top weapons platforms of WW2. M1 series is superior to the Russian built armor of the Middle East and those crews were ill trained to take on US Tankers. Tanker nine years, "Never get of the Tank." :-)

The Sherman, while a great tank in its time, was severely outmatched and outgunned by the anti-tank weapons and tanks the Germans were fielding.

In contrast, the Abrams enjoyed a time where it was arguably the best battle tank of all time.

Abrams by far, Sherman's had to "Gang up" because they were out-gunned by Panthers, Tigers and even up-gunned Panzer Kampfwagen Mark IVs.

The Sherman's problems are tactical. Not physical. The Sherman was used incorrectly. The Sherman was supposed to be part of a set doctrine. And it was. Problem is that the doctrine changed. And when that doctrine changed, the M-4 found itself doing roles for which is was not intended. This would have painful results when M-4s attempted to dance with Panthers and Tigers. The upgunned variants were little better. The M-4 was never intended to battle other tanks.

You're kidding right?

The M-4 Sherman earned such nicknames as "The Burning Grave", "Ronson" (a lighter of the time, think Zippo) and "Tommycooker" because it was so outmatched, the only redeeming quality of the M-4 was it could be mass produced and worked on any farm kid with tractor experience.

Contrast the M-1. Fast and mobile, at the time of development it was the finest tank in existence with cutting edge technology that was thought to be the stuff of science fiction. 35 years later it's still a contender on the battlefield, and I read somewhere that no-one has EVER died in an Abrams during combat (I even heard a story of a driver trapped in a burning M-1 for four hours... everyone thought he was dead, but when they finally got the hatch open he blinked and said "What took you so long?!".


-Ability to protect it's crew.
-Rank in the "food chain" in it's Era.
-Service life.
Abrams.

-Nostalgia
-Mass production
Sherman

The Abrams is only the best tank, ever. How many times has this tank been beaten in battle?

The Abrams is and has been a world leader from its inception, It can defeat anything in any inventory around the world with a high success ratio. It is getting on in years and shows no sign of slowing down or becoming antiquated.

The Sherman was a gasoline death trap up against superior German armor. It is only the fact that the USA could out manufacture in great numbers that quantity outdid quality...It wasn't a terrible piece of equipment it was good enough to get the job done, but it just was not a superior piece of equipment as is the Abrams