Sherman I Composito (Italy)

▄Sherman I Composito

▄Sherman I Composito

Italy

III Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
3.7	3.7	3.7

Class:

PREMIUM

Medium tank

Purchase:1 300

Show in game

Description

The Carro Armato Medio «Sherman» Tipo I (Composito) is a premium rank III Italian medium tank with a battle rating of 3.7 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update "Starfighters".

General info

Survivability and armour

Armour type:

• Rolled homogeneous armour (hull sides, rear and roof)
• Cast homogeneous armour (front glacis, transmission housing, turret, gun mantlet)

Armour	Front (Slope angle)	Sides	Rear	Roof
Hull	50.8 mm (54-57°) Front glacis 50.8 mm (43-48°) Viewports 38.1 (spherical) + 50.8 mm MG port 50.8 mm (cylindrical) Transmission housing 50.8 mm (8°) Truncated glacis over the tracks	50.8 mm (7°) Front part 38.1 mm 38.1 + 25.4 mm Ammo racks	38.1 mm (10°)	50.8 mm (0-48°) Front glacis 19.5 mm Turret area 19.5 mm (7°) Engine bay - centre 19.5 mm (23°) Engine bay - sides
Turret	76.2 mm (7-65°) Turret front 50.8 mm (7-25°) Turret front - gunner side 38.1 + 38.1 mm (cylindrical) Gun mantlet	50.8 mm (1-4°) Turret sides 50.8 mm (58-66°) Roof radius	50.8 mm (2-4°) Sponson 50.8 mm (61-66°) Roof slope	25.4 mm
Cupola	50.8 mm (16°)			25.4 mm

Notes:

• Suspension wheels are 15 mm thick while tracks are 20 mm thick and bogies are 10 mm thick.

The hull is very similar to the US M4A1 with a 50.8 mm frontal sloped armour but with a front glacis welded on the rest of the hull instead of a cast one. Protruding viewports and truncated corners interrupt the sloped armour of the glacis and thus are weak spots easy to target for the enemy when up close. The hull sides feature appliqué armour plates covering the ammunition stowage racks. The turret is also very similar but lacks the M4's appliqué armour on the right cheek (gunner side), leaving a small weakened zone in that area. Frontal protection is quite good for its rank and shots from smaller anti-tank guns can generally be shrugged off, particularly when hull down. However more powerful guns such as the Pz.IV F2's long 75 mm can destroy the tank easily, so care should be taken. The side armour is only 38.1 mm thick and can be easily penetrated by just about any anti-tank gun if not angled.

Mobility

Game Mode	Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
	Forward	Reverse		Stock	Upgraded	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	43	6	31.5	620	763	19.68	24.22
Realistic	39	6		354	400	11.24	12.7

Based on the chassis of the M4A1, the Sherman I Composito (Italy) has the same good all-round mobility: the tank accelerates quickly and is able to reach a maximum speed of 42 km/h in a dozen of seconds. The brakes are powerful and will make the M4 Hybrid skid rather than slow down when driving at maximum speed. The violent braking also causes the hull to wobble, but your vertical stabilizer will fully compensate this effect as soon as your is slower than 20 km/h. The reverse speed is rather poor: it won't get you out of a dangerous situation quickly enough. The lack of neutral steering makes turning on the spot slow (2 km/h): make sure to build a little speed before turning and you'll turn much faster (11 km/h). Turning in reverse is equally slow (-2 km/h) Turning at full speed doesn't make you lose much speed as your acceleration is good. The offroad mobility is good: the Sherman I Composito (Italy) reaches 19 km/h when fording, 17 km/h when driving uphill with some speed built-up but a mere 10 km/h uphill from a stop start. The tracks are large and grant you a decent mobility on hard (solid ground, roads) and soft terrain (mud, snow, sand). Light and medium obstacles (fences, posts, bushes and small trees) are not a problem but large obstacles will reduce your mobility: avoid them.

Armaments

Main armament

75 mm M3					Turret rotation speed (°/s)					Reloading rate (seconds)
Mode	Capacity	Vertical	Horizontal	Stabilizer	Stock	Upgraded	Full	Expert	Aced	Stock	Full	Expert	Aced
Arcade	78	-10°/+25°	±180°	Vertical	22.9	31.6	__._	__._	45.2	5.60	_.__	_.__	5.00
Realistic					14.3	16.8	__._	__._	24.0

Ammunition

When discussing Sherman I Composito (Italy) shells, one always has to account for the fact that it's a medium tank. This means short to medium engagement range, so realistically it can benefit more from its short-range penetration figures than long-range sniping tanks would.

• M72 shot - AP - Solid shot, stock shell. Acceptable penetration, poor post-penetration damage.
• M48 shell - HE - Low-velocity shell useful against soft targets, in particular when hitting an open-topped vehicle. Harmless against any vehicle with more than 10 mm of armour.
• M61 shot - APCBC - This shell has a better penetration than the M72 thanks to its ballistic cap and a good post-penetration damage thanks to its explosive filler.

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
		10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
M72 shot	AP	91	88	78	67	57	49
M48 shell	HE	10	10	10	10	10	10
M61 shot	APCBC	104	101	90	78	68	59

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile Mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive Mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
							0%	50%	100%
M72 shot	AP	619	6.3	N/A	N/A	N/A	47°	60°	65°
M48 shell	HE	463	6.3	0.4	0.5	666	79°	80°	81°
M61 shot	APCBC	618	6.79	1.2	14	63.7	48°	63°	71°

Ammo racks

File:Ammoracks Sherman I Composito (Italy).png

Ammo racks of the Sherman I Composito (Italy)

Full ammo	1st rack empty	2nd rack empty	3rd rack empty	4th rack empty	Visual discrepancy
78	67 (+11)	59 (+19)	41 (+37)	1 (+77)	No

Note:

• As they are modeled by sets of 2, shells disappear from the rack only after you fire both shells in the set.

Machine guns

Offensive and anti-aircraft machine guns not only allow you to fight some aircraft but also are effective against lightly armoured vehicles. Evaluate machine guns and give recommendations on its use.

12.7 mm M2HB
Mount	Capacity (Belt)	Fire rate	Vertical	Horizontal
Pintle	300 (200)	577	-10°/+25°	±60°

7.62 mm M1919A4
Mount	Capacity (Belt)	Fire rate	Vertical	Horizontal
Coaxial	3,000 (250)	500	N/A	N/A

Usage in battles

The M4 Sherman is an effective medium-range combat tank. Equipped with a fast-firing 75mm gun and with good handling characteristics, the M4 can be an extremely useful asset in most battles.

In battle the M4 performs well as an all-rounder; the thick turret front and 10 degrees of gun depression make the tank ideal for taking hull-down positions which protect the thinner hull armour from being penetrated by enemy fire. The sloped front upper glacis, when angled, also provides good protection against enemy fire. An unusual - and useful - difference is that the upper glacis is sloped at 56 degrees rather than the standard 45 degrees, making it more of a threat and more powerful due to improving the chances of a round ricochet. The only downfall may be the 2 crew member position in the front that protrudes out to form a flat surface, but both are covered with an additional 20 mm plate. The reasonable mobility of the Sherman makes flanking a viable tactic. The main weakness of the M4 is the side armour - not only is it vertical and thin, but behind it most of the ammunition is stowed. The tall silhouette of the tank also makes finding suitable cover difficult. Overall, the M4 Sherman can be considered as an armoured jack-of-all-trades - it will serve a tanker well, however it will not excel in any particular role.

In battle, try to use terrain as cover. Hull-down positions are especially strong in the M4 Sherman, as it has a good 10 degrees of gun depression. The gun mantlet and turret are reasonably strong, but avoiding shots is still the best strategy. In this respect, a hull-down position hides the vulnerable hull. If this is not available, then angling the hull armour to present a greater slope is often a good idea, as this can bounce some low-powered cannon at any range and at longer ranges, render the hull impenetrable.

Another way to play the M4 Sherman is to tap into its traditional cavalry role, its mobility. The M4 Sherman is a great flanker as it is fast enough to get the jump on the enemy's side. Defeat the enemy at their weak front lines or go around the entire enemy force. Once in position at their sides or rear, ambush them. Ideally, the enemy should be too busy focusing on allies attacking in the front to notice the M4 instantly. Take out the weaker light or medium tanks, the 75 mm gun is not very ideal against heavy tanks like the KV-1 so take out its friends to allow allies more room to outmanoeuvre the KV tank. An organized attack will increase the M4 chances on the battlefield and success.

Enemies worth noting:

M4A2 / A4: these Sherman tanks are widely used by over 3 nations that spread across both the Allied and the Axis side, so no matter which nation you play they can be quite tough to destroy in the hands of a skilled tanker. Given the rather weak penetration of your short 75mm gun, their hull can be almost impossible to penetrate when angled, hull down or 300m away. For a M4A4, there are 2 apparent bulges on the upper front plate, a penetration through there is a guaranteed kill most of the times. But in case the opponent covers them up or when it's a M4A2, aim for the middle parts of the gun mantlet or the turret armor unprotected by the mantlet, you can at least make them defenseless. Note that their guns are equally weak against you, so wiggle around to disrupt their aim while you reload, you have a good chance of bouncing some shells.

Churchill Mk I, Churchill Mk III:

The Churchills, with their complex hulls and sturdy turrets, can be quite hard to kill at range. Again, maneuver as close to them as possible, the idea distance being no more than 200m. If they are angling their hull but facing their turret at you, only go for the turret. For the Mk I Churchills, aim at the near-vertical part of their rounded cheeks to ensure successful penetrations. For the Mk III, also aim for their flat turret which is at most 89mm. The shell should go in easily and knock out most, if not all of the crew. Only when you are facing their hull without any angles should you shoot the hull, otherwise shoot the turret only, as their big tracks can easily get in front of the frontal hull. The side hull have multiple layers of armor, some of which are weirdly angled and can absorb plenty of shells.

KV-1 (ZiS-5):

A vehicle that the M4 Sherman will have trouble against is the KV-1. While the L-11 is underpowered, the ZiS-5 is potent enough to punch through the Sherman's front, and the Sherman is unable to penetrate the KV-1's thick armour especially with its dd-on armor plates. If this heavy tank is encountered frontally, aim at the vertical area on the round gun mantlet as it is only 90mm thick. You can knock out its gunner this way. Or shoot at the vertical part where the gun mantlet doesn't cover to disable its turret ring and gunner / loader. Note: do not shoot at the frontal hull as it is too thick for the M61 shell. Of course, the best way is to shoot at its sides and rear without any angle, where its armour is unsloped, though it will still have to be at a close range to penetrate the armour. In addition, shots to the sides will most likely hit fuel tanks or ammunition storage, causing a fire or ammunition detonation and at best, time to reassess the situation.

R3 T20 FA-HS (AB / mixed RB):

This speedy wheeled vehicle can circle around you with ease and wipe out all your crew with its fast firing autocannon. In a close encounter, never expose your side to it, and do not even angle your hull. Face your hull directly to the R3, because on each side of the cast hull, above the inducer wheel there is a triangular area that blends and connects the upper front plate to the side. By angling the hull, this triangle becomes unangled to the R3, making it easily penetrated, and the driver / gunner will usually get knocked out first. It is harder for the R3 to penetrate your unangled hull thus giving you more time to react and destroy it.

Modules

Tier	Mobility		Protection	Firepower
I	Tracks		Parts	Horizontal Drive
II	Suspension	Brake System	FPE	Adjustment of Fire	M61 shot
III	Filters		Crew Replenishment	Elevation Mechanism
IV	Transmission	Engine		Artillery Support
This is a premium vehicle: all modifications are unlocked on purchase

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Great gun depression of 10° means impressive terrain adaptation
• Well angled upper front plate can bounce quite some shells when properly angled

Cons:

• The cast hull creates frontal weak spots with very little effective thickness, eg. the triangles between upper front plate and the side, and the curved hull hatches

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the vehicle in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the vehicle and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the vehicle's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the Sherman I Composito (Italy) from live.warthunder.com.

Videos

Premium Review. Sherman I Composito (Italy). Not worth Full Price - Joseph 2000

Sherman I Composito (Italy) - Containing Your Impatience For Showing Off - Napalmratte

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the series of the vehicles;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

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• topic on the official game forum;
• encyclopedia page on the tank;
• other literature.