A Sherman II photographed on 10 October 1942. The wartime censor has obscured the foreground tank’s markings, the name SANTICK on the one behind and even the serial number on the Jeep. It is probably from HQ 2nd Armoured Brigade.
During World War II, the United Kingdom and Commonwealth nations received over 17,000 M4-series Medium Tanks under the Lend-Lease programme. Their first deployment in combat was at the Battle of El Alamein in October-November 1942, and they would become the most common tank in Allied service until the end of the war. While they were known by their M-numbers in American service, as usual the British applied their own designations using the names of American Civil War-era Generals, which in the M4’s case was the Union general, William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891).