A wide shot of a Crocodile a Modified version of the M4 Sherman tank. The Crocodile tank is not a tank that was used for fighting enemy tanks but was used to kill Infantry or to burn fortifications and building being occupied by the enemy. With the armor of a M4 Sherman approximately 3 inch (correct me if i'm wrong) with this armor in the front and side's as well as the back the allied force's could use it as cover as they advance toward the enemy. The bullets would then bounce off of the tank and in turn the Crocodile could burn all enemies and fortifications most used to assault enemy mg bunkers and mg nest etc. 

Sherman Crocodile 

The Sherman was being issued in small numbers for familiarization to U.S. armored divisions when there was a turn of events in the Western Desert campaign. Axis forces had taken Tobruk and were advancing into Egypt and the Britain’s supply line through the Suez Canal was threatened. The US considered collecting all Shermans together so as to be able to send the 2nd Armored Division under Patton to reinforce Egypt, but delivering the Shermans directly to the British was quicker and 300 had arrived there by September 1942.

The M4A1 Sherman first saw combat at the Second Battle of El Alamein in October 1942 with the British 8th Army. The first U.S. Shermans in battle were M4A1s in Operation Torch the next month. At this time, Shermans successfully engaged German Panzer IIIs and Panzer IVs at ranges up to 2,000 yards (1,800 m).Additional M4s and M4A1s replaced M3s in U.S. tank battalions over the course of the North African campaign.

The M4 and M4A1 were the main types in U.S. units until late 1944, when the Army began replacing them with the preferred M4A3 with its more powerful 500 hp (370 kW) engine and 76 mm gun. Some M4s and M4A1s continued in U.S. service for the rest of the war. The first Sherman to enter combat with the 76 mm gun in July 1944 was the M4A1, closely followed by the M4A3. By the end of the war, half the U.S. Army Shermans in Europe had the 76 mm gun. The first HVSS Sherman to see combat was the M4A3E8(76)W in December 1944.See the photos on:
 
http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/will-love-us-pics-net-sherman-tanks-image-heavy.html


warhistoryonline,greetz,brummbar 

Sherman and armor photoseries

Komödienstrasse/Cologne (Germany); March 6, 1945:

M4 Sherman of the US 3rd Armored Division received a direct hit by a German Panzer V &quot;Panther&quot; of Panzer-Brigade 106 in Komödienstrasse in the center of Cologne. 
The Sherman's crew consisted of Tank Commander Kellner, Gunner Gialluca, Asst. Gunner Speer, Driver Patrick und Asst. Driver Griffin. Patrick and Speer were killed instantly by the impact of the Panther's shell. Kellner, Gialluca and Griffin made it out of the tank but Kellner (he can be seen bailing out of the tank on the right side of the photo) lost a leg and died in spite of immediate medical treatment. The German tank however was destroyed shortly after by a T26E3 &quot;Pershing&quot;.