Editing American WWII Military Equipment (section)

==Vehicles==
So going into WW2 nobody knew how this whole tank thing was going to work. It would be the Germans who got the closest to the best strategy and design but it was not until the war Ended and the British started to roll out the Centurion that the Current Main Battle Tank Era began. This does not except the Americans and going into the war US military doctrine worked a bit like this: the job of the tank was to support the infantry and exploit breakthroughs. The job of the tank destroyer is to engage enemy tanks. Therefore the tank destroyer would be behind the lines in the second line and when a tank or major armor attack was discovered the tank destroyers would rush forward to meet the threat. That's why compared to German tank destroyers American Tank destroyers are both turreted and faster: they had to respond to threats dynamically and rapidly. In practice: tanks fought tanks all the time so it was better to make the tank able to fight other tanks rather then be force to depend on a second element to do the job.
===Tanks===
* '''The Sherman Platform''': You know how the [[Leman Russ (tank)|Leman Russ tank]] has a billion variants all based on the same hull? The Sherman is the start of that trope. A lot of military's tried to do that but the Sherman is the embodiment of that concept. Depending on which Sherman your talking about you could be dealing with a 105mm howitzer building fucker, a 17 pounder tank fucker who has bad teeth, a extra thicc assaulting fucker, A tank destroyer to really fuck up tanks, a rocket projector system to fuck up you and all your friends, A swimming one if you needed to fuck up fish. If you needed to fuck something up, you could probably find something based on the Sherman hull that could and would do the job. Quick note about the name though: "Sherman" was name the British gave it, officially it was just the "M4 Medium Tank".
**'''M4AX''': Ok quick thing about that "AX", there should be a number there to denote which version of the Sherman your talking about, there are seven different standardize types, that range from M4 to M4A6. Practically though there all functionally the same so it's just a way to both acknowledge that and also ensure were talking about all of them. Got it? Good. Now the M4 is one of the 'big three' tanks of WW2 alongside the T-34 and the Tiger as the Tank Everybody Knows. And like those tanks there are arguments as to whether it was any good. The M4 medium was one of the best mass produced tanks of the war. Not quite reaching T-34's level of Zerg Rush but with much better quality control, which mattered since the things had to cross an ocean in either direction to get to any fighting. When the M4 was first introduced it was more then a match for the German standard tanks, but unexpectedly for the Americans the Germans double down and focused on their heavy tanks, leaving the M4 a bit out gunned. Not complexly, even if forced to fight M4's especially with the 76mm it could deal with a Tiger, if not easily at long range, but the Panther was a whole nother beast. The general superiority of the German heavy armor has lead to the myth that it took 5 M4's to match one tiger, what they fail to mention is that the M4 was attacking and so were always going to take more losses to a tiger, and they also don't mention that US tanks operate in 5 tank platoons. So if a tiger was seen you send a platoon of five tanks to the area, hence the myth. But more then any of that the Sherman's big advantage was being able to be mass produced, Sent Across an '''Ocean''', and send to front line en-mass. That is a victory of logistics and design and not one to take lightly.
**'''M4-105''': Built for the same reason as the German Stug, the 105 m4's job was to drive up to fortification and put accurate 105mm high explosive shells right on top of them. Remember this was WW2 no drone spotting to correct your fire, best way to be accurate was to get reeeeeeal close to what you wanted to destroy.
**'''M4A3E2:''' You ever notice that the US is the only nation in WW2 to never actually use a heavy tank? Brits had the Churchill, Soviets had the KV and IS, Germans had the big cats, but the yanks had nothing. When you remember that Shermans had to be carried across the ocean it does make sense. . .that and the m6 project failed. Better use of the cargo space to have more tanks after all. But The M4A3E2, the '''Sherman Jumbo''' as it would be called post war, is the answer to the heavy tank niche. While not numerous, the Jumbos were built with Extra armor to make them much more resilient against anti tank guns including the infamed 88mm and fixed fortifcations, and as they were built with the 75mm gun and it's good HE shell originally it was a job the Jumbo could do well.

===Tank Destroyers/Assault Guns===
===Half-Tracks and Armored Cars===

* '''M3 Scout Car''': This ugly looking uparmored pickup truck was the ancestor of a big ugly, confusing family of vehicles.  A family which began with...
* '''M2 Artillery Tractor''': "Hey, this scout car is great; could you give it tracks so it can go offroad while pulling a cannon?"
** '''M3 Halftrack''': "Hey, this artillery tractor is great; could you make it big enough to carry a squad?"
*** '''T19 Howitzer Motor Carriage''': "Forget the squad, can it carry a big fucking gun?"
**** '''M13 Halftrack''': "What about two machine guns in an AA turret?."
***** '''M15 Combination Gun Motor Carriage''': [[Federated Suns|"Any chance you could squeeze an autocannon in there too?"]]
****** '''M16 Halftrack''': "Forget the autocannon, let's do four machine guns."
*** '''M5 Halftrack''': "Hmmmm... we need a lot more of these halftracks, what would we have to change to make them in combine harvester factories?"
**** '''M9 Halftrack''': "Oh, and we need some more artillery tractors too."
**** '''M17 Halftrack''': "Wait, four guns?  Gimme some of that."

High level, halftracks can be divided into three major families; the M2, the M3, and the M5.  The M2 and M3 were made by White Motor Company and are mechanically similar but the M3's chassis is longer.  The M5 family was produced by International Harvester, but their factories were set up to make farm equipment.  The M5's frame is narrower than the M2 & M3, making most of the suspension and transmission components incompatible.  The M5s were mostly used for lend-lease, but enough of them were in the US forces to cause logistics headaches.