depending about which version of the sherman we are talking about he had its value. The 75mm version was a very good choice for infantry support since its high explosive shell was more effective then from the 76mm gun which was later used with the sherman. So the most common vehicle in the normandy champaign was the Sherman same with the cromwell in british use. Both of those vehicles had the advantage of beeing realtive reliable and easy to replace in the field. The number of axis vehicles was for example always very low and pretty much no unit managed to retain its strength it had on paper. After the battle in falaise alone the German forces had to leave aprox 70% of their equipment behind for example. The latest version of the Sherman was somewhat comparable with the Panzer IV G or H from its value. Both beeing able to penetrate each other on common battle distances. The Tiger 1 with beeing a heavy tank obviously outclassed the Sherman but that would be like comparing the IS2 with the Panzer III. Even though the 76mm with the HVAP (APCR) shell could damage the front of the Tiger on medium distances but it would be difficult cause the quality of the shells was not so good as expected so even if the shell could penetrate the armor in theory it would many times fail to do so in combat as the velocity caused the shell to shater on the armor so it had to get very close to achieve anything the same issue was present with the firefly which had one of the pest penetrations of all alied guns in the field at that time.
But the sherman wasnt chanceless with a skilled crew ! I think a 75mm version of the Sherman has knocked out a Tiger 1 in Italy with
the 752nd Tank Battalion in the Battle for Cecina
I think its interesting what someone wrotte in a
forum about it :
How about La Glieze, Belgium, December, 1944. A King Tiger of the 501 SS was moving up to attempt to rescue Germans trapped in a house. As it came through the woods, a Sherman hit it three times. The Americans watched it drive away without any attempt to return fire. Unknown to them, one shot knocked out the intercom system and the German driver retreated on his own initiative. His reason for this was that another hit the base of the turret and deflected downwards into the top deck. That round killed the bow machinegunner and damaged the transmission, which eventually seized up immobilizing the King Tiger permanently. Around the same time and place another King Tiger was abandoned when a Sherman blew off part of its gun tube. Near Bastogne, six Shermans of the 4th AD took on a Panther company as it tried to force its way down the road they were guarding. When the smoke cleared, 11 Panthers were burning and not a single Sherman had been knocked out. There are plenty of examples. Tigers, Panthers and King Tigers were vulnerable to the Sherman, just not in frontal long range duels, which was not always possible. There is even an account of a King Tiger commander refusing to attack a column of Shermans as they were on higher ground and he feared they would put a shot through his turret roof. The human factor is critical, it is just not as easy to judge as a tank's technical data.