Lend Lease

[brando]

"...Even Shermans were not liked too much by their crews."

I think that opinion was shared on both major fronts, east and west. My father spent his time in North Africa and after D day in Europe in a battlefield tank-rescue unit. I recall him saying how the Sherman crews feared getting hit by the heavier German tanks' armament as they "brewed-up" quite rapidly after sustaining damage, making escape or crew recovery more difficult.

There's no doubt that there would be some enmity towards 'foreign aid' both from the government and the men & women on the sharp end. Similar I guess to the rise of the Japanese motorcycle industry after the war, remembering the reaction of British bike-owners to the newcomers.

Getting used to different controls and gauges, as well as the differing intentions of the designers as regards use and maintenance, is always difficult. Dropping back to bikes for a moment I find the example of which side the kickstarter and gearshift pedal go on. These positions were reversed on Japanese machines sold here, and this change was a large part of why we Brits hated the new interloper. Eventually we got used to the new configuration and slowly started to like the various features that were there. But it took years for our cynicism to wear off.

B