Armor and lethality don’t tell the whole story. Key Point: The Sherman’s inadequacies were products of its origins. American tanks in World War II were generally inferior to their German counterparts. German tanks boasted better armor protection and more firepower. But armor and lethality don’t tell the whole story. The same American tanks were superior to their rivals in other important ways. The M-4 Sherman, in particular, helped the U.S. Army win the war—even though, in battle, German tanks destroyed them en masse. The Sherman’s inadequacies were products of its origins. Before the war, American tank design and development was bipolar—a result of the competing demands of the Army’s infantry and cavalry branches.