Tanks of the United States saw limited action in the battle for Normandy as armored recovery vehicles with dummy guns. The M4 was the best known and most used American tank of World War II. Christened "Sherman" by the British, it was named for the famous US Civil War General, William Tecumseh Sherman. The M4 Sherman was a medium tank that proved itself in the Allied operations in North Africa, Europe and the Pacific theaters of war in World War II. The Sherman was a relatively inexpensive, easy to maintain and produce combat system. Similar to production efforts on the part of the Soviet Union
Ethnic minorities in the US armed forces during World War II Ethnic minorities in the US armed forces during World War II Ethnic minorities served in the US armed forces during World War II. All citizens were equally subject to the draft. All minorities were given the same rate of pay. The 16 million men and women in the services included over 1 million African Americans, along with 33,000+ Japanese-Americans, 20,000+ Chinese Americans, more than 20,000 American Indians, and 16,000 Filipino-Americans. About 65,034 Puerto Ricans served as well as about 500,000 Mexican-Americans (both white and mestizo) and smaller numbers of other Hispanics. Group totals for European ethnic groups were not tabulated.