The Proud Debutantes*
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Date: October 24, 1942*
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Battle Type: British vs German Meeting Engagement*
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Design: Bill Wilson*
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The Battle of El Alamein has begun.  The 2nd Armoured Brigade has passed through the 2nd New Zealand Division and is pushing westward.  In the lead is the 2nd Battalion of the Dragoon Guards, better known as the "The Queen's Bays".
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The Sherman tank, known in the stilted jargon of the United States Army as "Medium Tank, M4", has over the years acquired an unjustified reputation as a 'death trap' or 'Ronson Lighter'.  While it is true that the M4's initial design did not age well on the battlefields of World War II, when the Sherman first appeared, it was one of the best tanks on the battlefields of North Africa and the British found it a godsend.
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The first lend-lease Shermans arrived in Egypt in October 1942.  In the British 1st Armoured Division, the Bays were allotted the new medium tanks.  To the Bays went the honor of the first engagement with Shermans against enemy tanks -- specifically, battle hardened veterans of the 8. Panzerregiment, 15. Panzerdivision.
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The engagement took place at 2,000 yards.  After the Germans lost several tanks, they withdrew to the north.
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For the Germans, the appearance of the new tank was an unwelcome factor in a desert war that was rapidly being decided by material superiority and the triumph of highly organized logistics.  For the Shermans (the 'Proud Debutantes'), the engagement was the beginning of over thirty years of combat service in a variety of armies.
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Source:  "Sherman Medium Tank", by Hunnicutt.
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