I can agree with this, 76mm Shermans like the Soviet Sherman should have been available alongside the 75mm Shermans.
It's not, but the Tiger was extremely common in comparison to the Pershing, which only saw a handful of engagements.
That's simply not true. The Germans shifted considerable numbers of Panthers, Tiger I's, and Tiger II's to the western front in preparation for the Americans and British. We faced a lot of Panthers and Tigers there.
From an interview with Steven Zaloga:
"How many times did US forces encounter Tiger tanks?
When you read unit accounts, whether it’s the actual unit after action reports or the published books, everyone talks about Tiger tanks. But in looking at it in both German records and US records,
I’ve only found three instances in all the fighting from Normandy to 1945 where the US encountered Tigers. And by Tigers I mean Tiger 1, the type of tank we saw in the film. I’m not talking King Tigers, the strange thing is that the US Army encountered King Tigers far more often than Tigers. That’s partly because there weren’t a lot of Tigers left by 1944, production ends in August 1944. There were not a lot of Tigers in Normandy, they were mostly in the British sector, the British saw a lot of Tigers. Part of the issue is that US tankers were notorious for identifying everything as a Tiger tank, everything from Stug III assault guns to Panzer IV and Panthers and Tigers."
Heres the original source of the statement made from actual documentation:
http://www.amazon.com/Armored-Thunderbolt-U-S-Sherman-World/dp/0811704246
Most of the Tiger Is were deployed in the British sector, not the US one. And yes, Panthers were actually very common.
Now where is your references?
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The interview:
http://tankandafvnews.com/2015/01/27/zaloga_interview/