When the Arabs armies received new Soviet tanks during the early 1950s, Israeli Sherman tanks were rapidly outclassed, as they were insufficiently armed to deal with T-34 and T-85 tanks. This situation led to development of new improved Sherman tanks. The solution was upgrading the main cannon to a 75mm CN 75-50 French gun with 1000 m/sec velocity.

The prototype turret was sent to Israel in 1955, this gun was fitted in M4A4 and M4A3 tanks, the first 50 M-50 tanks had VVSS and in the middle of 1961 there were 300 M-50 tanks ready with HVSS.

One of the best kept secrets in the Sinai Campaign (1956) was the participation of US made Sherman M-50 tanks on which the French mounted a 75mm gun. When the Sinai Campaign (1956) war broke out, Israel had 180 Sherman tanks ready for battle of total 205 Sherman’s. M-50s were active combatants in the Sinai Peninsula and in the daring battle on the Roeifa Dam under the command of Moshe Brill. After many tracks and engine modifications by the IDF, they were used in the Six Day War (1967) and theYom Kippur War (1973).


When the Six Day War (1967) war broke out, Israel had 515 Sherman tanks ready out of a total of 520 Sherman’s, and when the Yom Yom Kippur War (1973) war broke out, Israel had 340 Sherman’s.

In 1983 Chile acquired a number of M-50s from Israel.