How many tanks did Americans use in World War 2?

Answer 1

A precise answer is not possible, but many, many thousands. The US built over 88,000 Sherman tanks. The Sherman was a medium tank, but the one most used by US forces. Thousands were also given to the British, Russians and French via Lend-Lease. Before Sherman production got up to speed the M3 Grant tank was built, which was a very poor design. The British were so desperate for tanks they gladly accepted this monstrosity and tried to fight with it in the North African deserts, with disastrous results. The US also built M2 Stuart light tanks, and late in the war, finally, a heavy tank, the M26 Pershing, but not too many of the Pershings saw action.

The US put sixteen armored divisions into the field. The Table of Organization and Equipment for an armored division was changed several times during the war, but these generally had somewhere between 200-400 tanks at full strength. In addition, the US put dozens of independent tank battalions into service. These independent battalions were usually used to provide direct armor support to the infantry divisions, leaving the armored divisions for breakthroughs and exploitation.

The US also fielded many tank-like fighting vehicles, such as tank destroyers and self-propelled artillery. The tank destroyers were intended, as the name implies, to destroy enemy tanks. These were tracked vehicles, like a tank, usually with a larger main gun than a tank, but, without any armor. This last was a fatal defect. The tank destroyers proved mostly ineffective against enemy armor, but were excellent for use as self-propelled artillery. There were dozens of independent battalions of tank destroyers. Units were also purpose-built to be self propelled artillery pieces, again on a tracked chassis.