For the most part, the IDF acquired these Shermans not from the US, but from European sources. In the run up to independence, Israeli agents sought to acquire tanks and other war material from third parties and other grey markets. This equipment was left over from Second World War stocks and in indifferent condition.

But smuggling tanks into the Mandate was much more difficult than sending in other war material. So the first generation of IDF tanks for the 1948 War of Independence were acquired from local British stocks or scrapyards. As the British withdrew from the Mandate, the were unable to evacuate some of their heavy equipment at Haifa. The British set about destroying the bulk of this equipment, but Haganah agents, many of whom were veterans from North Africa, were able to acquire a Sherman chassis and cannibalize needed materials from the rest of the wrecks. Haganah agents were also able to convince two sympathetic British tank officers to defect with their Cromwells and acquire two Renault R38 light tanks from Syrian sources. This polyglot armored force received a significant boost when Yehuda Arazi was able to acquire ten prewar H-39 Hotchkiss light tanks which were smuggled into the Mandate in April 1948 as agricultural machinery.

Arazi was also able to purchase thirty disarmed Shermans from Italian scrap dumps. These Shermans would form the nucleus of the post-1948 IDF tank force and were armed with a mixture of armament, with one company of Shermans armed with 75 mm Krupp M1911 acquired from Switzerland with a 105 mm howitzer loading mechanism. Other Shermans were acquired from the Philippines and the postwar IDF Sherman force was quite heterogeneous with different engines, main armament, and with varying states of wear and tear.

The Israeli close relationship with France in the 1950s considerably eased this dilemma. The French were in the process of reequipping their WWII-vintage M4A1 and M4A4 with modern French designs and sold the surplus to the Israelis. Additionally, the French also supplied the IDF with its newly developed high-velocity 75 mm CN 75-50. The Israeli Ordnance Bureau, which had cut its teeth in the War of Independence by combining whatever materials at hand to produce a functional tank, was able to graft the CN 75-50 onto the Shermans in France before their delivery to Israel. The resulting M50 would prove well in the Sinai campaign in 1956.

As to why the IDF focus on the Shermans in the first place, the Sherman was the most modern tank readily available during the first decade and a half of Israel's existence. The Sherman itself was a reliable vehicle with some stretch in its design. These features made it favorable alternative for IDF tankers when more modern tanks became available. The IDF and Israeli political leadership was also leery of being too dependent upon foreign supplies for its arms. The negotiations with the US for modern tanks in the 1960s were quite tense and for supplying arms to Israel became a greater domestic and international liability for West European countries by the mid-1960s. Therefore it became imperative for the IDF to keep those stock of Shermans it did possess operational and upgrade them accordingly, especially given the growing numbers of Soviet-supplied arms in the neighboring Arab states.

Sources

Eshel, David. Chariots of the Desert: The Story of the Israeli Armoured Corps. London: Brassey's Defence Publishers, 1989.

Van Creveld, Martin. The Sword and the Olive: A Critical History of the Israeli Defense Force. New York: Public Affairs, 1998.

Zaloga, Steve, and Jim Laurier. M4 (76mm) Sherman Medium Tank 1943-65. Oxford: Osprey Military, 2003.