There are in fact very few studies that examine direct tank vs tank engagements; which only constitute a minority of engagements involving tanks. The only study that has been published and examined in published books is the United States Army's Ballistic Research Lab (BRL) study in 1946, which has been cited in several books by Stephen Zaloga (notably Armored Champion, published in 2015).

To expand, the BRL study looked at a series of engagements fought by the US 3rd Armored Division and 4th Armored Division in 1944. It was meant to give the US Army an accurate picture of how its armored units actually fought; and the data was used to help design future tanks and doctrine.

In total, the study recorded a total of 30 armor vs armor engagements fought between M4 Shermans and the Mk V Panther. Astonishingly, contrary to all popular notions of Sherman tank inferiority, these two Divisions in fact recorded a 3.6-1 kill ratio in their favor. Rather than the oft-repeated myth that it took five Panthers to kill a Sherman, the study showed - way back in 1946 - that the ratio was instead 3.6 Panthers were lost for every Sherman.

Most of the websites claiming high kill counts for the big cats - such as Achtung Panzer - do not actually name any serious studies or sources. For instance, the "it takes five Shermans to kill a Panther" myth can be first found not in any US Army statistical study, but in the wargame Squad Leader. Yet this unsourced claim from a game was repeated by many other books and Internet sites.

The other most frequently cited "source" claiming the Sherman's inferiority is Belton Cooper's "Death Traps". However, Cooper's account is problematic for two reasons:

First, Cooper was not a combat officer. His job was to oversee the repair of damaged or destroyed tanks, and by most accounts he in fact saw almost no combat and none of this as a tank commander or crewman. Despite this he kept embellishing his "memoir" with comments about combat that he clearly never witnessed; not to mention he also kept commenting about things happening in Allied Supreme HQ which he was never privy to.

Second, and more damning, is the fact that Cooper was an officer in the 3rd US Armored Division, which was the subject of the BRL study and had the 3.6-1 kill ratio with 4th US Armored.