Soviet M4A2 Sherman tanks supplied under Lend-Lease advance through Vienna with the 46th Guards Tank Brigade during the final offensive against Nazi Germany, April 9, 1945.
Lend-Lease Shermans in the Battle for Vienna
This remarkable photograph shows American-built M4A2(76)W Sherman medium tanks serving with the 46th Guards Tank Brigade, 9th Guards Mechanized Corps, 6th Guards Tank Army, during the Soviet offensive in Vienna on April 9, 1945. Although manufactured in the United States, these tanks fought under Soviet command as part of the Lend-Lease program that supplied the USSR with thousands of armored vehicles throughout the war.
One of the leading formations was commanded by Guards Captain Dmitry F. Loza, later awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. On April 9, his detachment—consisting of eighteen Sherman tanks, three ISU-152 self-propelled guns, and approximately eighty infantrymen—advanced more than one hundred kilometers, overcame German roadblocks and fortified positions, and reached the center of Vienna before the arrival of the main Soviet forces.
The diesel-powered M4A2(76)W Sherman earned a strong reputation among Soviet tank crews for its mechanical reliability, smooth transmission, spacious fighting compartment, and excellent optics. While its armor was generally lighter than that of heavy Soviet tanks such as the IS-2, experienced crews appreciated the Sherman's mobility and dependability during long advances and difficult urban operations.
The Battle of Vienna demonstrated how Allied industrial production and Soviet operational experience complemented one another during the final campaigns of the war. Thousands of Lend-Lease vehicles—from trucks and locomotives to aircraft and tanks—helped sustain the Red Army's advance across Eastern and Central Europe.
This image therefore represents more than a column of armored vehicles. It illustrates the practical military cooperation between the Soviet Union and its Western Allies, whose combined resources and battlefield efforts contributed to the defeat of Nazi Germany.
Technical photo data:
📝 Source of information: Dmitry F. Loza, Commanding the Red Army's Sherman Tanks (University of Nebraska Press, 1996)
📍 Location: Vienna, Austria
📅 Date of photo: April 9, 1945
📷 Photographer: Yevgeny Khaldei
Recommended literature:
- Dmitry F. Loza — Commanding the Red Army's Sherman Tanks
- Steven J. Zaloga — Armored Champion
- Richard Overy — Why the Allies Won
- David Glantz — When Titans Clashed
- Soviet M4A2 Sherman tanks
- Lend-Lease Sherman USSR
- Dmitry Loza
- Battle of Vienna 1945
- Lend-Lease tanks
- Sherman tank
- Soviet 6th Guards Tank Army
- Vienna offensive
- Soviet-American cooperation
- WWII Allied cooperation