lwd
Correct. The early PIV had a short barreled infantry support gun. It was rapidly upgraded to first a better long 75 and then a much better one. (at work so can't look up the specs).
The problem for Sherman was the 76 only appeared in quantity late in '44 and it lacked the punch the 75 had in inf support. The Germans had a huge incentive for continuous improvement since Ivan was upgrading constantly. (Fritz
IMHO the Americans were constrained by their doctrine - people as smart as Patton rejected Pershing and 76 guns on Shermans - at least initially. See Ike's famous quote when he found out that even our 76 wasn't all that hot - he was royally pissed!
"How come I'm the last to know?" etc
I'll never understand why we didn't license the daggone 17 pdr which was very much in the German's league and after some teething problems turned into a real killer.
cheers
Michael (Reb)