armored units. In combat, they provided direct fire support against enemy infantry alongside M36 Jackson tank destroyers of the ROK Army. They were used by both the Army and the Marines into the late 50s and early 60s, before being replaced by the M47 and M48 Patton series tanks. Middle East Israel The Israeli Defense Forces used American M4 Shermans as early as in the 1948 war. Israel obtained her first Shermans through stealing them, buying them in the Philippines or getting demilitarized ones from scrapyards around Europe. The first one, nicknamed Meir, was obtained in May 1948; the British Army intended it for destruction, but soldiers handed it over to Hagana instead, that fitted it with a 75mm gun. One more was found at scrapyard in Israel and armed initially with an external mounted 20mm gun (the tank was named "Tamar") and later a 75mm gun. Other similar covertly acquired ex-British Sherman tanks were named "Ada" and "Ruth II". In November 1948 35 more were purchased from Italian scrapyards. All these were non-operational, only 4 were completely repaired until the end of the war and 14 by November (some necessitated re-arming with the Krupp 75 mm field gun). By late 1953 Israel had 76 operational Shermans and 131 nonoperational. By 1956, Israel had at least 200 Sherman tanks, including 60 Shermans provided by France, and the Sherman became the standard tank in the Israeli armored units. In March 1956, Israel began to upgrade Shermans with French CN 75-50 75 mm guns to create the Sherman M-50. The first 25 M-50s were finished just in time for the October 1956 Operation Kadesh in the Sinai against the Egyptian Army. The first 50 M-50 tanks had the Continental R-975 gasoline engine and VVSS suspension, the rest had a Cummins diesel engine and HVSS suspension. During the Sinai Campaign Israel captured M4A3 tanks from Egyptians. After 1956 France sold to Israel its Sherman surplus. In the 1960s, 180 M4A1(76) Sherman tanks began conversion to the diesel-powered Sherman M-51 standard with HVSS and French CN 105 F1 105 mm gun to counter T-54/55 tanks bought by Arab countries. Both M-50s and M-51s saw combat in the Six-Day War and M-50s were also employed in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. All M-50s with Continental engines were retired by 1972. M-50s with the Cummins engine and M-51s were gradually phased out in the late 1970s