aethervox, on Aug 31 2016 - 19:14, said:
We get well known frequent posters and their dim bulb followers insisting on their version of the truth ("All animals are created equal but some are more equal than others"

We can all have an opinion in the matter, but convincing oneself of a single most likely cause is self defeating. Because there is just so little information to go on.
We don't even know what direction that tank is facing. Is it facing towards the German line of advance, or the American?
The tank has no national markings whatsoever that I can see. Is it American, British or captured German?
For all we know, this tank wasn't even destroyed in WWII, but possibly in a later middle east conflict.
We have no area ground details in the background, there could be either bomb or artillery craters all over the place for all we know.
We have only 1 angle so making any further determinations in the matter is impossible.
But, I can speculate that if the Germans blew the tank, that they would have likely taken the .50 cal and as much ammunition, fuel as possible to supply captured allied equipment that they used in battle.
I can also speculate that they would not have placed the charge in the engine compartment, and that no combat engineer worth his salt would have used so much explosives.
The Germans blew up a lot of equipment during the war to keep it out of enemy hands, so they were pretty good at it. Meaning an ammunition of demolition charge in the fighting compartment would have been more than adequate.
So that really just leaves us guessing.
As I doubt anyone on these forums has much experience blowing up Shermans using vintage WWII German demolition charges.
Or have dropped 500lbs bombs on Shermans. Or even fired artillery shells at Shermans.