Surrounded by a platoon of weeds outside a VFW Hall, a Sherman Tank looks as invincible as an armor-plated act of God. But put the same tank anywhere near a German Tiger Tank, and it looks like a cherry bomb glued to the back of a miniature VW Bug, just waiting for the match.

Soldiers in World War II gave the Sherman a nickname borrowed from a cigarette lighter: "We called it the Ronson, because when it was hit, it would light every single time," said Bob Singer, who was in a Sherman that was hit by an anti-tank round in France. "It was a piece of ... " - well, you know what he means.

Singer's tank was probably the only one in the war that was named "Cinci".

"Nobody knew what to name the tank, so we named it after Cincinnati," said the gunner, Albert Miller of Cincinnati.

After all the Germans who invaded Cincinnati, it may be the only time "Cincinnati" invaded Germany.

Miller, a west-sider, served in two tanks named Cinci and Cinci II. "I don't talk much about that,'' he said "All the ones who were in it know all about it." That's good enough for him.

But he still laughs about how he was drafted. "They asked me what kind of work do you do, and I told them I was a plumber. They said, 'We've just the job for you.' And they put me in a tank."

Maybe they were thinking of the manhole on top. Or the drainpipe tank cannon.

The Sherman is shaped like a mollusk, with a rounded top and a high profile that made it an easy target. It had a 500-horsepower engine that could go just fast enough to get a ticket in a school zone. By tank standards, it was speedy. Like the Civil War general, it was maneuverable - not invulnerable.

"Although inferior to the best German and Soviet tanks in armament and protection, it was superior in terms of reliability, serviceability and cost-effectiveness," an encyclopedia says.

"Cost effectiveness" must have been very comforting to the crews.

"That gun was nothing," Miller said. "The German guns went in one side and out the other, and ours just bounced off."

Singer, who lives in Rhode Island and still visits Cincinnati once a month as a chemical salesman, said, "If there was a Tiger tank anywhere near us, he owned that territory. If you ever had a popgun pistol, our 75 mm gun was a pop pistol. Theirs was a cannon."

"If you were hit by an anti-tank round, it would spray molten metal in the tank."

Miller and Singer still stay in touch with the rest of the crew. Men get pretty close when they're canned like peaches in a rolling grenade the size of a broom closet.

"If you've never heard incoming, you can't understand that brotherhood," Singer said.

Miller described it this way: "It wasn't no fun."

The Web site for their unit, the 14th Armored Division, says: "Perhaps sometime in their lives students may be called upon to sacrifice for their country and liberty, but this is the greatest place on earth to live and worth fighting for. We should always be mindful of those who gave all, that we might enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

On this July 4th weekend, that's something to remember from the men who haven't forgotten the "Cinci."

E-mail pbronson@enquirer.com or call 768-8301.