Wood M4 Sherman Tank Variant? (1 Viewer)

[Beaufighter]

Cheers:

What Sherman variant would this wood model beast be & where/when utilized? My books have left me without an answer! Many thanks for your time in advance.

~Beaufighter

 

[OzDigger]

It looks like the late war M4A3E8 (Easy Eight) version equipped with the 76 mm gun and the horizontal volute suspension system (HVSS), this model also has some spaced armor on the turret. Hopefully Binder will provide us with more details.

 

[binder001]

What we have here is an M4A3E8, not an uncommon tank for the 1945 time period in Europe. What makes this unusual is the supplemental armor added to the turret and glacis (front plate). Although many people comment about how Patton was upset about tankers adding sandbag "soft armor" to their M4-types, it isn't often appreciated that he had the Third Army's Ordnance shops upgrade a number of M4A3s with "proper" steel armor. The Army had produced the M4A3E2, a heavily uparmored Sherman for assaults and these became quite popular in Europe. Unfortunately only 254 were built of which 250 went to Europe. When Third Army asked for more M4A3E2s they were told that none were available and that production of that type was ended. Patton and his staff authorized the Ordnance crews to go out and cut extra plates from wrecked M4A3s to upgrade the armor. They used the extra plates to effectively double the front hull plates. Many tanks also had the extra armor added to the front part of the hull sides and some had extra plates added to the frontal sides of the turret. This was done to M4A3 types with 76mm guns, both with wide and narrow track, with the former being preferred due to the extra weight. As part of the upgrade the .50 cal mount was placed where the loader could fire it forward, a .30 cal LMG was added to the front of the commander's cupola and the co-axial MG was changed from the standard .30 cal to a .50 cal (usually an aircraft type gun with the full barrel jacket). Several hundred conversions were done. Among other units these tanks were photographed in the 4th, 6th, 11th and 12th Armored Divisions. These are fascinating late-war Shermans.

Gary B

 

[binder001]

Here's a photo of the real thing in Czeckoslovakia in May, 1945

 

[Louis Badolato]

Very cool, Beaufighter. Who made it? Is it 1:32 scale?

 

[Beaufighter]

Very cool, Beaufighter. Who made it? Is it 1:32 scale?

Louis:

Pasted below is a link to the item. The company has a Scottsdale Wherehouse so I saw the tank in person and I was quite impressed with it-detailed & solid! The scale was closer to C. 1:28 per my measurements. They also make custom models of aircraft inclusive of gear down models and clear canopies. I only saw pictures of the clear canopy versions so I will not comment on the quality but they looked very nice. Have fun checking out the site!

Tailwinds,
Beaufighter

http://www.warplanes.com/store/item.asp?department_id=101&item_id=2033

 

[Beaufighter]

Gary:

Thank you kindly for taking the time for the detailed & informative information regarding this Sherman. I really enjoyed the photo as well. Thanks again "Professor Sherman".

Tally Ho,
Marc