ILH

Thanks everyone, Steve, please do get technical. I was going by an article in a miltary model magazine- not exactly a primary source- It said they were fitted if time was available just as the tanks rolled off the line, so many 'thin' ones never got the patch. Being an adition to the design (not a redundancy) made after the factories were built, there was no place for the job in the production line or the production timetable without slowing down. Was it not a stop gap measure between realizing the armour was too thin and the manufacture of the production line equipment for the new turrets? Was the magazine barking up the right tree, or are 'thin' turrets without aplique, contemporary to the ones with it, a myth? Eddy, Thanks. I'm sure there is more, but not quite like this. The T30 armour was what got me into the military side of archaeology, and RAF Welford is still the only place I KNOW had a buried jeep- yanks had a fire in the woods, bulldozer hit a crate, dug it up, replaced all the rubber and drove it off (early 1960s)! Rumours abound.... and rebound!... how about 3 scrap flying forts, harleys, and a road built on spare steel coffins....no sign of them yet!?! Adrian, haven't seen it for a couple of years now, but it was painted white inside and had very few brackets at all. Seem to remember a boxlike metal holder on the inside left, around 5 or 6 inches square, protruding about 3 inches with the top half of the front face open. I'll try to have a look/ take pics, in the next week or so, my memory isn't bieng very helpfull. Jim.

Hello, For a few years now I've been trying to find a Whites T30 Howitzer Motor Carriage to look at (Not the M3 75mm GMC). Does anyone know of one still on this mortal plane? It's an M2 halftrack with a 75mm Pack Howitzer on it; infantry suport/anti-tank. Around 500 were built. Used in the Aleutians, North Africa and Sicily by the Americans, but then then they replaced it. About 300 got converted back to infantry carriers just before D-Day. The rest were given to the British in Italy, French for D-Day, and? In hope, Jim.

Right then Chaps, I'm a local archaeologist, born and raised within site of the turret. Here is the Gen: 1) What is it and what's it's condition? Qv pics below taken 4 years ago with landowner's permission. Sherman MK4 turret for 75mm gun with applique armour (was led to believe this was done randomly at the factory and does not signify anything, do you know different Steveo?). Explosive damage to top, possibly two charges; one penetrating and the other closer to the personel hatch just bent things. The lifting lugs have been sheared/ shattered. There are Oxy-Acetylene cuts to right (pieces removed) and left sides as well as hole cut into left front top corner- almost certainly the scrap man as the unremoved left side is unmarked, thankfully he gave up. 2) Where was and is it? It was just below the crest of Wickham Hill, in a pit from the brick and tile works that closed in 1939. It has been known about for years locally, but over the last ten years word spread and a lot of people TRESPASSED off the footpath for a look (no names, no pack-drill!). This did not make the Landowner or the Gamekeeper happy, so the Landowner gave it to the Kennet Valley At War Trust (all proper, not private hands). They recovered it last Autumn-2009 and plan to display it at Littlecote House as a memorial to the British Tankers stationed there before the US 101st ABN arrived. 3) Who put it there? While the surrounding area throws up British and US stuff at the same time, this wood has only produced US (willy's trailler, GMC truck, odds and ends) so it can't be the British Tankers on Boxford Common, april 44, they were overflow from Buckleberry Common and were waterproofing their tanks with a mixture of Lime, asbestos and grease! The nearest US troop billets were Gen.'Nuts' Mcauliffe, Wormstall, and D Batt 907th GFA, Wickham House, of the 101st Abn Div, but they were doing regimental and larger size live fire excercises on the big ranges of the South and South West coasts, their excercises locally were dry, so I don't believe they are responsible. The men of the 435th TCG, 9th AF at USAF Stn 474 Welford are even more unlikely. I believe it was the men of the 876th and 878th Airborne Engineer Aviation Battalions, IX Engineer Command, Special Combined Army With Air Force. These were forward airfield builders/ rebuilders and explosive ordnance and booby trap disposal experts. They had their own small and secret chain of command and supply and so couldn't rely on help from other units and often had to build everything themselves. Their first camp was beside Welford Park as part of Stn. 474 but they soon moved south to Sole Common and built Stn. 424 (footpath through the best bits, past water tank (not bunker) and hut bases, so no need to stray- pheasant pens and a SSSI). They built a Glider Landing Zone just west of the 5 Bells pub that later included a mine and booby trap school (cleared 3 times before farmer stopped ploughing up mines!), and a grenade and anti-tank range at the top of Welford Park to the north (recovered T30 HMC gun armour hard target). In other words explosives were their remit and everything else surrounding the turret was built by them. er, Think that's everything, if not- ask! cheers, Jim, RMARG.