Sexton - Feasibility Study

[Adrian Barrell]

Later I heard the Sexton GPO was saved. Can anyone corroborate this rumour? It would be interesting to se see it even if it was stripped for parts for a "real tank".

 

Hanno

 

 

I believe it went to Kent.

[mcspool]

There was one at Pounds Yard in Portsmouth where I spotted it in 1985. Although I knew what it was I hardly took any pictures of it. . .

Did take some pictures of the Churchill Bridge Layer and a Mk VII, they are now hosted on the Churchill Register web site: http://freespace.virgin.net/chris.shillito/a22new/register/thelot.htm

[mcspool]

You're always very welcome here too, though you do have to watch out for low bridges......!

 

Yes, really should make an effort to come over and visit you again sometime, the boys are getting interested in their old man's hobby as well

[steveo578]

Hi Hanno

 

You may be correct, perhaps it was re-configured as a armed Sexton or possilby as a donor for tank parts, I have never had an indication that a GPO is in existance (apart from the Pakistani one).

 

Steve

[mcspool]

You may be correct, perhaps it was re-configured as a armed Sexton or possilby as a donor for tank parts, I have never had an indication that a GPO is in existance (apart from the Pakistani one).

 

Steve,

 

I have good hopes it will come back into the picture some day. Many tank hulks are lingering somewhere without many people knowing.

 

Back in 2004, a Maple Leaf Up Forum member reported that he found a Sexton GPO listed on a Pakistani Goverment disposals website "some time ago".

 

Hanno

 

P.S.: that Pakistani museum is very interesting. For example they have a T16 Universal Carrier on display. Now how did that come there? Not much proof available either the Indian or Pakistani Army used them.

[steveo578]

Hi Hanno

 

What concerns me is not those that are waiting their turn for restoration - but it's the ones that vanish without trace -for example the Alvis Straussler A/C that was recovered from Portugal over 20 years ago and seems to have evaporated. It will be nice if the GPO re-appears, possibly it may already have re-appeared as an armed vehicle.

 

The Pakistanis don't seem to have used Sextons, they used M7s but those captured would be relatively easy to use as Pakistan had towed 25pdrs. A GPO vehicle could be pressed into service without any difficulty -just another Sherman derivative. There is alot of confusion in both India and Pakistan as to which vehicles were captured by who. The Indians have several "captured M4A4s" which are more likely to be Indian Special purpose vehicles, one mounts a 76mm gun from a PT76 -which is a vehicle India used in quantity in the 1971 war in East Pakistan, but Pakistan never used PT76. As is the "captured" Sherman V with 75mm CN 50 gun which again is a weapon (AMX 13) that India used but Pakistan never had.

 

It is feasable that the T16 could have been used by both India and Paksitan, India certainly listed "Bren Carriers" in the late 1970s and there are numbers of Mk2 Universals still in India. It is most likely that some T16 were supplied to the Army of India and HM forces in India prior to Partition to replace standard Universals that were time expired, certainly a number went to SEAC in the months before the end of WW2 and are still found in Australia. Apart from Australia, Britain, Argentina and of course the Netherlands, Britain had to dispose of slightly more than 13500 many could have been scrapped and a small number remained in US. Somewhere I have seen a photo of a T16 in Indian markings. Grey drab colour with an Indian Army number and Ordnance mark, but as yet I haven't been able to find it.

 

Regards

 

Steve