Sherman Gate Guard story from the late 80's

[Sprocket321]

The GOC of 1st Armoured Division Major General Swinburn tasked his ADC to find him a M4 Sherman tank to be displayed on a section of Bailey bridge at the gates of the Div HQ. Quite a formidable task in the late 80's as the collectors scene was well underway and WW2 kit was going for shedloads, and the budget for this was nowt. So he turned to his recent contacts. We had just had the CAT Trophy 1987, won't go there as it was rather painful, The General at Graffenhoer (spelling) was a AFV collector, had them on display all over the camp. He did have a Sherman M4 to trade, and he didn't have an M7 in his collection. It just so happens that there were three M7B2s on 1 Div.

 

 

General Officer Commanding 1st Armoured Division

 

the three hulks were on a disused training area in Wulfenbuttle home of the QDGs, shortly due to be reclaimed as local parkland, so the hulks were no longer wanted and due to be towed off to the scrapyard, so their 11th hour salvation had come.

[Sprocket321]

they were quickly recovered making quite a mess of the parklands nice green grass.

[Sprocket321]

Here's a couple of happy snaps of two of the vehicles in the Generals collection on Display at Graffehoer U.S. army base.

 

 

There were also two M3 halftracks on the training area at Wulfenbuttle with trees growing through them, they were in a terrible state, when the scrappers came to take them they carefully cut the vehicle away from the tree leaving a strange M3 gearbox shape in the tree trunk. So two M7B2s were selected for the U.S. Army General, and one (the best one,shhhhh) was kept aside for Bovvy. Here is a picture of the first one arriving at Div HQ Verden.

[Sprocket321]

The vehicles were chock full of used training ordnance, water and mud from years of being stuck on the training area.

 

So the following day after their arrival at Verden Barracks, I had nothing better to do on that sunny Saturday morning, (needed some fresh air after the previous night in 1ADSR HQ Sqn bar anyway,)

decided to clean the one due to be sent to Bovington Tank Museum, realising that the used ordnance would create real headaches for the poor RCT driver from 16 tanks, trying to get it through customs, let alone the small but real chance of the phosphorous drying out and re-igniting, we'd had one too many Ferry disasters in the late 80's, did'nt need another one thanks. So I set about cleaning it up.

 

 

using the fire hose and wheeled a bin over to dump the fired shermuley rockets and such, lucky nothing went bang or whooosh thank goodness.

 

[Sprocket321]

the one being transported back to blighty was the most complete with both louvre engine hatches still in place, our American General would have enough parts from the two we were sending him to make one good one up for his collection.

 

 

having scraped out the mud and washed out the rain water that had collected in the hull, (the drain plug was missing and the hole was chocked solid with muck) the M7 was ready for it's journey to Dorset.

[Sprocket321]

One leave in the UK I took my Grandfather to Bovington to see it

 

when I returned from leave, the American General had generously given 1 Div two tanks, an M24 Chaffee and a erm Sherman, trouble was it was armed with a 76mm gun in a T23 turret, not the type the Division had used in it's Operations in WW2.

 

 

the picture shows the ADC in civies with his pal from the Div HQ with the M24 and the Sherman just in frame to the left.

Dissapointed, or what. I later found out, by taking prints of the Sherman back to Bovvy that the British Army had three 76 armed Shermans on ops for evaluation with the RTR, Annaconda Adder and ASP, I was shown a picture by Museum staff of the three tanks and an M24 in British service.

But by then the GOC had lost interest in the project and HQ 1st armoured Div never did get a Sherman gate guard.

I also found out that Bovy swapped the M7 for a Panther Engine.

[10FM68]

HQ 1st armoured Div never did get a Sherman gate guard.

 

But HQ 3 Armd Div in San Sebastian Bks, Soest certainly had a Sherman gate guard in 1982, mounted on a piece of tank bridge. I wonder where that went.

 

10 68

[eddy8men]

brilliant post cheers

here's a pic of the sherman gate guardian at the light dragoons in catterick

[David Herbert]

That one is a Canadian built Grizzly, ex Portugal.

 

It is one of the second batch of Grizzlys as it has the later hull casting. The shape around the bow machine gun is different and instead of aplique armour welded on to protect the amunition, it has the actual casting thickened localy. Look along the bottom edge of the hull above the track.

 

These hulls were used in very small numbers on US built Shermans but it seems only for special purpose tanks not for ordinary 75mm gun tanks. Posibly because US production had moved forward to the Ultimate Series Shermans (with big hatches) by then.

 

David

[eddy8men]

the big G on the front also gives it away i'm going back next week if anyone needs any info/numbers off it

Edited April 15, 2016 by eddy8men

[Maurice]

The Big G can also be found on US Shermans who had their casting done by General steel . A grizzly is easy to be identified by the little hatch in the floor in front of the gunner for the Snake device.

[Sprocket321]

The Big G can also be found on US Shermans who had their casting done by General steel . A grizzly is easy to be identified by the little hatch in the floor in front of the gunner for the Snake device.

 

Hi Maurice, can you describe the snake device and what it did?

[mcspool]

The Big G can also be found on US Shermans who had their casting done by General steel

 

Indeed - read more about Foundry Symbols and Trademarks at my Sherman Register web site

[mcspool]

TA grizzly is easy to be identified by the little hatch in the floor in front of the gunner for the Snake device.

 

Sprocket, see http://the.shadock.free.fr/sherman_minutia/manufacturer/m4a1mlw/grizzly.html for a picture of the small hatch.

 

The snake device was basically a large bangalore torpedo which was pushed forward into position by means of a chain. This chain was coupled to a hook on the the floor of the tank via the small hatch.

[mcspool]

Sprocket, great to read about the history of these AFV's :thumbsup:

 

I recall reading about the Priest arriving at Bovington in Wheels & Tracks magazine.

[Sprocket321]

Sprocket, great to read about the history of these AFV's :thumbsup:

 

I recall reading about the Priest arriving at Bovington in Wheels & Tracks magazine.

 

Brilliant Mcspool, that's the first I've heard of that article, was it just a picture article and ww2 history, or was there much information about Bovy's intentions with the Sherman Priest?

[eddy8men]

thanks maurice. i had thought the G spelt grizzly. you learn something new every day

[mcspool]

Brilliant Mcspool, that's the first I've heard of that article, was it just a picture article and ww2 history, or was there much information about Bovy's intentions with the Sherman Priest?

 

IIRC, it wasn't an article but a picture of it on the range with a short caption and in a later issue a picture of it at Bovington with David Fletcher standing in front. Nothing like background you provided so many years later :thumbsup: