This style seems to have been mostly in use during mid-war, the Dieppe Churchill tanks clearly show this. It appears to have become obsolete at some point, but Canadian tanks still seem to have widespread use during Normandy (examples can be found both with and without the vehicle number in the center). Does anyone have more to offer on the subject, and perhaps some official dates? regards, Jack
Jack This is NOT the vehicle number but the TROOP number of C squadron - the main reason for it's demise was that it was a good aiming point for the 88mm A/T guns - and we always covered it up usually with mud etc….other point being that the two Canadian brigades of Tanks were of the Armoured variety where they only went as far as FOUR troops X 4 per squadron….an Army Tank Bde went all the way through the regiment/ battalion with their FIVE troops X 3 of Tanks and were "on net" with the Colonel and Squadron leader- and every other Tank Cheers
Tom, thanks for the feedback and correction. I can't find any directly related photos to some of the illustrated work here, http://www.armouredacorn.com/Refs-%20Thumbprints%20&%20Images/CVM%20Index/Sherman%20Tanks.pdf but some of the squadron markings contain double digits, such as 13, 17 and 42. Could these be a combination indication first the troop and then the individual vehicle number? regards, Jack
Jack - well er NO - most Tank and Armoured regiments regiments had around 57 Tanks so the Troop numbers would end at say C 15C meaning the last Tank of the regiment and the last Armoured number would go up to the C 57 D It is only the people researching things to-day that find an interest in the actual Tank numbers - why I don't know as they meant nothing to us as we had names to all out Tanks and we knew which was ours ….. Interesting on your 1st Cdn Bde as the NUMBERs of each of the three regiments were 172 - 173 -174 - they were over by Florence - we were pulling scam on Kesselring to make sure he KNEW that the Canadians were due to breakthrough at Florence - as he was already confused into thinking that we were going to land at the coast in another Anzio.so the 1st Cdn spend a few days throwing empty cigarettes packages in the Arno…Kesselring fell for it and moved his three best Divisions over to Florence - while we did U Turn and headed over to the Adriatic and started the Gothic Line Battles there - and on the way over we had to change our numbers to those of the Cdn 1st AB - 172-3-4….we don't know if this ever confused anyone else but us …... Cheers
Tom, thanks again. As for why people are searching out specifics, like troop and individual tank numbers - well for some people such as myself that build scaled replicas, a few of us lean towards creating one specific vehicle, instead of say one tank representing the whole unit (such as regiment, etc). regards, Jack
Jack Hadn't thought of that but now it begins to make sense…..but any number can be used - who's to know…? except the purists... Cheers
