Nice. And I sort of love the 'they're all Shermans' silliness... HMVF reckon 15 Comets to Batista: buried and abandoned tanks - Page 54 No idea how they went there. News to me (well... that, and my memory is a sieve.). Makes me wonder at old Hong Kong stock as that seems to have been A34's last hurrah
Dec '58, (Santa Clara & nearing Batista's fall) - some static defence. Now intrigued as to who sent: Cuban Tanks, I part • Rubén Urribarres
It's an NBC news story. Funny thing is that after I clicked on the link and watched the video about the Cuban farmer with the Comet, the next video up was Brian Williams blathering about something. He's most known in America for being an NBC anchor who likes to exaggerate his past adventures. He probably took out four or five Tigers with that Sherman all by himself https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs...-004&fr2=piv-web&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-004
In answer to various comments in previous posts, the Comets last Regular service in the British Army was with 1st RTR in Hong Kong in 1959. Those Comets had been taken to Hong Kong by 3rd RTR in 1949 and, apart from a few that were sent temporarily to Malaya during the Emergency, all stayed in HK until they were scrapped in HK in late 1959. That means the Cuban Comets didn't arrive from HK. I have access to a Comet Key Card - courtesy of Bovington - that indicates that at least one of the Cuban Comets was issued from the Ludgershall Depot (tank Census number T335390 renumbered in 1949 to 20ZR68. Card details mention "CVD LUD Amb Cuban Emb W2 24.11.58). Implies that the Cuban Comets were sent from the UK....well at least that one was?
Too funny. The Hawker is actually newer technology than the Antonov 2 I saw flying over Cayo Coco a few years ago. It made 4 passes and was spraying pesticide directly on the tourists at the resort.
Dave, Every time I have mentioned to American friends that I have been to Cuba (5 beach trips to date) on vacation, I get the very same strange look. It's a combination of horror, puzzlement and shock. Almost like someone they thought they knew confessing to being a pedophile/terrorist. I say Cuba but they really hear Kremlin. Quite amusing to see the reaction and as they try to act nonchalant while they process the information. Canadians, quite selfishly, don't want America and Cuba to kiss and make up any time soon. Today, Canucks, Europeans and South Americans have the run of the place and don't want to be shouldered out by hordes of Yanks from Florida. It would be what Cancun is to Texans.
Politics aside, I gather there was a short period before the end of the Bautista regime during which the USA was not selling anything to the Cubans any more and it was in that time that the Comets were sold to Cuba. I don't suppose those rusted hulls are restorable...