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U.S. softskins in British Army service at Normandy 1944?


bootneck

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Can anyone please answer the following queries I have about softskin vehicles in the Normandy area June 1944?

- Did the British Army have any U.S. softskin vehicles such as Half Tracks, GMC 6x6 etc., at Normandy? If yes, were these vehicles repainted in British Army green (Mickey Mouse?) or did they remain in US Army Green

The British did have DUKW's but were these repainted or did they remain in US colours?

Grateful for any constructive assistance here as I'm not very knowledgeable on this subject but I have quite a few vehicles to paint for a D-Day dio.

At present I plan to paint the British Vehicles with Vallejo 71012 Dark Green and the U.S vehicles with Vallejo 71016 (RLM 73) US Dark Green.

cheers

Mike

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Yes , there were loads of US built vehicles in British service in Normandy , You name it it was probably there, GMC's, Studebakers , M5 and M9 half tracks , jeeps , Diamond T and Mack wreckers etc, etc.

As for colours , most would probably at this stage of the war be in overall Olive Drab, if modifications had been made or they were older vehicles then they could be in either overall SCC155 , or even SCC2 with dark grey or dark brown "mickey mouse" camouflage . SCC15 was introduced to reduce the need to repaint Olive drab vehicles in British service, It was a very close match to od when new, however it tended to weather to a greener shade , whilst OD weathered to a browner hue. Most vehicles on SCC15 or OD were left in the overall colour as intended but some did recieve dark grey or black camouflage in service . best to get a reference photo if at all possible.

Mike Starmer has a series of articles on this subject of the MAFVA website.

Andrew

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Hi Andrew,

thanks very much for this comprehensive and very helpful answer. :thumbsup:

I don't know of the MAFVA website but I can google that. I have bought decals from Mike before but never thought of him about this.

Thanks again

Mike

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The only vehicles I would hesitate to use from the ones I can see in your build thread are the 'deuce & a half' trucks.....The Halftracks could take a tweak or two (round off the vertical rear hull corners very slightly, flatten out the fenders and move the headlights for an M5 (assuming what you have are M3s).

The Shermans need a bit of work to make them truly accurate for British tanks in Normandy.....The one in your picture in the other thread is a late production M4A3(75)W (only used by the Americans and French), to turn this into a reasonable approximation of a British Sherman III you need to modify the engine deck, remove the commander's cupola and replace it with a two piece hatch, the loader's hatch has to go completely. Adding a stowage box to the turret bustle will make them look more British.

If you are going to start converting your Shermans, turning approximately one in four into a Firefly might be worthwhile.....You would ideally need an M4A4 Sherman V for this, but you could make a reasonable approximation by modifying the model as above, adding a square loaders hatch. a turret counterweight and a longer gun barrel with teardrop muzzle-brake and also plating over the hull MG mount.

More than happy to offer pictures of any/all of these vehicles.

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  • 2 weeks later...

We certainly had Dodge, White 666 & 1064, Mack 10ton 6x4's, Studebaker's in various guises (and Kentucky semi-trailers) as they were used by 51(RAF) MT Squadron MEAF 1942-56

Desert Wheels, by Brian Blow ISBN1-84683-030-3 refers

Decals for 51 MT available from LM Decals of Greece

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