Sherman Mk II .

[Don149]

I want to build a Sherman II of the British 7th Armoured Div . , North Africa . Is the Dragon M4A1 DV the best candidate ? . Anyone done this ? .

From what I can see on Hannants website , all it`s short of are the sandshields , easily scratched ! .

                                                                                                                                                           Don .

[Bullbasket]

I would say yes as it has the early VVSS. I'm not familiar with that kit, but I did a similar one a few years ago using the Tasca/Asuka kit, which IMO is a superior kit, and seeing as it depicts an 8th Army Sherman ll, it has the sand shields and the decals.

HTH's

 

John.

[rs2man]

Dragon also did a British Sherman II , which they called El Alamein Sherman .  That also came with sandshields & appropriate decals

[JackG]

The El Alamein Sherman boxing would be nice because the sand shields are provided as PE pieces - nice and thin.  Unfortunately, you won't find any 7th Armoured decals among the nine options.

 

According to Osprey, during El Alamein the 7th Armoured Division (composed of 4th Light Armd. Bde. and 22 Armd. Bde.) had no Shermans.  In their inventory were Grants, Stuarts, and Crusaders with either the 2 or 6 pdr.  guns.

 

It may not have been until early December 1942, that Shermans came on board, and that only because 8th Armd. arrived to relieve 22nd Brigade.   When the  22nd returned, it would have the Sherman III, and this unit in turn replaced 4th Light Armoured.

 

.... see page 19 here;

https://issuu.com/marioalfonso79/docs/vanguard_01._british_7th_armoured_d

 

 

regards, 

Jack

Edited September 26, 2019 by JackG

[Don149]

Thanks Guys , I`ll see if there are any of them on "H s " website .

[Don149]

rs2man ! , just found the kit you mentioned at KingKit , ordered . Thanks .

                                                                                                                     Don .

[Kingsman]

3rd Kings Own Hussars got Sherman II DVs with M3 type bogies in Sept 42 and was present at Alamein as part of 9 Armd Bde attached to 2 NZ Div, where they lost most of their tanks.

 

2 Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays) had the same type at Alamein under 1 Armd Div.  Wiltshire and Warwickshire Yeomanries had early Sherman IIs too.  There may be others.  So there's a fair deal of choice for a DV Sherman II in the Western Desert, just not with 7 Armd Div.  Perhaps we tend to forget that 7 Armd Div were not the only Armd Div in the Western Desert campaign.  Because of the shortage of serviceable tanks it was not unusual for different Squadrons in a Regiment to have different types of tank.

 

While Lima Locomotive were first to produce the M4A1, having taken so long to tool up for the Grant that they went straight on to Shermans without building any M3s, we also had Pressed Steel Car built M4A1s too.  There is a question over whether we had any with the rivetted M3-type lower hull, PSC having been ordered to use up stocks of compatible M3 parts on M4s.  US forces in Tunisia had both M4 and M4A1 with rivetted lower hulls and some vehicles were withdrawn from those units (1st Cav Div?) before they left the US to replace a UK Sherman shipment sunk en route.  Some of these replacements went to the Warwickshire Yeomanry, who named them after US cities in honour rather than Warwickshire towns.