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British Sherman M4A2 Large Hatch?


Harrypotter

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I've read that the British didn't receive any M4A2 large hatch tanks in WW2 (75mm variants).

 

Is this true or does anybody have photos to prove otherwise?

 

I ask as I'd like to build up Zvezdas new offering as such but not if it never happened :D

 

TIA

Edited by Harrypotter
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Hi According to what I've read they were all supposed to go to the Soviet Union, however about 200 out of the 1000 or so built went to the US Marines. the Sherman minutia website below:

 

http://the.shadock.free.fr/sherman_minutia/index.html

 

Says that the British never received any,  and that instead 500+ older. small hatch M4A2s were remanufactured for UK service.

 

I can't recall seeing a British one, the only British Shermans I've seen with the large hatches and welded hull fronts are a few M4 105mm that served in Italy, don't know if there were any of those in other theatres. And the handful of M4A2 76mm HVSS that we got like the one in at Bovington that was in "Fury".

 

Never say never of course. but it doesn't look likely. I nearly picked up the Zvezda kit today myself, it looks nice for the price. But then I would want to build a Red Army one.

 

Stuart

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Thanks for the reply, that's pretty much the same as I've managed to glean so far.

 

Lack of texture side it's a really nice kit, but I'm mainly looking to build staffs yeomanry (family reasons).

 

Drunk me needs to stop buying sober me presents 😬

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What time period are you looking at for Staffs Yeo? If you are considering a Sherman III then I presume NW Europe?

 

Virtually any small-hatch Sherman III/M4A2 would be appropriate. 27th Armoured Brigade operated pretty much all variants of the type in the 2 months they were in combat after D-Day - all mixed together at the same time.

If you had a specific vehicle in mind then you might want to dig deeper, but if it's just a suitably generic vehicle then most options would be appropriate.

 

John

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No, no and no again.  NO large-hatch 75mm M4A2 were supplied to the UK.  We did receive 20 of the 76mm version, 15 with HVSS (3 of those probably the 'Pacific DD' prototypes).  But none of these were used operationally: we didn't rate the 76mm gun.  The Fury Sherman at Bovington is one of them.

 

At a meeting in Nov 43 the UK and US jointly agreed not to develop any more diesel tanks for their own use.  This led to the cancellation of the M4A6.  It also led to 2nd generation large-hatch diesels being produced primarily for Russia, although some were used by USMC.

 

The new Zvezda kit fills exactly the same space as the old Academy 'M4A2 US Marines' kit.  It is thus limited to USMC or Russian subjects, or a German captured Russian.  Thus one of the least useful of all Sherman variants to kit.  But being the primary Sherman type used by the Red Army you can see why they did it.

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