12 replies to this topic

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

Not far from where I live, in Hamilton, Mass., is a park named Patton Park. In that park is a WW2-era tank. I took this picture of it earlier tonight:



I'm just curious if anyone can identify it. I also took pictures of what I assume to be the serial number, and a "logo" marking:





I figured I'd do some Googling to see if I could learn anything more about it. Anyone here know about WW2 tanks?

[Shotgun Willy]

It's an M4 Sherman

http://en.wikipedia....wiki/M4_Sherman

[linkkjm]

Jorost c'mon....Its a Sherman. You should know this event if you don't know WW2.

[Invicta]

It's not just an M4, it's an M4A1 unless I'm quite mistaken; the earliest M4s to enter U.S. service in the war. I'm amazed it survived the war, but it's a beautiful if flawed piece of military history.

Edit: NVM, looks like an M4 Composite; I didn't look at the main gun closely at first. The M4A1 had a 76mm canon and that's definitely the standard 75mm that they scavenged off the M3, which means it may never have seen combat, and probably explains why it's there in perfect condition. Still, a beautiful tank.

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

I knew it was a Sherman, I was looking for more details. I'm curious if it ever saw combat. Although it sounds like probably not.

[Shotgun Willy]

From just that picture, it's hard to tell.

[Invicta]

If it was an M4 Composite as I suspect than probably not. It was a prototype model that was essentially the result of a falling budget as interest in the T21 ramped up. They ended up pulling a lot of parts from other current and prototype models, including the T21 and the M3. In the case of the M3 its primary contribution was the main gun. That same main gun was used on a number of models of the M4 including the M4A2 but the combat M4s got a 105mm gun, and the M4A1s got a 76mm gun. It is obviously not an M4A2 or later because the armor and shocks are completely wrong for any later models. If you take a picture from the rear we could confirm it based on the rear fascia and the exhaust; the M4, M4 Composite, and the M4A1 all used the same radial engine but the M4A1 used a different exhaust system. I don't have any way (that I know of) to look up the serial number specifically unfortunately, but there may be a site on the park which has details on that specific tank. I'm far from a true tank buff; I spent a lot of time bored watching a documentary series on US WWII tanks so that's what I'm pulling from. Timitz would probably know more, and likely Nick would too. Maybe I can kick one of them into jumping on.

[King Hobbs]

I like the kid on tops "hip thrust"

LMAO

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

There was a band playing in the gazebo behind the tank. The kid was rocking out.

There are no details anywhere in the park, nor could I find any online. But I drive past it nearly every day, so I can easily get more pictures of it. It has been at Patton Park since the late 1940s, by the way.

[linkkjm]

I doubt it saw combat...And if it did it would be almost all replaced

[nicktheww2fanatic]

no more info then what Glen has, I had pretty much what he had. M4 composite, most likely never saw combat, and just gotten rid of when the US downsized the military...again...

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

I would imagine that after the war ended there were a TON of these things left over. Another park in a nearby city named Salem (which many of you may know because of the famous witch trials) also has a tank in it.

Evidently when the one in Patton Park was first put there you could go inside it. But there was a fire a couple years after it was placed that ruined the interior, so now it is welded shut. The funny thing is that I could have sworn that you could still go inside it in the 80s. But my memory must be wrong, because it was already sealed up by the 50s from what I found.

[Invicta]

Maybe there was a different one you could go inside? This would have been one of the very earliest. As for the reg number, I did some searching but I can't even find a reference to a reg or serial number in that format, so I have no idea what that number is and have had no success in tracking it down. I'm wondering if that was one of the many M4s ordered by and sent to England, and its an English registry number.

Interesting bit of trivia; the name "Sherman" was attached to the tank by the English not the Americans. The English always gave their American made tanks the name of an American civil war general, and the nicknames caught on with the American troops stationed in England.