Hanno.
You raise an interesting point regarding vehicles as War Memorials. There are two Shermans in Winnipeg I am aware of serving this purpose and one in a small town northwest of Winnipeg. Of the two here in town, one is outside a Federal Government Armoury and the other a Canadian Legion.
The ‘Federal’ one, last I was near it many years ago, had been ‘sanitized’ of any possible exterior parts and fittings that could possibly cause injury to anyone climbing over it. Federal Bean Counters do not like Law Suits. By contrast, the Legion Sherman retains most, if not all of its original fittings.
What would really be interesting, however, would be putting both under video coverage for one full year to see how many people actually interact with both of them. My thought would be very, very few would even acknowledge their existence and even fewer would take the time to actually walk up to it to read any informative plaque, touch it, or take a picture. People simply do not care anymore for these things sitting quietly decaying.
Now take those same vehicles away somewhere indoors and fully restore them to operating condition and on special occasions, fire it up and drive it about so people can actually see what they are capable of in action, what they sound like and how they sound and smell, and you will have people of all ages lined up for hours to learn more about it.
You will get that kind of response from virtually ANY run of the mill Sherman, but if you were dealing with actual wartime survivors like Holy Roller, or Bomb, with the traceable stories of crew members that actually worked, lived, laughed and were scared silly in combat in those two tanks, you have a direct link in time and history that is invaluable beyond measure. Sadly however, the bureaucrats that own these vehicles today are too busy saying, ‘Look what we’ve got!’ They simply do not See what they have on hand.
David
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