Sherman Crab T147955 “Avalon” Overloon. Regiment? Damage?

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by MicS

It's actually SPITFIRE IV, belonging to HQ C Sqn 22 Dragoons. See (from 02:00):
https://www.britishpathe.com/video/montys-new-offensive

Nice find! See https://www.britishpathe.com/video/s...-new-offensive for all the stills from this film.

119 images.britishpathe.com.jpg 120 images.britishpathe.com.jpg 121 images.britishpathe.com.jpg 122 images.britishpathe.com.jpg 123 images.britishpathe.com.jpg

[Alex van de Wetering]

Michel,

Terrific to see you have the war diaries!......and hereby you have solved the "identity crisis" of Avalon! We can now confirm that, at the time it was put out of action, Avalon was part of the Westminster Dragoons....and it also confirms that Broekhuizen was the final resting place. I will contact the Overloon museum and send them the link to this thread, so they can see the confirmation. Hopefully we can convince them to correct the AoS at the next repaint....and correct the sign next to it.

So, based on the war diary, Avalon was part of 2 troop , A squadron Westminster Dragoons, which means that it was not William Hall's tank at the time, as he was the commander of 4 troop.

As a sidenote I have Sherman T 211819 , named Spitfire II , And I think it has remnants of the 79th division marking on it . It must have been a command tank , because it has the extra aerial mount on the co drivers side , and an additional one on the turret side . Avalon also has the extra aerial mount on the co drivers side .

Avalon does indeed have the aerial base still on the right hand front of the hull, but I haven't noticed any remains of any other aerial mounts on the turret.... I mean, I have also seen pictures of Shermans with an extra mount welded on the right hand side of the turret, close to the commander, but I don't see any remains of this on Avalon.

It's actually SPITFIRE IV, belonging to HQ C Sqn 22 Dragoons. See (from 02:00):

What an excellent find.........wartime moving footage of Maurice's Sherman!
I also saw it mentioned in Kevins Excel list.

Alex

[David Herbert]

The extra aerial mount on the right hand side of the turret above the lifting eye is a common British (and presumably Canadian) addition.

An aerial mount in the hull by the co-driver's position would suggest an additional hull mounted radio, presumably for communication with the infantry (a No. 38 set ?).

I am very happy for Maurice that he has wartime film footage of his tank and a full identity, what a great find !

David