opportunity knocks (Sherman M4A4 s/n 18688)

[Jakko Westerbeke]

traffic cops had papered the Sherman with three parking tickets in six days

Which windscreen wiper did they put those behind, then?

a website compiled by Sherman obsessives, who maintain a database on all 87 surviving World War II-era Shermans.

Only 87? Oh, the 87 whose serial numbers are known or strongly suspected …

Although the catalog states that the tank “bears the colors of the 2nd Armored Division ‘Hell on Wheels,’” it does not claim those markings were original or if they were added during the restoration, and if the latter, on what basis. As the catalog puts it: “This Sherman is in the exact same configuration as the tanks engaged during the summer of 1944,” and then the prose shifts neatly to the feats of the 2nd Armored Division, which indeed helped spearhead Operation Cobra from the Normandy beachhead deep into France. Nowhere does it say that Cheyenne was actually one of those tanks, Duke points out.

I’m sure it doesn’t need to be pointed out to anyone who frequents this forum that an M4A4 in the US Army in Normandy would have been exceedingly unlikely

[maple_leaf_eh]

I followed the auction when it closed. A last minute bump of US$5,000 to a total of US$355,000 did not meet the reserve bid.