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

[David Herbert]

The damaged hull brace mentioned above (just to the rear of the flail drive chain case) is part of the standard Sherman hull and I have no doubt that it was damaged by projectiles that penetrated near it and then hit it. It is not made of armour so would be relatively easily damaged (or repaired again !). The only damage that I see to the flail drive chain case is clearly from projectiles / shrapnel, not from mechanical failure of the drive.

Internal ammunition explosions usually result in the turret being blown off or at the very least a catastrophic fire. I see no evidence of either.

I doubt that an anti personnel mine would break a track but it is certainly not impossible. If an anti tank mine broke the track there would be obvious significant damage to the floor and probably the front bogie.

As for the angle of the penetrations, I doubt that the tank would have been on exactly level ground or at the same level as the gun firing at it. Also if it did loose it's right track before being fired at, the right side of the tank would have dropped as it rolled off the broken track by about 7cm on a hard surface and at least 30cm if the ground was at all soft.

David