Holly Roller - general appearance during wartime?

[Jack Geratic]

Being an RHQ vehicle, what sort of antenna array would it have, specifically aerial lengths and locations?

Currently a museum display, it has two types of road wheels - which would of been more common 1944-45, the open or solid? Also, on the port side, the middle return roller support arm is of the raised type - post war addition, or combat damage?

Finally, the number 9 in the the tactical turret marking, is this accurate?



regards,
Jack

[jdmcm]

Can't speak to the markings but a combination of different road wheels is very common, you can see lots of pictures of vehicles in service with two or even more styles of wheels on them, when you needed a replacement wheel you replaced it with whatever was available. My own opinion is it is correct and much more interesting as it is

[maple_leaf_eh]

(As a former member of the Sher H which perpetuates the Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment, whose tank Bomb has a more storied past that Holly Roller, it pains me to even contribute.) However, if you look for wartime pictures of Shermans, they are filed by a code number in the National Archives' photo collection. With that code sequence, you can trawl through the files and look for other units' vehicles or even Holly Roller to see what would be applicable.

I have found a number of fascinating shots of tanks in Holland winter 44/45 with genuine lived-in appearances. Men in one-piece suits, tanks in hides or of crews preparing their meals. All interesting images with many clues that the texts seem to miss or just never understood.

Good luck. I'll post the code if I find it sooner.

[Jack Geratic]

Gentlemen, thanks to you both for responding.

I think I've found some codes, but finding the right site to input them seems to be a bit of rabbit hole, in that I only get errors or nothing is found.

http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discove...8_EN-final.pdf

regards,
Jack

[Jack Geratic]

Though not a regimental tank, will have to rely on this photo of Major-General B.M. Hoffmeister brigade command vehicle. Looks to be a pair of 8 foot aerials, plus the usual 20.5" for the B set.



regards,
Jack

[Perry Kitson]

Jack,

Holy Roller landed on D-Day, covered 2,500 miles to V-E Day. At Apeldoorn, was hit by an A/T gun that damaged the track and suspension on the left side. Last action was at Godensholt, Germany. I will see what else I can dig up. At the last D-Day parade the regiment held, they interviewed the gunner, William Reed, who vividly remembered backing the tank up to a German casement on the afternoon of D-Day, hooking up pipes to the exhaust and sticking them into vents on the casement to gas out the occupants.

Perry

[Jack Geratic]

Perry, thanks for that - the first tidbit surely explains the different return roller type was a replacement due to combat damage.

regards,
Jack

[maple_leaf_eh]

http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Pages/home.aspx

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/l...ent&mediaType=

This query was for 'Sherbrooke' and 'Regiment' after a few attempts gave nil responses. The MIKAN number is the code I couldn't remember. I hope I was not too misleading or vague. Once you find the terms that work, keep going. However, author Hal Skaarup states the cataloguing is not as complete as we would hope, so persevere and see what turns up.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Not wanting to be pedantic, but the subject tank is not named "Holly Roller", but "Holy Roller", a Sherman III (M4A2) with census number CT 152655.
I visited this Sherman back in 2007 and determined its serial number is 7606 and it was built by the Fisher plant.

HTH,
Hanno

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by Jack Geratic

Being an RHQ vehicle, what sort of antenna array would it have, specifically aerial lengths and locations?

Assuming it's a standard radio fit (and not a "command tank" with multiple sets (2 x WS19 and possibly a WS38 fitted for infantry comms), the it would have a single WS19 fitted in the turret bustle, with the 'A' set (HF) aerial on the left hand side rear of the turret, (to the operator's right) and the 'B' set (VHF) aerial on the right hand side rear.

The 'A' set aerial fit would be a vertically mounted variometer in the turret, fitted with aerial feeder No.4, Aerial Base No.8 Mounting No.1, and Aerial Base No.8 (or No.10) on top of that with two or possibly 3 aerial rods "F" giving an 8 or 12-ft aerial. The aerial feeder is a plate with a length of steel tubeon the back that goes through a hole drilled in the turret roof; the aerial base mounting fits over the end of the tube and is secured with a lock washer and a fine threaded nut. The aerial base itself is connected to the central contact of the aerial feeder (using a "pigtail" lead) and then fastened to the mounting with six 1/4" BSF bolts (the mounting has tapped holes for this).

The 'B' set aerial fit uses Aerial Base No.9 Mounting No.1, a steel tube on a square base which is bolted into 4 tapped holes in the turret roof. This takes Aerial Base No.9, (and probably the "halo" Protector, Aerial Base No.9 to stop the base being ripped off by branches) and the 20-inch "Aerial Rod 'G'. Connection between the set and aerial base os through the hollow mounting tube using Leads, Aerial, No.2 (a tuned length of coaxial cable with one straight and one elbow socket fitted - the straight one connects to the base).

For "command" tanks with more radios, additional HF aerial bases would be fitted (No.8 or No.10) to the turret roof, but there would only be a single 'B' set used for inter-tank short range communication.

Chris.

[Jack Geratic]

Terry, thanks for those links. A general search on the Sherman tank gives 65 photos, but only two are of the 1st Hussars. I think that is the best that can be done, as I come up empty in trying to utilize the associated MIKAN number. As you say, the catalog archives are incomplete, and I've seen other Hussar photos found elsewhere in books and the internet. The search engine too isn't the best, example - inputting 'Sherman 1945' and the first page results are of the singer Ann Murry??

Hanno thanks for pointing out the typo, grammatical error on my part.

Chris, thank you for the low down on the antennas. The A set aerial - would it be tapered, or uniform diameter top to bottom, and any idea the diameter?

This is a top view of the antenna pot located on the hull front. Would the hole confirm there was an aerial in there at one time? It does seem to match the one on the turret bustle.



regards,
Jack

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by Jack Geratic

Chris, thank you for the low down on the antennas. The A set aerial - would it be tapered, or uniform diameter top to bottom, and any idea the diameter?

This is a top view of the antenna pot located on the hull front. Would the hole confirm there was an aerial in there at one time? It does seem to match the one on the turret bustle.

regards,
Jack

The aerials used were made up of one to three "Aerial Rods F" which continued in service (effectively unchanged) until the 1970s and Clansman took over. The original rods were 48" long, in three sizes to give you the option of 4 -16 feet of rod (the 16' one only usable when stationery) and push-fit. These kept falling apart on the move and the Canadians improved them by lengthening the rods by an inch and a half and rolling a thread into each end so they would push in and then screw together, solving the problem. These were universally adopted, with much rejoicing. Rhe rods have a slow taper, the first rod is swaged down to fit the aerial base and only threaded at the top. The top rod tapers to a point. You can add two middle sections to get the 16-ft monster.

Anything fitting this description (48 or 49.5 inches long) should be an "F" rod, even if it has NATO stock numbers on it. Shorter top sections are Larkspur VHF sections for the C42 and friends. One metre ones are probably Clansman.

The holes in your tank are definitely for Aerial Base No.8, Mounting No.1. The large central hole takes the "conduit" feeder tube from Aerial Feeder No.4 on the back of the variometer, the mounting drops over that (and has a pin that locates into the small hole to prevent it rotating and working loose, a lock washer and nut secures the mounting to the conduit, and the aerial base bolts onto the mounting. There will be another locating hole on the underside of the armour that takes the locating peg on the end of the variometer, to stop that unscrewing.

I've got all the bits and will see if I can take and post some photographs for ID purposes.

Chris.

[Jack Geratic]

Giving this thread a little bump ...

Chris, any more info on those antennas?

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Been thinking about the 1945 incident as revealed by Perry. Could the AT hit on the hull's left done enough damage to have required the whole sale replacement of all the road wheels on that side, thus explaining why there is two complete different set types found on Holy Roller? Maybe it was a HE round that caused a fire and burned the rubbers off??

regards,
Jack