M4 Medium Tank "Cookie" will return to Overloon war museum

[Hanno Spoelstra]

All,

Good news! The M4 Medium Tank "Cookie", which is of significant historical value to the Netherlands, will return from Italy where it served as a Canadian memorial in Ortona since 2006.

It will be exchanged for an M4A4, which is the appropriate type used by the Canadian Army in Italy, and "Cookie" will return to the area where it was left after WW2. It has registration number USA 3033401, and was in service with the U.S. 7th Armored Division during the Battle of Overloon.

For more information, please see the attached Press release - Shermantank Cookie will return to Overloon.pdf

Hanno


13 June 1946, photo by Wiel van der Randen:
over021.jpg
Source: http://proxy.handle.net/10648/6a322c...c-003048944028


Ca.1946. The Overloon Museum was founded on the former battefield:
image011.jpg


1980s:
over023.jpg

[Hanno Spoelstra]

PS: read the thread Ortona Remembered for some background on Cookie’s adventure in Italy

http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/showthread.php?t=7443

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Some more info on Cookie:
M4 Medium Tank, serial number 24871, registration number USA 3033401.
Assigned to 7th Armored Division, 31st Tank Battalion, Company C as Tank no. 13.
Put out of action during the Battle of Overloon, The Netherlands, between 30 September and 18 October 1944. Location: 2 to 3 km. to the west of the Oploosche dijk area in the hamlet called 't Vlak. Crew: none killed - tank was not hit but instead tilted in a ditch and was abandoned by the crew.
"Cookie" had been moved to Overloon Museum by 11 March 1947.

Sources:
http://www.7tharmddiv.org/docrep/overloon-tanks.htm
http://www.7tharmddiv.org/wwii-tank-serial-numbers.htm
http://www.7tharmddiv.org/overloon-cookie-returns.htm


And some more pictures:
Cookie pictured on 27 May 1946 at the former Overloon battlefield, by then the museum grounds.
356aa46862224c5413810fce3346fd442fea642944cd31878f4f20d2e3a77a09.jpg
Source: Nationaal Archief 2.24.01.03, 901-7696


Boys climb on Cookie just after WW2. In the early years the Overloon museum was not more than a collection of artefacts on the former battlefield.
79764904c2a9b50e79d0ccf8df3ff15707af9aa2619ed9aa14d9494f42bc627d.jpg
Source: Nationaal Archief, 2.24.01.09, 900-0425


1960s:
bhic.nl a86c45c2-45f9-11e3-8e79-634d7e8d23b3.jpg
Source: https://www.bhic.nl/memorix/images/s...e-237244c790f7

[jdmcm]

Interesting to note the rails welded to the turret upper sides and what looks like a missing cupola, In service modification to hang extra kit from or post war to assist people climbing on it?

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by jdmcm

Interesting to note the rails welded to the turret upper sides and what looks like a missing cupola, In service modification to hang extra kit from or post war to assist people climbing on it?

John, the rails on the turret can be seen in the earliest pictures of Cookie. At that point in time the exhibits were true battlefield relics with no alterations done to them.
So the rails are an in service modification.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Some more photos of Cookie:


1950's picture postcard:
37828796_1794576983954611_8891073333446049792_n.jpg


Most likely taken somewhere in the 1960s:
77318890_2601983053213996_5345074838388080640_n.jpg
Source: https://proxy.archieven.nl/0/6299426...14CEF5897CC3E2

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Originally Posted by jdmcm

Interesting to note the rails welded to the turret upper sides and what looks like a missing cupola, In service modification to hang extra kit from or post war to assist people climbing on it?

You can see that on more American M4s in wartime photos, the principal use seems to have been to hang bags and things off of. Finding photos of it online is somewhat difficult, but here’s one with a similar rail clearly visible:

M4_burning_leipzig_crop.jpg
(source)

And a full-length one along the hull side to boot.

[Alex van de Wetering]

Attached are some pictures I took a couple of weeks ago. Cookie is at the Overloon museum again, even though it's still partly dressed up as "Athena".
I am sure Covid interfered with the plans, as the return was kept quite silent and the tank is still in outside storage.

Let's hope it gets returned to it's original livery and markings soon....and let's hope they use the early museum pictures that Hanno posted to match the location, shape, size and font of the original markings!

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Picture of Cookie made by a visitor of the Overloon museum in the 1970s:

DCCBC978-90CC-4539-BB48-2BBEA9AB5C82.jpg
Courtesy of Joey Borrenbergs