USMC Shermans on Peleliu

A friend of mine recently forwarded me scans of a couple of photos he found at a garage sale.

They show the USMC 1st Tank Battalion Late production (Fisher) M4A2 tanks just after the battle for Peleliu.

In the photos the commanders hatches are open and you can see that they had a white star painted on the turret tops!

This was a detail that I had never seen before and thought that it was an oddity possibly limited to this one tank.

A few years ago I had found a series of aerial photos taken from above Peleliu during the battle and in the photos you can see several of the USMC tanks in action around the airfield and the base of the umurbrogol mountains, sure enough if you zoom in on the tanks, several do have white stars painted either on the commanders hatches or to the left of the commanders hatches on the turret top/loaders hatch.

It is always interesting to find out how much we do not know about histories details.

Oh they are knocked out vehicles , I was thinking the second one would not want to try & fire its gun ! Did you notice ?

Jenny

Jenny Croft wrote:Oh they are knocked out vehicles , I was thinking the second one would not want to try & fire its gun ! Did you notice ?

Jenny

Oh so true, that tanks gun was hit by Japanese artillery fire and it put the tanks gun out of action. Believe it or not the very same thing happened to a second Marine Sherman on Peleliu, the crew went back to the rear area and using a hack saw cut off six inches of their gun barrel and went back into action with it. I have a photo of them and their "Short barreled Sherman" taken at the end of the battle.

Dman wrote:...the crew went back to the rear area and using a hack saw cut off six inches of their gun barrel and went back into action with it. I have a photo of them and their "Short barreled Sherman" taken at the end of the battle.

Now that would make for a great diorama

Dman wrote:
It is always interesting to find out how much we do not know about histories details.

Dave, I really think anybody would be hard pressed to find someone else who had the extensive knowledge of the Pacific theater that you do! I guess it's possible, but certainly not in my circles! This post surprised me for that reason! Just goes to show, no matter how much you know or the talent you have, nobody ever has it all wrapped up!

Thanks Dave,

Bob

Richard Marchand wrote:

Dman wrote:...the crew went back to the rear area and using a hack saw cut off six inches of their gun barrel and went back into action with it. I have a photo of them and their "Short barreled Sherman" taken at the end of the battle.

Now that would make for a great diorama

Yesterday I managed to buy a started Dragon PTO Late Sherman for a bargain . Originally I bought it just for the two track set, but now this gave me a goal. Thanks Dave!

Hey Dave
Can you post the picture of the short barreled sherman?
Big Al

I would also really like to see that picture

Big Al P wrote:Hey Dave
Can you post the picture of the short barreled sherman?
Big Al

And I will post it here.

Dman

Actually it took 52 hack saw blades and six hours to cut away the damaged end!
Later in the battle, this same tank ("LIZ") fired the shot that took out the largest Japanese bunker on Peleliu.



Another Peleliu tank that had its gun barrel damaged by a Japanese Heavy Mortar!

Geez , the top one does not even have any hatches left !

Look at all that lovely weathering !

Jenny

Tanks for the photos, that first one looks really interesting. Don't you know, did it survived the battle in this "unbuttoned" way or was knocked out and the missing hatches and covers (even the vent cover is missing from between the front hatches) are because of some reparation/refitting work? If I assume correctly the first pic was shot in a depot area, the crude log frame on the top left side maybe some kind of a makeshift jib.

Dman wrote:Actually it took 52 hack saw blades and six hours to cut away the damaged end!
Later in the battle, this same tank ("LIZ") fired the shot that took out the largest Japanese bunker on Peleliu.

Like I said this would make quite a cool diorama. A bunch of broken blades everywhere, a guy coming on with a load of fresh blades and a guy hacking at an half-cutted barrel.