I have been looking at pictures of Canadian Shermans in Italy, specifically Ontario and Calgary Regiments, most look like Sherman V's and some do and don't have the tool box mounted on the rear of the turret. Was there any rule to this? And I would presume the Tasca Sherman V would be the best kit to start with?

Hiya Kevin,

Not sure if there were any "rules" (experts, please strike me down!) but I assume these tanks were Africa veterans that were re-issued and then "drove hard & put away wet" during the push through Italy, so a bit of variation is probably to be expected. I don't know about the regiments you mentioned, but the 3-Rivers tanks at Ortona mostly seem to have none, except those that have old ammo boxes welded on!

As for models, go with Tasca! I've recently built the old DML Sherman V and it's a dog from day one. (Sunken weld seams, poor/misleading instructions, fit problems, etc.) You will have to customise the Tasca kit to match your chosen photo, but at least you don't have to beat it into submission first!

Tom

Tom

Thanks for the answer, it helps, Calgary and Ontario Regiments were also in the Ortona area with 3 Rivers, they 3 regiments made up 1CAB in Italy.

I am thinking of a doing an Ortona (or outskirts) diorama.

Kevin

The M4A4 never served in North Africa except in the training schools post Axis capitulation in Tunisia. There was a general shortage of Crusader Stowage boxes (as used in NA and the MED) in 43 and the Canadian M4A4 arriving directly from out of theatre played catchup re these. If you are building to a photo it shouldn't be a problem.

The Tasca M4A4 is leaps ahead of the DML one but if on a budget the DML Orange box M4A4 is the cheap option and a big improvement over the initial DML M4A4's.

Cheers
Al

All of the Canadian tanks in Italy were fresh off the boat from the UK when the Canadians were put ashore in Sicily. So none were hand-me-downs from N. Africa.

As for storage boxes, there were no rules. The only real rule is to find a good photo and build exactly what you see. The Canadians in 1st Cdn Arm'd Brigade were a firefighter unit and were plugged into the line as needed to support not only Canadian but also (and actually, more usually) other commonwealth units. Their losses were significant and a lot of the vehicles by the time of Ortona had taken a beating and definitely reflected the practices of the indivudual regiments and even the individual crews.

Find a good photo and you can definitely go by that.

Oh, and the consensus on colours was that they were generally US OD with black and not Light Mud with black.

HTH

Paul

This is probably on of the best pics I can find of a Canadian Sherman at Ortona



I believe this was a 3 Rivers tank, and it looks like it was all OD.

There is also this one, which might of been camouflaged.



I do understand that some Sherman V's they started the Italian Campaign were replaced by Sherman III, I presume due to losses.

Sorry, I should have been more clear. I meant that where a disruptive scheme can be seen, it's ususally OD & Black and not Light Mud & Black. Without a disruptive colour, the base colour would have pretty much always been OD.

Paul