Does anybody know of any good reference photos for the dispensers for path marker flags that were mounted on the rear hull of the Crab Mk i - or at least, those operated by the 1st Lothian and Borders Horse, since I've never seen them on any pics of Crab Is operated by other units.

These were parallelogram shaped units mounted on the rear hull sides that were presumably an early version of the "stick a flag in the ground" units that are pretty much standard on NBC vehicles.

No plans or profiles ever seem to show them. The recent Osprey book on the Sherman Crab (well, supposedly on the Sherman Crab, but actually more like a complete history of British flail tanks in the same way their Churchill Crocodile book covered every British flamethrower tank known) has an excellent, almost perfect profile photo of one of these vehicles that's goood enough for me to get two of the dimensions from, but the other photos I've seen indicate that the profile is other than a simple rectangle - some show what seems to be a bevelled lower edge, while the photo in the Osprey book hints at the box having a lid. Anybody know of any photos showing such a tank from an angle that makes it possible for me to get at least a semi-accurate profile?

They seem to have been carried by the majority of L&B vehicles and, since I'm from that area (almost literally from both - I was technically in Midlothian but the marker post for the start of the Borders was just a few minutes walk outside town), that what I'd prefer to my Crab as, but unless I can get those dispensers added (and as accurate as possible), it just won't be *right* Any info on the height and appearance of the flags themselves would be useful too, although the boxes themselves make guessing at the height (although not how deeply they were planted) pretty easy.

Thanks,

Al

Al: In the first issue of Allied-Axis, there's good pics of the 79thAD Crabs with the flag boxes. Maybe round that up? Worse case, contact me offsite.

Thanks - I've got that, I'll check those out.

Al

Al:
The boxes on the rear sides of a Crab dispensed chalk Lines of cleared lane. But also mounted on the rear engine deck there were "L" shaped lane marker reference poles w/ reflecter
discs for the tanks following to have a fwd reference of the lead tank to follow. Crabs of WW2 didn't use the modern stake
method. Hope that helps.