My latest Model is an M7 Priest and I'm having problems locating any pictures of it with U.S. markings. I have found many British markings (It was primarily sold to the British during WWII) but I have been searching for one of the rare U.S. Army examples,,, and Help??

The M7 Priest initially saw action with British forces in North Africa. The British replaced it with the Sexton which used the 25lber in place of the 105mm. It was widely used by US troops. It debuted with US forces in late November of 42 in Operation Torch. It saw action on all fronts with the Army and to a lesser degree, the Marines.
Most US versions were marked with the large circled star like in this model's pics: US M7 PRIEST
If you go HERE, you can click through the thumbnails to view quite a few US examples.

I just read a great book called "Death Traps" (about the Sherman Tank - imagine that!), written by an ordanance officer from the 2nd Armor / 3rd Battalion. He followed our armor in the front lines from Normandy to Berlin, and stated that the most feared EARLY GROUND VEHICLE we had in the eyes of the Germans was the M7 Priest.

Tigers and Panthers both were basically impervious to the Sherman in a frontal attack... but the arching 105mm howitzer shells would rip the thin top decks of ANY German tank to shread.

The fellow stated that while th P47 planes probably killed more Tigers and Panthers than any ground-based unit, he stated the M7 killed as many or more than the M4 which outnumbered it 20 to 1 in deployments. Interesting book and lots of interesting details and opinions.

I likes the M7 priest! It's one of my favorties. I did my model with the star in a circle too.

Hi,

Some photos of M7 with US markings at WWII Vehicles.

HTH

If you can locate any of the Concorde books by Steve Zaloga about US tanks you will find a number of photos of the M7 Priest in US service. Specifically you should try to find #7044 US Armored Artillery. It contains info and pictures of early Half-track mounted SPAs, M7s, M12s, and M8s, but it focuses primarily on the M7 and M12. All of the pictures in the book are of US vehicles. Like Ken said, the M7 was very widely used by US forces. It was used all over Europe and the Marines even used them over in the Pacific. The Concord book mentioned above has some interesting shots of USMC M7s with the early M3 Lee style bogies and deep wading gear. I would think that British examples of the M7 Priest would be much harder to find since they only used them for a very limited time. HTH.

And don't forget "U.S. Self-Propelled Guns in Action" by Jim Mesko, Squadron/Signal Armor Number 38. Lots of M7 pics, as well as a bit on the Sexton, the M8 (Tamiya makes), the M12 (Academy makes) and the M40/M43 (which is supposed to be released by AFV Club or Academy later this year). All that for about $12.