Guys, in pursuit of adding to my collection of Cold War armour, and also in the hope that I'm in the right category for such a venerable tank - can anyone confirm whether or not the M46 "Patton" (as made in 1:35 by Dragon) ever saw service in USAREUR - or whatever the antecedent title of USAREUR was, or, did they only see service Stateside and in Korea, leaving the forces in Europe to soldier on with the M26? If it did indeed see service in Germany, can anyone also point me towards photographs? I've searched to no avail, but the important thing is to identify whether or not it got there in the first place. I'll worry about colours and markings later. What I call immediate Post War, and early Cold War subjects don't appear to be documented particuarly well.

Thanks in anticipation.

Thanks.

the M-46 was esentually a upgraded M-26 pershing the only place i know the M-26 served was in korea during the korean war then quicky replaced by the M-47 patton that did serve with usaeura

Nick,

Thats what I've always assumed ie deployed due to the crisis in Korea, then fairly quickly superseded by the M47. However, I was hoping that maybe it did see limited service in Germany, or would the main efort (quite rightly) have been Korea? I cannot help thinking that with the centre of Cold War gravity - presumably - still being focused in Germany, that the M46 would have been shipped over there, even in limited numbers. The deployment of the Soviet T54 would have been nigh I feel and that particular threat would have resulted in serious consideration. At the end of the day, I only wish to know in order to portray my model on a small base - not a diorama by any means - but just an effort to set the vehicle in context; a German signpost here, a piece of German ordinance there. It may be in this particular case I have to depict the model stateside. Thanks for your help.

my suggesatoin would be to contact the patton museum at ft knox ky or the ordance museum at aberdeen proving grounds in md

do you have the squadron book in the m26 pershing/m46 patton?

Brian .. from what i can gather the M46 never set foot in Germany at all .. seems it only fought in Korea , The guys in Germany had to use the M26 until the M47 was ready to be deployed .
Here's a small bit of info i pulled of the net ... The only US combat use of the M46 was in the Korean War. On 8 August 1950 the first M46 Patton tanks belonging to the 6th Tank Battalion landed in South Korea. The tank proved superior to the much lighter North Korean T-34-85, which were encountered in relatively small numbers. By the end of 1950, 200 M46 Pattons had been fielded, forming about 15% of US tank strength in Korea; the balance of 1,326 tanks shipped to Korea during 1950 were 679 M4A3 Shermans (including the M4A3E8 variant), 309 M26 Pershings, and 138 M24 Chaffee light tanks.[5] Subsequent shipments of M46 and M46A1 Pattons allowed all remaining M26 Pershings to be withdrawn during 1951, and most Sherman equipped units were also reequipped.[6]

Hope this can clear things up for ya a bit

Phill

At least 5 were given to the Belgians.

Nick,

Thanks for your help; no, I don't have the Squadron book but I have the New Vanguard "M47 & M48 Patton Tanks" and "Modern American Armour" both co-authored by Stephen Zaloga, and both give emphasis on Korea. I think I'll have to run with the fact that it didn't get anywhere very much other than Korea and the US.

The tip about the Patton Museum is a good one and I may pursue that.

Aaaagh! This muddies the waters somewhat in that one would assume that these would have come from US European stock.

I suppose I could always model a Belgian version - my collection of Belgian stuff is limited to a CVR(T)76mm and an AIFV. Something from the 50s would be interesting I suspect.

Thanks for your help.

Phill,

Thanks; it now looks like I'll either have to go with a stateside version, or a Belgian one, not that this really matters although I prefer sometimes to model a kit in its country of origin guise. I quite like the look of the Dragon kit especially with its searchlight, paving the way for more advanced designs. If I follow the Patton thread to its logical conclusion I'll end up with around 8 models (!) so I'll be busy enough I suspect. I'm already there with the M60A2 and an A1 but the earlier vehciles are a little more interesting especially when they are not so well documented, or at least that sometimes appears to be the case.

Thanks again.