Hi all,

I was wondering what lend-lease tanks such as an M3 or M4 would look like when delivered to the Western Desert theatre. Who painted and finished them?

Questions:
1) Were they painted in USA in a version of the British desert colours- or were they repainted in theatre?
2) If they were repainted- what colour would US tanks arrive in before repainting? Would they wear British numbers or any other markings applied in the USA?

cheers for any guidance!

Will

I believe they started out US o.d. and were painted in the USA. The British, and I'm not sure where, repainted them for desert use.

Hi Will,

There are only a couple of rules-of-thumb that can be applied here to different examples. The vast majority of the rest are exceptions or location / time-dependent and vehicle specific situations.

Basically, before the US entered the war, the British were allowed to specify colors (British colors) for those tanks that they were purchasing which were constructed to their specifications. Really, we're only talking here about medium M3 Grants and Lees and M3 light tanks. Of course, given the lead times necessary from the time of contracting to the time of delivery, predicting whether a tank would ultimately wind-up in the desert or Great Britain was nearly impossible, so the majority of these tanks were painted G3 Khaki Green.

(Which accounts for things like G3 Khaki Green M3 Medium Grants requiring repainting in Egypt before being employed in the Western Desert.)

Those tanks ordered and intended for deliver to the Middle East could have been specified to be painted in something like Light Stone (or Desert Pink) and those intended for other theaters or the home islands could have been specified in G3 Khaki Green (or possible G4 Dark Green for the Pacific theater).

After the US entered the war, production rules in the US required that ALL vehicles manufactured be painted in the US contract specified colors - basically Olive Drab. This also included vehicles that were contracted for Lend Lease since there were convoluted contract management processes involved. These management processes made it impractical to identify specific vehicles rolling down the assembly line as either US or Lend Lease, so the simple solution was to paint them all one color - OD - and let the Commonwealth end-user repaint them if they wanted.

This applies to all Sherman tanks, BTW. None were manufactured or delivered to the British in any color other than US OD.

Having said this, tanks and other vehicles diverted at the end of manufacture for Lend Lease were not usually assigned US registration numbers. Painting registration numbers being one of the last things done before the vehicle was actually shipped to the end-user (either US or Commonwealth), it was possible to either paint the number on or leave it off.

The major exception to this general rule were the first 200 or so Sherman M4A1 delivered to North Africa which were actually tanks that were scheduled to delivery to US troops but were diverted, literally enroute, to the Middle East. Those tanks did have US registration numbers applied.

Once the British took delivery of the tanks and vehicles, British rules and regulations applicable to the time and location (theater) along with material resources (i.e. paint) and time available determined if an OD tank was repainted and in what colors.

Once you reach this point, you have to narrow your search for answers to more specific examples.

HTH,