I just got word that HobbyLink Japan is shipping my M4A2. I am happy! I only have forty plus unbuilt kits and need another. Having said that I know that the PMMS reviewed the model with some nice comments, has anyone else gotten this Bad Boy? Can I put her in US markings or were they a Lend Lease Russian item only?
Any other information would be greatly appreciated.
thanks
DJ

The Marines used the M4A2, but I do not know if they used the 76mm turret on the M4A2 or just the 75mm turret.

Like Sabot said, I can find nothing about the Marines ever using a 76mm M4A2. The Marines prefered the the excellent high-explosive power of the 75mm gun's M48 high-explosive shell, and the 76mm gun, while being more effective at armor penetration, fired a weaker HE shell. There just was not the need for the 76's AP capability.

I think I'm going to wait and see what Dragon does for this kit ...too many little things to correct ..the back of the hull angle needs to be fixed ..the turret pistol port looks like the one from Tamiya's M4A3 kit ...The barrel has the same mistake as the Italeri kit has ...I'm not saying it can't be fixed but why fix it when maybe dragon will do it for us...Will make a cool conversion to a late M4 with tamiya's 105 turret and an M4 engine access hatch ...conversion time!!

Rick

D.J.-- Ditto what the others have said.




From what I can gather from Hunnicutt and other references, the M4A2 76mm was only used by the Soviets. They received more than 2,000 of them and used them right up to the end of the war. Lots of photos of them in Berlin, Austria and elsewhere.

You'll have to mate the Italeri or Tamiya M4A3/75W turret to the Academy hull to make a USMC M4A2 "late".

Then put the Academy 76mm turret on the opposite kit to make a USArmy M4A3/76.

Well, I'll let you fine folks know what happens once I start her. Being the lazy clown that I am, I might just stay with the Russian version.
thanks
DJ

I'm waiting for these kits, too...But I want to see what the glitches are before I commit to a purchase of a couple of them. As for users:

M4A2 56 degree versions with various types of protruding driver's hoods (couple of types of cast and welded, too) were used by Commonwealth forces from 1942 onwards. They did become less common in the later years of the was as attritin whittled the numbers down. We kept these diesels only for the USMC. Not sure about the Russians.

M4A2 47 degree wet stowage 76mm were largely exported to the USSR, but some wound up in Commonwealth service too. Postwar, the Royal Canadian Armored Corps re-equipped with these HVSS-fitted vehicles in the late 1940s and they served well into the sixties. One caveat: Canadian units in Korea went over without equipment (well, a few M10 17-pdrs were shipped) and drew wet-stowage 76mm M4A3 gasoline tanks from US stocks for war service. Although they were introducing Centurions into inventory at this time, none were used in Korea unlike the British contingent.

Greg

Greg-- what is your source document? I am leaning towards the Russian version and a MM Russian Topside Green base color. I am wondering why the Army did not take a diesel engine M4? Any idea, just curious...
thanks
DJ

I think, (not sure), that the Army passed on the diesel engined tank for logistical reasons. They did not want to introduce another fuel type into their supply system. I guess it was easier to just keep shipping gasoline alone.

On this one I tend to agree with Sabot, having (accidentally) worked with a couple of logisttics maestros, I can remember this subject coming up ever so many years ago... It seems as if the U.S. were thinking 'GAS' until the late 1940s....something to do with the capacity they had for refining or something. This is one wonderful esoteric subject....I really would like to hear more..Jim

Sabot and Jim are both correct. The U.S. Army only wanted and used gasoline engines only because of logistics. Since they had only gasoline engined vehicles in their support and transport lines, their tanks would have gasoline engines too.

DJ,as far as I know Russian Shermans were left in the U.S.OD Of course I could totally be wrong They also used the 75mm variant I have a book on lend lease armor given to the Soviets It's all in Russian,but the pics are pretty good I'll PM you with any info you need about the book

Check out: Loza, D. F. (Dmitrii Fedorovich) "Commanding the Red Army's Sherman tanks : the World War II memoirs of Hero of the Soviet Union, Dmitriy Loza / edited and translated by James F. Gebhardt." It has a but load of interesting details, including how they improvised ice cleats by wrapping barbed wire around parts of the tracks (and it worked too).

And the Marines used the M4A2 in the Pacific because the Navy used diesel instead of gasoline.
v/r,
Cob