sorry guys, there are no pics of my sherman dio, i had to say it so i would get your attention.

just a couple of questions...............

1. during autumn of ardennes i know it was starting to get cold, would the us troops start to be wearing winter uniforms. and would you often see some troops still in stadard uniform and some troops in winter uniform during this time?

2. in my dio, i am going to have a m20 and a sherman, would 7-8 troops be able to either hitch a ride on the sherman and m20? ( at the same time(not all in one vehicle))?

thankyou, i promise next time to have some pics.

matt

Hello Matt,

For the first question I can only say that it differs very much. At the start of the offensive, the soldiers who were allready stationed in the Ardennes had a reasonable winter outfit. On the other hand, the troops that came hasting to relieve or support them did not been supplied well. For instance, the 101 Airborne division had no winter outfit (some of them did not even had a coat) and had way to less firepower and a shortage of ammunution as they were rushed from their leave into battle.

The second question is not completely clear to me.

Paul

007, what i mean is.....................

between the sherman and the m20, could both vehicles transport 7 - 8 troops,

eg, can some of the troops sit on the tank.?

matt

Hi Matt,
007 is correct in regards to the first question.
7 or 8 G.I's could easily fit on a sherman I have a pic with 16 on an M4 going through the West wall! I have also seen a pic from Iwo Jima (I think) and the Sherman had about 22 Marines hitching a ride.

P.S If you would like the pic from the West wall send me a PM with your email addy and I will send it to you.

so for my dio i can have normal uniforms and a couple soldiers in winter uniforms?

matt

well most likely the "Replacements" that had come in would have been supplied with the latest stuff and that would include some winterclothing

Sure thing Matt! Specially when it's in the beginning of the Offensive and the allied forced were suprised and send in every man thay had. Later on (from mid january 45) the most soldiers were full suplied.
A nice detail you can add on the figures in normal uniforms is perhaps civilian shawls gotten from the Ardenner inhabitants.

For riding the tanks, here are 2 pictures of troops riding on Shermans. I did not found any pictures of troops riding M20 tanks, but I would not know a reason why they should not do that also.
The pictures come from Steve Zaloga's book The Battle Of the Bulge (Concord publ. 7045).

The first picture is at the beginning of the Offensive (green tank, normal uniforms), the second is later on (mid january); whitewashed tanks and winter clothing.





Paul

Paul
Nice pictures - even better - you gave credit and information about your source. Nice job.

thnx paul for pictures, i appreciate the effort.

however i wont be having soldiers on the tank, i just wanted to confirm that they did ride shermans so i could have my shermi as a exuse as transport for the us troops.

thxn anyway, they are still usefull

matt