I see a US White scout car in the lower picture. I thought we had given all of them to the Russians!Did we use any in the Normandy invasion era, and on across Europe?
Depends on who we mean by "we".
US Army armored recon and armored cavalry formations replaced M3s with M8s after Tunisia. Some might still have been taken into service in Sicily and the early Italian actions, but none of the D-Day forces should have gone into action with M3s.
TD units, and other formations that used M3s for integral scouting and liaison functions were re-equipped with M20s. Again, D-Day forces should have been fully and properly equipped well before they landed (by early 1944).
Still, it is not unimaginable that some old hold-over M3 was in some units hands. Maybe an engineering formation, or a medical formation or an engineering formation would have picked one up from a surplus lot in the UK before coming over. Not exactly a mainstream vehicle, to be sure.
However, the French forces still operated the White M3 as their standard scout car in their armored recon formations. So it this is supposed to model a French force, it is highly appropriate.
-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)
opens up the all-plastic M5 Stuart kit recently released.
