"French M4A4, 1st Army just for a change" Topic

I needed to complete my French Sherman collection. But two types never served with the 2eme DB. One was the M4A4, which saw much use with the British and also the French 1st Army (Fighting up through Southern France.) The latter did not have quite the kudos and romance of the true "Free French" due to their association with the former Vichy regime in North Africa and it shows, in France, to this day, however well they fought.

T49 tracks are from a German company, Modellbau. They are in resin and "challenging" to work with, but do have enough links for the longer M4A4 and for the inevitable disasters that get chucked.

The markings are Braillestrike and the model is a Dragon "Tulip", without the rockets (you try to find an M4A4 anywhere else in this scale).

I will do my usual trick of showing this in Marseilles and there is still the M4A1 76 (which also never served with 2eme DB, except in that film of course, where they used nothing else).

Oh rats. I meant to crosspost to 20mm, but hit 28mm instead and nothing will now correct that. My excuse is a long drawn out dinner with two of our three sons….hit the wrong button. I had better show the rest tomorrow………..

Fantastic. I couldn't paint like that if it was 1/6.

Very nicely done.

Looks like one of the multibank Shermans that got dumped on the French. One of the ones that did not go through the rebuild process. No additional side armour plates welded to the hull, or chin armour fillets around the turret front.

It really is not publicly known how much US kit the French army used right through to the mid sixties. I mean the tanks right on down to M47. I'ld really lke to know how many Garands the French wond up geting in and post war?

During the war they seemeed to get everyone elses' hand me downs.

Thanks all.

2eme DB, as part of US 3rd Army under Patton, did better for updated equipment. They got M4A3s, M4A3 76s (possibly the very first users in combat), which the British/Allied units did not.

Even so, they still used M3A3s, when the US had upgraded to the M5 Light tank and never did get the Jackson M36.

The French Army in Italy and Southern France does seem to have had less priority in equipment. But you are right, much US supplied kit did see service in Indochina and even Algeria after the war.

Let me add a photo of this tank in Marseille, 1944.

Very nice Sherman, Deadhead! I love your Free French models.

great work

That looks great, I love the last photo!

Amazing model!

DH, is that also a bolt on bracket running along the side of the glacis plate, like the dust shield mounts on the hull side (or maybe it's just a weld line)?

It is a very overdone weld line that I added. I do not "do" subtle….that is some weld!

The dust shield mounts came on the model (but not on the M4A1 76 curiously. The original photos show that both had them, but Dragon have modelled them with a series of "rivets" projecting, rather than empty holes.

The rear Consular Flag is reversed alas, but that is to be corrected, with th blue upper left.

Thanks all, really appreciated!

Thanks to Clem of Braille Strike my rear Consular Flag is now corrected. Now to get back to my second M4A1 76!