- panamadan
Bob, Did you get out to the M5A1 at Snelling for reference?
Dan in Buffalo
Hi Dan,
Yes, I did. I was allowed to crawl over, under, around, and through their mid-production M5A1. The photos I took were a great help. Here are just a few.
I also went back to Ft. Knox in 2007 and did the same with theirs: hundreds of photos which were an asset. I was able to get to the Ordnance Museum at APG and photograph the M5A1 inside in 2008. Last, a friend of mine, Jim Mesko, who has written over 30 books for Squadron/Signal, sent me over a thousand jpegs on two disks of a third M5A1 undergoing restoration in Ohio. I think I have over 4000 pics of M5 and M5A1 tanks in various places around the world; great reference material if one keeps in mind a restored tank does not necessarily reflect how one looked in 1944. Still, photographs are invaluable for close-up details. I'm a modeler who is at the level where "if I can see it, I can build it." But first and foremost, I have to be able to see it. Alas, this affliction condemns one to crawling underneath these things with camera; not a clean operation in anyone's book.........sigh.
My vehicle is a mid-production M5A1 named Cognac, the 32nd tank of Company C, 33rd Armored Regiment, 3rd Armored Division, and it took part in the fighting around St. Fromond during the crossing of the River Vire in June 1944.
Cheers!