- Dontos
I find the drivers 'cut-out' photos quite interesting. I figure that the vehicle was used as a 'trainer'....perhaps a sub-cal gunnery or Anti-tank gunnery trainer?
Any idea on this?
Don
Before this tank came to its current home, it had at least three other owners other than the U.S. Army. The owner who made the 'cut-out' is Abdo S. Allen, Co. which was a demolition contractor in Oakland, CA. They used to use this Sherman to demo old houses and other small buildings by driving thru them. The 'cut-out' was to provide direct vision for the driver. I'm not too sure of the time frame but the owner of the company was killed or nearly killed when the Sherman plunged into an unexpected basement of an old Victorian style home and had a beam pierce the mesh, hence the big hole in it.
Sometime after that, Jacques Littlefield ended up with the tank(that's how I know the above story). It sat in storage at his place for many years. Then, sometime in 2004, Littlefield's crew took it out of storage and took some useful parts off of it for the now in progress M4A3E2 restoration. They then sold it to Brent Mullins in Texas who in turn sold it to the current owner.
Its nice to see it being take care of. I plan on following this restoration on G503