By 1945 and the invasion of Iwo Jima, the Marine tank battalions have learned hard lessons fighting a tenacious enemy. Wood planks, sandbags and tracklink armor help guard against magnetic mines and suicide troops with hollow charge warheads on long poles. Hatch screens prevent satchel charges from coming in contact with the hatches. Sometimes lumber was attached or rebar was welded onto suspension bogies to prevent satchel charges being thrown under the tank.
The wood side armor was backed for the first time with two inches of poured concrete. All of this still didn't prevent the Japanese Army's new 47 mm antitank gun from taking out quite a few Shermans. Wading trunks were left on because first of all they were a stone cold "B" to remove and they added some protection to the all important radiators. On the gas or diesel engined tanks the radiators were under the hull overhang at the rear. These proved vulnerable to shell fragments.
This is "Applejack" Co. A, 5th Tank Battalion, Iwo Jima 1945.
This is the old Tamiya kit with my add ons. Again I have scratch built the wood side armor as well as the wading trunks. The sand bags are Milliput, the hatch screens are a combination of left over PE and scratch.
Let the discussion begin!
G
Great stuff there G. The Iwo and Okinawa Marine Shermans were probably some of the most interesting of the war with all the modifications made. Certainly of the PTO.