Sherman Tanks of the British Army and Royal Marines

Normandy Campaign 1944

Dennis Oliver

• Publisher: Pen & Sword Military
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781473885301
• eBook ISBN: 9781473885325
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

"One neat book full of markings for British Shermans. It will greatly appeal to both modelers and AFV enthusiasts and historians."—AMPS Indianapolis
 
With production in excess of 55,000, the Sherman tank was eventually in service with most Allied armies of the Second World War and by the time of the Normandy landings was the mainstay of Britain's armored battalions. In his second book in the TankCraft series, Dennis Oliver uses wartime photos and extensively researched, exquisitely presented color illustrations to cover the Sherman tanks used by the units of the Royal Armoured Corps and the Royal Marines during the fighting in northern France.
 
As with all the books in the TankCraft series, a large part of this work showcases available model kits and aftermarket products, complemented by a gallery of beautifully constructed and painted models in various scales. Technical details as well as modifications introduced during production and in the field are also explained as is the complex system of markings employed by British armored regiments.
 
This book will give the modeler all the information and knowledge required to recreate an authentic miniature representation of the tanks that fought from the beaches of Normandy, through the battles for Caen and on to killing fields of Falaise.
 
"Provides a clear overview of the Sherman tank in British service during the Normandy Campaign. This will appeal to anyone with an interest in armoured warfare and the period covered. Much Recommended."— Firetrench
 
"A good-value reference for any Sherman fan, but particularly those new to the subject and who favour 'Blighty's' armour."—Airfix Model World

The British Army fought the Normandy battles with four armoured divisions, four independent armoured brigades and three independent tank brigades. The latter were mainly equipped with Churchill tanks and were intended to support the infantry in breaking through the enemy's frontline defences. Although each did operate a handful of Sherman tanks they are only examined here briefly and it is only necessary to mention that they were organised in a similar fashion to the armoured brigades. Other armoured units included self-propelled artillery and anti-tank regiments, the Airborne Reconnaissance Regiment and formations equipped with armoured cars such as the regiments of the Reconnaissance Corps, the RAF Regiment, the 21st Army and the four Corps protection troops. These, however, with the exception of some artillery units, were not equipped with the Sherman or any of its variants and although interesting, fall outside the area of our study. The following is an explanation of the formation and organisation of the relevant formations with brief operational histories of their involvement in the Normandy battles. As many readers may find certain aspects of the British military confusing, if not completely bewildering, a section is included on page 62 which endeavours to explain certain terms and customs such as the origins of the Royal Armoured Corps, the naming and numbering of battalions and regiments and the subject of seniority.

THE ARMOURED DIVISIONS

The British armoured division of 1944 had evolved through the hard lessons of the disastrous battles of 1940, the North African campaign and the fighting in Sicily and Italy, both of which included amphibious operations. At the time of the Normandy landings each division contained an armoured brigade made up of a brigade headquarters, three armoured regiments and a motor battalion of infantry transported in armoured halftracks. Each armoured regiment comprised a headquarters squadron and three tank squadrons referred to as A, B and C squadrons. The squadrons were usually commanded by a major and, officially at least, consisted of two tanks. The squadron headquarters also controlled any armoured recovery vehicles (ARV) or close-support (CS) tanks. By June 1944 the fighting, or Sabre, squadrons were divided into five, or sometimes four, troops and these were numbered sequentially throughout the regiment (1). The official establishment for each troop was four tanks, one of which was supposed to be a Sherman Firefly armed with the lethal 17pdr anti-tank gun, but in practice this number could vary.

Several interesting features are visible on this Sherman V Artillery Observation Post (OP) tank including the tactical marking identifying the second battery of an artillery regiment in front of the lap gunner's position with, to the left, the conical-shaped No.10 antenna mount which was an identifying feature of command and OP tanks. Just visible on the hull glacis as a slightly darker oval in front of the driver's position is a patch of poison gas detection paint. Note the waterproofing behind the driver and that the barrel is not a dummy. This photograph is taken from a series depicting 76th Highland Field Regiment, Royal Artillery made just prior to the invasion.

1. The organisational changes to the standard armoured brigade operating in the UK, of both August 1942 and November 1943, called for an armoured squadron of five troops. However, there is evidence that many armoured squadrons fighting in Normandy contained only four troops and that this establishment was common would seem to be confirmed by the allocation in June 1944 of thirty-six 17pdr armed tanks each to the Guards, 7th and 11th Armoured Divisions and 4th Armoured Brigade. As the normal practice at that time was to field one Firefly per troop, this would mean that those units had a full complement if the squadrons were made up from four troops. Within 27th Armoured Brigade the squadrons of the Staffordshire Yeomanry were definitely organised with four troops and probably East Riding Yeomanry while 13th/l8th Hussars' A and B Squadrons retained the five-troop structure while C Squadron contained four troops. That some localised experimentation was condoned is borne out by the account of an officer of 3 RTR who states that prior to D-Day his battalion had concentrated all its Fireflies into a single troop but reverted to the official establishment before leaving Britain.

21st Army Group Tank Strength June 1944 - Sherman tanks

All vehicles are listed by their British designations, for example V is Sherman V or M4A4, III is Sherman III or M4A2. The letter C identifies a 17pdr armed tank, OP denotes Observation Post, DD is Duplex Drive, ARV is Armoured Recovery Vehicle and the Crabs are of course the tanks fitted with the mine-clearing flail. Note that these figures are taken from Royal Armoured Corps reports and do not include OP tanks attached to Royal Artillery regiments, ARV tanks of the Corps of Engineers or the command tanks of the Royal Marine batteries. Although not part of our study, the numbers for the Canadian and Polish units are included.

* Exactly half of the seventy-two Sherman V tanks allocated to 30th Armoured Brigade are listed as Pilot tanks with a mention of twelve Roller equipments being on hand. A Sherman Vphotographed near Les Thilliers-en-Vexin in late August, quite probably of 79th Armoured Division, has the brackets necessary to fit the Canadian Indestructible Roller Device (CIRD) and this may be one of the tanks listed here.

** In June 1944,15th/l9th King's Royal Hussars were still in Britain. In early August the regiment replaced 2nd Northamptonshire Yeomanry as the reconnaissance regiment of 11th Armoured Division and relinquished their Shermans for Cromwells.

I have been unable to discover much further information regarding the Sherman V tanks allocated to the Guards, 31st and 34th Tank Brigades. The November 1943 Tank Brigade organisation calls for four Cruiser tanks for the brigade headquarters and Nafziger has four Sherman V command tanks attached to a combat group directly under headquarters command with a number of Churchill OP tanks and the brigade's Crusader AA vehicles. There is, however, evidence of one of the Guards Shermans operating with the 3rd Battallion Scots Guards, the brigade's junior regiment, suggesting that the four tanks were spread between the brigade and regimental commands.

The allocation of Fireflies was by no means complete when the first landings took place, with some regiments receiving their allocation as late as 28 May 1944, just over one week prior to the invasion. As production increased some troops were able to field more than one Firefly and by the end of the fighting on the Western Front it was not unusual to find at least two of these powerful tanks in each troop.

The close-support tanks, armed with the 95mm howitzer, were removed from the Sherman squadrons and retained only with those regiments operating Cromwell tanks. This was, in all likelihood, due to the Sherman tank's ability to fire both armour-piercing and high-explosive rounds, eliminating the need for a specialised tank (1).

The overall command of the armoured regiment was exercised by a Lieutenant-Colonel and the regimental headquarters fielded four tanks: one each for the commanding officer, the second in command, the adjutant and the Regimental Sergeant Major. The regimental headquarters squadron controlled a reconnaissance troop of eleven Stuart light tanks and a communications troop, referred to as a Link Troop. The latter was essentially an armoured taxi service and contained nine Humber or Daimler scout cars, one of which was usually reserved for the regimental commander. Although not strictly relevant to this study, mention should be made of the anti-aircraft troop equipped with Crusader AA tanks attached to each armoured regiment at the beginning of thecampaign. These quickly became redundant and although some regiments retained theirs, a great many AA units were converted to infantry, their vehicles being used as Observation Post (OP) tanks.

In addition to the tank regiments, the armoured divisions also contained an armoured reconnaissance regiment equipped with Cromwell and Stuart tanks. As the burden of the scouting and reconnaissance role was actually carried out by the Corps armoured car regiments or by the Stuart tanks of the regimental reconnaissance troop, these units effectively provided the brigade with a fourth armoured regiment.

The division's artillery was controlled by a Brigadier referred to as Commander, Royal Artillery (CRA) and each of the armoured divisions had two field regiments, an anti-tank regiment and an anti-aircraft regiment. A number of these were equipped with Sherman OP tanks and are discussed further under the heading of the individual regiment.

1. The exact reasoning is unknown and in fact the close-support concept was retained by the British until the war's end in Italy with the Sherman IB, armed with the 105mm howitzer, filling the role. It is possible that maintaining both the Cromwell and Sherman within the same unit was thought to be too much of a logistical strain although there is anecdotal evidence that at least some Polish and Canadian Sherman squadrons operating in France retained their CS tanks as the Canadian units later transferred from Italy certainly did.

Guards Armoured Division. Formed in May 1941, in the expectation that this formation would be used to repel a German invasion, the division originally contained 5th and 6th Guards Armoured Brigades. In late 1942, 6th Guards Armoured Brigade was detached and would eventually be equipped with Churchill tanks and re-organised as an independent tank brigade. The remaining brigade retained its original title and was made up of 2nd Armoured Battalion Grenadier Guards, 1st Armoured Battalion Coldstream Guards and 2nd Armoured Battalion Irish Guards. The men of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards formed the brigade's motor battalion (1). The reconnaissance regiment was 2nd Armoured Battalion Welsh Guards equipped with Cromwell tanks including the CS version.

The brigade was at first equipped with Covenanter tanks but completed much of its training with the Crusader. During 1943 the cruiser tanks were replaced by American M4 Medium tanks and by early 1944 the armoured regiments were equipped with the Sherman V, the M4A4, throughout. In deference to their origins as guardians of the monarch, the armoured units continued to be referred to by the infantry titles of battalion, instead of regiment, and company, in place of squadron. Elements of the division began landing in France on 26 June 1944 and soon after arriving in Normandy took part in the fighting around Carpiquet airfield coming up against elements of 12.SS-Panzer-Division, although these actions were little more than skirmishes and much of the division's tanks were still being ferried across the Channel from Britain.

On 18 July, together with 7th and 11th Armoured Divisions, the complete division took part in Operation Goodwood, the latest in a series of attempts to seize the city of Caen on the Ome river some 15 kilometres from the invasion beaches. The offensive was originally planned as a combined arms operation but due to the unexpectedly high casualty rate within infantry formations the attack was largely carried out by armoured units. The Guards were to advance towards Vimont and Argences, just to the east of Caen, and push on to Cagny. They soon came up against stiff German resistance including a battery of Luftwaffe 88mm anti-tank guns dug into prepared defensive positions and although the fire from these guns could prove devastating it is unlikely that they managed to account for the destruction of sixty of the Guards' tanks as is claimed in some accounts with the division reporting the loss of fifteen tanks destroyed and forty-five tanks damaged for the entire operation. Indeed, the 88mm guns did considerable damage to a counterattack made later by elements of 21.Panzer-Division and Tiger tanks from schwere Panzer-Abteilung 503 when they failed to recognise their comrades and destroyed at least two Tigers.

The fighting continued for the remainder of the day and its desperate nature can be gauged by the action involving Lieutenant John Gorman, a troop commander with the Irish Guards. Probing towards Cagny, today less than 2 kilometres from the outer suburbs of Caen, Lieutenant Gorman with the Shermans of his troop came upon a number of German tanks including at least one Tiger II and a Tiger I. Opening fire immediately, the first round from the Gorman's 75mm gun bounced harmlessly off the Tiger II and finding that his tank's gun was now jammed Gorman ordered his driver to ram the German tank. This, and the fire from the remaining Shermans, convinced the Tiger crew to abandon their tank and the other Germans also retreated. Early that evening, after beating off another counterattack by tanks of the Tiger battalion, infantry units entered Cagny only to find the village completely empty.

Photographed in the streets of Villiers-Bretonneux sometime after the breakout from Normandy this image provides a good impression of the appearance of the Sherman V tanks of the Guards Armoured Division throughout the campaign. The Guards' formation badge is clearly visible on the transmission cover below the driver's position. To the left, the white number 51 on a red square identifies the senior regiment of an armoured brigade, in this case 2nd Armoured Battalion Grenadier Guards. This regiment did not use squadron signs and instead numbered their tanks sequentially and this vehicle's number is marked in white on the hull side.

1. The Grenadiers had been allotted this role as the battalion contained the King's Company, made up of Guardsmen who were all over six foot tall and for obvious reasons could not be expected to climb into and out of the restrictive spaces of a tank.

Sherman V tanks of 2nd Armoured Battalion Irish Guards during the advance south of Caumont at the beginning of July. The tank's name, Clochan, can be seen painted in white just in front of the driver. The formation badge of the Guards Division can be seen on the right of the transmission cover and theAoS of the junior armoured regiment, a white 53 on a red square, is on the left. A 3rd Squadron sign enclosing a number 2 is painted on the hull side between the pieces of applique arm...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Contents
• Copyright
• Introduction
• The Normandy Battlefield
• The Armoured Divisions
• Camouflage & Markings
• Model Showcase
• Modelling Products
• The Armoured Brigades
• The Royal Artillery
• The Royal Marine Armoured Support Group
• Technical Details and Modifications
• Appendices
• Product Contact List
• Acknowledgements