Operation Infatuate II: Sherman tanks at Westkapelle

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Originally Posted by MicS

Back to the Memorial tank T148656, I am wondering about a marking which appears to be on the transmission housing.

Now you point this out, I seem to recall noticing it before as well but for some reason not digging deeper into it. Chances are I forgot due to having all kinds of other stuff to figure out as well

Originally Posted by MicS

I think I have seen examples of the Reg No being painted in large numbers in this location, but naturally I can't find them right now...

Luckily you remembered, because I was about to go and find the one posted the other day

Originally Posted by MicS

if this marking was indeed the WD No. and given the size of the digits, it must have been written in two lines:

148
656

I’m not sure. In this photo:



I’m not convinced the character left of the 5 is a 6. It seems to be missing its left-hand side and the remaining part appears too angular to me. I also can’t really make anything of the markings in the 1958 photos, as they’re really just a blur.

On the other hand, I have no idea what else could be painted there that would have the number 56 in it … AoS number 56 seems unlikely, and why would it be on the tank? (A replacement transmission salvaged from another tank is about the only reason I can think of, but see above.)

The 5 is a fair deal larger than the 6, as is most obvious in the photo with all the people posing in front of and on the tank. This seems to suggest it’s hand-painted.