Sherman Crab T147955 “Avalon” Overloon. Regiment? Damage?

[Alex van de Wetering]

Attached are some pictures of Avalon shortly after the Overloon museum opened in 1946/47. The tank still had a lot of its original fittings, stowage bins, spare chain and track links welded to the turret. Above all, the tank still was still in its original paint.

Colour pic; source: https://studiezaal.erfgoedhuisweert.nl/
picture with the children... picture with men standing on the tank.....and the head on picture: https://www.nationaalarchief.nl
The last picture is a section of another Dutch Archives picture.

Avalon kleur-forum.jpg Kindjes.jpg

NationaalArchief1.jpg NationaalArchief2.jpg

Avalon lichte2.jpg

[Alex van de Wetering]

Here are three pictures from about the same angle....but taken at different times.

In cronological order:

The first is a slide from a movie, taken shortly after the museum opened. It can be found in a documentary on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEMu...ndex=3&t=1064s

The second is a postcard I recently bought and it shows the tank in the late 40's.

The third is another postcard....still in the fairly early years of the museum (presumably 1950's)....but in the meantime the tank has lost the track links on the turret, the frame for the canvas mantlet cover and the stowage bin on the left hull side.

By the way....You can also spot Sherman "Cookie" in the background of some of the museum pictures; a relic of the US 7th Armoured division. About 10 years ago, this Sherman was painted in Canadian markings and used as a Monument in Ortona, Italy. It recently returned to Overloon and is now awaiting re-paint into the original (US) Overloon markings.

Avalon youtube.jpg Avalon-museum.jpg Avalon-museum2.jpg

[David Dunlop]

Hi Alex.

I am having a little trouble sorting out these photos of Avalon. Can you help?

The blurry black and white from the rear and the one with the two children on the front of the tank look like they were taken at the same location. AVALON has lost the right track and seems rather dug into the sandy ground on that side. The large tree behind her seems to also be in the photo with the children. There is no sign of COOKIE anywhere. Are these photos taken where AVALON was actually knocked out and abandoned? The colour photo looks like it might be the same spot.

COOKIE then shows up in the background in another black and white shot. AVALON looks like it is still in its original resting place. The surroundings seem to be a field in a wooded area.

Suddenly, we then have a series of Black and White photos of AVALON and COOKIE in approximately the same positions to each other as in the field photo, but they are both sitting on a prepared road way. In the photo with the men standing on AVALON, COOKIE has a sign leaning against the front of it. In one photo, the road between the two tanks is littered with debris, like an attempt at an outdoor diorama, the next photo the road is clear, AVALON seems to be sitting very level and the surrounding area does not look at all like the earlier photos of the blurry rear view and the ‘open’ field.

My thought is there are two photos of AVALON where she was put out of action. Possibly that field. Cookie was recovered from another location and parked near AVALON in that field. Then both vehicles were moved to museum property??? And placed on a prepared roadway in approximately the same positions as they had been in the field?

Not being at all familiar with the natural landscapes of Holland, I wonder if the two possible locations for AVALON to have been knocked out are very similar, or are there enough differences to rule one out in favour of another.

Another possibility. If AVALON was moved from where it was knocked out to museum property, who moved it? That is an interesting project at any time. Somebody may have taken photos of that work or might know who, or what organization did it? And where AVALON was recovered from.

If a final resting place for AVALON could be narrowed down to two possible locations, perhaps a metal detector sweep of both locations could turn up pieces unique to a Crab and help confirm what was found.

A very interesting puzzle!

David

[Alex van de Wetering]

Hi David,

Thanks for taking time to share your thoughts!

The Overloon museum opened on may 25th 1946 in the wooded area on the Eastern edge of Overloon, bascially on the original battlefield. "Avalon" was there from the start. In the early days the museum tried to replicate the battlefield as much as possible, with weapons, shrapnel, boxes and vehicle parts littering the area around the vehicles. After a few years the "litter" was put indoors in a museum building and a path was created along the outdoor exhibits.
It seems that at some stage the vehicles were put on proper hardened surfaces, until the early 2000's when all vehicles and guns were put indoors in the new large museum building.

As far as I can tell Avalon and Cookie stayed in approximately the same location from 1946 to the early 2000's. "Approximately", as it seems they did end up a bit closer to eachother.

I presume "Cookie" isn't in the colour picture and the picture with the children, because Cookie is either obscured by Avalon, or it's just outside the frame.
The picture with the children is part of a series all taken at the same date and one also shows "Cookie" with the rurret reversed. These pictures are dated June 13th 1946, so only a few weeks after the museum opened.

The coloured picture is dated 1946/47 and is from a series that also includes the Panther and Cromwell tank, other well known Overloon exhibits.

Attached is an early picture of the museum with scrapnel and ammo boxes littering the museum grounds. On the left you will see "Cookie" with the turret reversed and on the far right you can see "Avalon".
source: NIOD through https://beeldbankwo2.nl

Overloon 1946-3.jpg


Also attached is a picture of Cookie from the same series as the ones with the children sitting on Avalon. June 13th 1946.
source: https://www.nationaalarchief.nl/onde...field=overloon

SFA001000748_01.jpg


The third picture shows Cookie with Avalon in the background.....the blurry picture in my ealier post is in fact a section I cut from this picture. This picture is dated May 27th 1946.
source: https://www.nationaalarchief.nl/onde...field=overloon

Overloon 1946.jpg



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[Alex van de Wetering]

David,

On all pictures I have seen of Avalon at the museum the right hand track is missing. I presume the track was left in the field where Avalon was knocked out and presumably "borrowed" as spare for another Sherman, or even as armor which seems to be quite common in late 1944/45.

I visited "Broekhuizen" a couple of months ago, and searched for the field where Avalon supposedly was put out of action. It's to the Southwest of Broekhuizen. As you will see from the pictures there isn't much more to see than just a field, but the trees in the background hide the ruines of the Broekhuizen castle, that was in fact destroyed during the battle in 1944.

Broekhuizen2.jpg Broekhuizen3.jpg

Broekhuizen1.jpg

[Alex van de Wetering]

It is a subject I have been wondering about a long time myself. I'll share this thread in the hope that other may be able to come up with archive material from War Diaries or other prime sources.

Yes Hanno, please do! I also put up a thread on the same subject on ww2talk some time ago.

I forgot to add...I did ask the museum about the history of Avalon years ago when we were working on the Conger carrier, but sadly the archive didn't give any answers, apart from 2 more early museum pictures and a small note from a previous repaint job. Sadly the people that were involved in the museum in the early days have since passed away, which means that it's hard to find the background of some of the exhibits in the collection. For instance; we are not sure when the Conger carrier was added to the museum collection, nor where it came from and why it was marked as a "Wasp" in the early days of the museum.

I am not sure who moved the exhibits from the battlefield to the museum grounds in early 1946.....could be a civilian company, but I also wouldn't be surprised if it was the British army as I think they were closely involved when opening the museum.

[Alex van de Wetering]

Here is another picture of the early days of the museum; source: https://www.strijdbewijs.nl/slag/overloon1.htm

it seems the writer on the website assumes it shows the actual battlefield, but in my view this is in fact the museum (Cookie in the background) shortly after it opened.
I seem to remember this picture was also included in a old museumguide, but I can't find it at the moment.

For those interested.....early museum pictures of a number of the vehicles can be found here:
https://studiezaal.erfgoedhuisweert....56693742f4b18c
https://www.nationaalarchief.nl/onde...hTerm=overloon

Not WW2 pictures, but to me these are still very interesting pictures as most of the exhibits still carry their original paint and markings.

over020.jpg

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

If a final resting place for AVALON could be narrowed down to two possible locations, perhaps a metal detector sweep of both locations could turn up pieces unique to a Crab and help confirm what was found.

A very interesting puzzle!

Fascinating, isn't it?!?

Some areas of the former Operation Aintree battlefield have been surveyed to assess the risk of unexploded ordnance. Maybe surveys like this will yield additional info?

E.g.: "Vooronderzoeknaar het risico op het aantreffen van Conventionele Explosieven in het onderzoeksgebied "Loobeek te Venray – fase 1”."
https://venray.raadsinformatie.nl/do...748/1/document

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Alex van de Wetering

"Hall, who was also mentioned twice in despatches, was in the forefront of the action at Broekhuizen the following November when his tank cleared the approaches to the town before being hit by a bazooka which wounded him."

This document surfaced after I posted this thread on the Sherman Register FB page. It was found by Rik Teernstra at: http://www.geschiedenismelderslo.nl/...en_apr2001.pdf

It is a short history in Dutch about Lt.Col. R.C. Stockly (34921), Commander of the 3rd Battalion Monmouthshire Regiment. His unit attacked Broekhuisen castle with support from Sherman Crab flail tanks to clear mines. Stockly was killed during this attack on 30 November 1944.

This document contains no exact details on which Crabs took part in the attack on the castle, nor on how they were put out of action.