"1942 Marmon-Herrington ID Plate Chinese Truck" - Chinese, anyone?!?

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by Tony Smith
Hanno, does the top field on the right side seem to say "CRS 4TAC", or "CR5 4TAC"?

"4TAC" is clear, but the first bit seems to be three characters only, whereas I would expect "CTLS" there. I'll know for sure when I get the plate home.

What did these tanks look like? Do you have a pic?

Attached goes a pic of a left-hand drive CTLS-4TAY, the right-hand drive version was the CTLS-4TAC (it could also be the other way round as there is some confusion about their designation, though). The turret on the CTLS could only rotate through 240 degrees, so it was envisaged they would be operated in pairs. Very much a stop-gap tank, which proved to be not very succesful. As far as I know they were only used in combat once: on 2 March 1942 the KNIL engaged the Japanese forces using seven Marmon-Herrington Light Tanks and seventeen Vickers-Carden-Loyd Commercial Model 1936 Light Tanks. It was the first and last(!) battle in which Dutch troops used tanks.

03736.jpg