Operation Infatuate II: Sherman tanks at Westkapelle

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

I am excited to learn about the marking scheme you have designed for this tank.

Some months ago, I made the following instructions for them to use, as well as 1:1 size drawings of the markings:

Markeringen T148656 1.jpgMarkeringen T148656 2.png

Those 1:1 drawings went to a company that makes adhesive stencils, some of which I also saw yesterday and which seem to look good (as far as I could tell, with them still on the backing paper )

As for accuracy, there is, of course, a bit of a problem. The markings on the glacis are not those of T148656, as it had both the AoS and division markings on the front of the right flail jib, which is missing. However, they are correct most of the other 1 Lothians tanks, so I felt it would be best to copy those. The positions on the rear are as they appear in the few available photographs of the back of the tank.

The census number on the side is in the position it was in before T148656 was converted to a Crab. I chose this because else the one on the left would have been at the front while that on the right would be nearly at the back, and that will have some people wondering without being able to get an explanation. Using the pre-Crab position seemed better.

I debated over including the hand-painted CHERRY 6 on front and/or rear, as well as the 148-over-656 on the bow, and decided against them. The main reason is that this is a tank on public display, and text that appears hand-painted will look too much like graffiti — which invites more.

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

An LVT sprocket was one of the artefacts dug up, surprisingly.

I had read about the sprocket, yes. I know of at least two LVT wrecks in Vlissingen (of the twenty deployed there in all), but not near this bunker, so perhaps one was lost here too?