Sander69
SMF Supporter
Very good observations Jakob! I had a hard time understanding the counterweight geometry but your explanation makes sense. I guess I lucked out by choosing the stamped road wheels and the spoked idler wheels. I saw a picture of one with a caption that said it was in Italy and went for it. I figured they were replacing the Idler’s when they were damaged or when they got the time.Looking at the photo you posted above:
This looks to me to be an early type of M10, without the counterweights. It has a grouser rack on the hull side, though, and there is something on the turret rear but it doesn’t look pointed enough to me to be the counterweights — though the angle under which the photo was taken might be tricking the eye here, of course.
Aha, but this photo, taken at Bit Marbott Pass in Tunisia, may explain the turret rear:
View attachment 402466
Flat boxes/bins on the turret rear instead. Note that this vehicle doesn’t have grouser racks on the hull sides, but it is carrying grousers: the flat bars with the two eyes on each end.
Also note stamped wheels but spoked idlers, which is something of a rare combination in Shermans and their variants, because the spoked idler was replaced by a stamped one that was less prone to deformation of the rim when stuff got trapped between it and the track.