Sherman Crabs

 Sherman Crabs

Just before Christmas I bought the Rapid Fire! scenario pack "Brothers in Armour" from those icons of WW2 wargaming Richard Marsh and Colin Rumford.

Now I`ve never gamed the British in NWE, but the fighting around Geilenkirchen in November 1944 has fascinated me since I first read Ken Ford`s book way back in the 1980s. So when I saw this pack had a scenario set during the fighting with British armour supporting US infantry - well I just couldn`t resist.

Now as I said, I have never gamed the British in NWE so I only actually own 3 British tanks and only one - a Firefly, can take part in the scenario. But I have quite a few 75mm armed Shermans, so the rest of the ordinary British tanks of the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry is not an issue; and I have plenty of US infantry for the US 334th Regiment. 

But the attack was supported by elements of 79th Division with their specialist armoured vehicles, and I didn`t own any of these! 

So in a moment of crazy, I decided to take the plunge and buy what I needed to run the game.

S&S Models were do a conversion kit to convert a standard model Sherman into a Crab, they also do nice stowage packs and I also purchased some British tank commanders, Shaun was also able to supply a box of Armourfast Sherman from stock as the base kit.

A few WIP shots

My finished models, these will represent vehicles from “A” Troop, Lothian and Borders Yeomanry

Sherman Crab

Based on a design by South African Major A.S. du Toit, the Sherman "Crab" was a flail tank designed to beat a path through enemy minefields

The antennae at the rear were a set of dim lights to guide other tanks following the crab, the two boxes mounted on the rear sides were filled with powdered white chalk which poured out leaving a clear lane for following men and vehicles to see where a path had been cleared.