I've been trying to find out the composition of a troop of the Royal Marine Armoured Support Group on DDay. I have one of Accurate Armour's LCTs and I'd like to load it appropriately. I know each troop had one Sherman to go along with its Centaurs, but I'd like to know if there were also 3 or 4 Centaurs in the troop. In addition, if anyone has any other ideas as to what would be an appropriate LCT load I'd love to hear about it. TIA
Mark Levine
According to British and Commonwealth Armies 1944-45 by Mark Bevis, the composition of the Armoured Support Group was this:
Two Armoured Support Regiments and one Independent Battery.
Each Regiment had a RHQ with 2 rifle sections in 8 Jeeps and 4 OP/Naval Fire Control Teams.
There were also four Batteries each with a HQ with one Sherman M4A3 and four Troops each of which had 4 Centaur IVCS and one Sherman M4A3 (in Troop HQ).
The Group seems to have had a rough time on D-Day and few of its vehicles made it ashore.
Gordon McLaughlin
British forces did not use the M4A3 Sherman. This was the Ford-engined version and was reserved for US troops. A sample was sent to Britain for evaluation, but none were sent as Lend-Lease aid. The US supplied British Commenwealth forces with M4 (including composite hull versions), M4A1 (75 mm and 76 mm), M4A2 (75 mm only) and M4A4, the most common variant, which was supplied with the 75 mm gun, though many were rebuilt as 17 pounder-armed Fireflies. M4A1 76 mm was used by British forces in Italy but not NW Europe (though Polish units did use them). Gerald Owens
True! I just quoted the book without thinking. At one point he refers to "M4A3 MkV". As the MkV was the M4A4, I imagine that's what he meant.
Gordon McLaughlin
IIRC most of the British D-Day Shermans -- and the US ones -- were either M4 (Sherman I) or M4A1 (Sherman II) types. There did appear to be a very few Sherman VC Fireflies around but never saw any solid proof of that.
There were two basic reasons for the choice of the M4/M4A1 types. One was fitting the DD equipment to them (as they were close to identical from the point of view of size and fit) and the other was the 85% or so interchangeability of parts, such as engines, transmissions, most non-dedicated (e.g. firewalls) fittings, etc.
Cookie Sewell
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