Rusty Sherman tank at Marine base Quanico Virginia

[DocRick]

Boy, that's a blast from my past!

 

Back in Dec of 79, while I was in ITS at Camp Geiger, we humped out to the K Ranges (the area desrcibed past MCAS New River) to qualify on the M60 MG. We were shooting paper targets at 1000 inches, as any 0331 will rememeber.

Well, the range we used had a bunch, 3 or 4 at least of those distinctive M4A3 Flame tanks on the other side of the road. They had been hauled out there as targets, and the instructors climbed all over and in them. The "Double barrel" was unique, and even a Boot like me knew what they were, and were historically important even then.

I don't remember if they had tracks then, but I know they were gonna be hauled out onto the range for targets for the M72A2 LAAWS and maybe Dragons that were being shot there too. I always wiondered what happened to them, because later in life realized the significance. The Military never was very forward looking when it came to saving those kinds of things for a long time.

So now you know they went onto the Range in 1980, no earlier. I will testify to the fact they were there, but not on the range yet, in Dec 79. That thing sat around Lejeune since 1944-45 until it got dragged to the K ranges to get shot up. Wonder where they had it? Out at the Disposal yards?

I remember there was a M47 like that one at a demo range back mainside behind the pistol range somewhere. intact. It was buried most of the way up the hull. Possibly that M47 is it.

The NBC training area at Geiger had a weird little tank, almost looked Italian or Japanese, that they "decontaminated" over and over. It was rusty, but very early, like pre 1940 design.

 

I took the train to Fla back around 90, and the tracks past through Quantico. There was a T34/85 behind some storage sheds there right next to the tracks. i wonder what happened to that.

 

 

Ah, a stroll down memory lane. I was at Quantico from 82-85, corpsman supporting OCS, MSG, TBS, etc, etc. Gave a lot of shots to the OCS candidates :w00t: . Wonderful place, full of surprizes. We often stumbled across small CW graveyards, totally overgrown and forgotten. Lots of history there for armored vehicle buffs.

 

Doc Rick

[Mil-Tech Bard]

Ah, a stroll down memory lane. I was at Quantico from 82-85, corpsman supporting OCS, MSG, TBS, etc, etc. Gave a lot of shots to the OCS candidates :w00t: . Wonderful place, full of surprizes. We often stumbled across small CW graveyards, totally overgrown and forgotten. Lots of history there for armored vehicle buffs.

 

Doc Rick

 

 

This was a real find.

 

There were only 70 POA-CWS-H5 built during WW2. The Chemical Warfare Service Green book histories stated that 56 of them were going to be used in Operation Olympic -- along with 40 of the M5-4 (E12-7R1) Sherman flame tanks -- for tank battalions supporting "the assault divisions."

 

When the Japanese surrendered, the US Army's 98th Infantry Division took 10 of the POA-CWS-H5 with them to Japan.

 

Too date, I have only found M4A3 (HVSS) either of the 75mm or 105mm type and one odd ball rebuilt M4A1 at the Chemical Corps Museum at Ft Lenard Wood.

 

The M4A1 based POA-CWS-H5 Sherman in the photos I have seen on Flikr and Photobucket show a M4A1 that has had late war, depot level, add-on armor upgrades (right side of turret and hull) and a "twin duckbill" end pin connector extension kit added.

 

The Curator there thinks it was a one-off US army prototype, but lost all documentation on it was lost when it was transferred to the Aberdeen Proving Ground museum in 1970 with the closure of the Chemical Corps museum in Maryland and again back to a renewed Chemical Corps museum at Ft Lenard Woods in 1982.

 

The eight POA-CWS-H1 used on Iwo Jima (called the CB Mark-1 in USMC After Action Reports) were all new M4A3 USMC tanks provided to Col. Unmacht for conversion (Used USMC Tanks would have been either M4A1 or M4A2). These eight tanks survived Iwo Jima and were sent back to USMC West Depots and were disposed of in 1949. (See: MARINES UNDER ARMOR by Ken Estes.)

 

All 54 of the POA-CWS-H1 used on Okinawa with the 713th Flamethrower Tank Battalion were M4 Shermans with cast/welded combination hulls provided to Col. Unmacht by Ordnance "as surplus to Army needs." (This fact showed up in a Tenth Army Okinawa After Action Report complains about having old tanks rebuilt as main armament flamethrowers.)

[crisco511]

VERY cool. One would hope that the National Museum of the Marine Corps has it's eyes on this one, definitely a unique and somewhat rare piece of Marine Corps history. For those of you who haven't yet visited the museum, it should be a "must see" for anyone with our sickness, er, hobby.

 

Semper,

 

Ski

The tank is parked by one of the Museum restoration/preservation buildings, so I'm pretty sure it is slated for the museum in some way. Here's a shot of the interior of the turret through the open hatch on the side. I had pictures of old Amtracs at Lejeune on the tank firing range at TLZ Falcon ( think there may be a shot on my profile?). All blown to bits. I was in 8th Engineers and we were remodeling the range in 1981. There was so much unexploded ordinance. There were a Mine detector man and a EOD tech that walked in front of our dozers and graders to protect them. It took forever!!

[blackhawkdown]

So the do I understand the tank has been moved from OCS Quantico to the Marine Corps Museum complex?

Dan H

[crisco511]

So the do I understand the tank has been moved from OCS Quantico to the Marine Corps Museum complex?

Dan H

No, it is still by OCS as shown in the earlier posts (however the engine tree is gone now and the engine covers are in place). The museum has several "working" buildings by OCS and the airfield. They are part of the museum restoration facilities.

 

Quantico is a cool base. There is actually a civilian town (Quantico) located on the base. There is lots of work going on here (Part of BRAC). I get to spend a lot of time as part of my job at the Maryland, DC and Virginia military bases. On some of the older bases, it seem like there is a museum of some sort in every building. NAVSEA at the Navy Yard is really cool. You can be walking by cubicle offices and suddenly be standing next to an early diving suit. They left a lot of the original Gun Factory machinery in place when they converted these buildings to offices.