A target tank in The Netherlands which started as Sherman tank in Canadian service.The photo was taken on a Dutch gunnery range in the Scheldt Estuary in 1958. "The Netherlands used M4A1 and M4A2 Shermans (Sherman IIs and IIIs respectively) and former British-made Firefly tanks until during the late 1950s, with the howitzer-equipped version of the Sherman remaining under military service for much longer, even into the 1970s. Detail of Sherman Tanks Aquired from Canadian & British Sources After WW2, the Koninklijke Landmacht (Royal Netherlands Army, RNlA) acquired about 200-250 Sherman tanks and related AFVs from the Commonwealth vehicle dumps in the Netherlands. These stock included: • Sherman Hybrid I and Sherman Hybrid IC: 46 in 1951. • Sherman II: possibly some from the Commonwealth dumps, the majority came in through MDAP (see below). • Sherman III: numbers range from 16 in 1947 to 20 in 1951. • Sherman V and VC: numbers range from 70 in 1947 to 68 in 1951. The last 11 Sherman VCs in stock in 1956 were probably tank-pillboxes. • Sherman V Crab: a small number was used by the Royal Dutch Army. (Note: at least one Sherman V CIRD - though without the rollers - ended up in the Dutch Army inventory.) • Ram I and II : in 1947 44 "new" Rams were delivered. Four were Command/O.P. tanks, the rest were Ram IIs retrofitted with the British 75mm gun. Numbers ranged from 73 (incl. 2 Ram Is) in 1947 to 50 in 1951. These war-weary AFVs were later replaced by freshly overhauled ones received through the MDAP. Several dozens of these worn-out Sherman and Ram tanks were then converted into tank-pillboxes as part of the defences for the IJssellinie. Fireflies retained their 17-pdr gun, but the 75mm Shermans and Rams had their gun removed and a 0.30" MG installed. Noteworthy is that not only the turrets, but also the tank hulls were used in the construction of these tank-pillboxes. Contrary to other pillboxes which use tank turrets, these pillboxes are not turrets on a concrete bunker, but actually turrets on stripped hulls set in concrete 30 to 60 cm thick." Canadian Virtual Military Museum
Photo of one of the IJsselline tank-pillboxes I took a couple of years ago. It is situated just north of Deventer.
That's no Canadian Sherman. It's an E9 with the widened suspension. We never used..... or even looked at them. And the Canadian Virtual Military Museum is often notoriously wildly inaccurate. My 2 cents. Don
