Sherman Tanks of the US Army Official History books: The “Green Books”, had three picture editions! Part 1
The United States Army isn’t all about fighting and defending the country, they also try and document their own history. That’s where the US Army Center of Military History comes in. It is an actual place, located at Fort McNair in washington DC, with a library and Archive. If you would like to visit, check out the website first, because they have a ton of info online and you might not have to make the trip to find what you are looking for. One of the things one the website is an online library that contains the whole set US Army Official History books, known as the “Green Books” in PDF format.
The Website has a lot of depth, and I still have not found everything of interest. Just poking around on it today I found an index of all the History PDFs they have up. If you are interested in US history, give the Army’s history website a serious look. In some cases this just links to a page listing info about a book they have, but no PDF. Or in other cases links to a store where the book is on sale and or a combo of these. Look carefully, most seem to be available for free even if there is a pay version.
Of interest to this site are the books in the Pictorial Record section, on the Green Jacket books. It contains three books, The War against Japan,The war against Germany and Italy: Mediterranean and adjacent areas, and The War Against Germany: Europe and Adjacent Areas. These books are picture books spanning the whole war, in the area the book’s title mentions.
In part one, we are going to look at The War Against Germany: EUrope and Adjacent Areas, because I figured this one would have the most Sherman photos, and I was right, there are a lot. Not as many as I though were already up on the site, and in most cases I left those out since I have better version up. These images are not great quality, but also not horrible, and it varies a little up and down, but they are interesting.
The book’s cover, if you had a paper copy.
I thought this image was interesting, there are so many men on it, they all have the same hat. I’ve always like the Lee.
One aspect of tanks people rarely think about is moving them. As reliable as a Sherman or Lee was, driving them long distances would be a waste of resources, cause to much wear and tear, and be slow. So when moving tanks like these, probably on the way to a shipyard, for transport to Africa, over very long distances, trains, trucks, or boats are all faster.This is a nice shot of an early M7 Priest 105mm self propelled artillery.
This is an early bug not super early production M4A1 75 tank. Note the cast tranny housing, but the M34 gun mount with shorty mantlet on the turret.
A nice photo of an M4 tank with the quick fix add ons, being fitted with wading trunks. These trunks, along with sealing all the other small openings in the hull and installing a special seal for the turret ring, these tanks could leave an LST, LCT or LCM in water almost up to the gun. These were not universally issued, and the Marines had to come up with their own versions.Look at that, an M4 Sherman in water almost up to its gun. I wonder if the driver could see anything through his periscope? Fish maybe? These wading trunks had a quick release mechanism.
The final use of many M3 Lee tanks, conversion into the M31 ARV. How cool is an ARV with a fake 75mm gun, that’s mounted on door leading into the vehicle?
This is a nice shot of an M4A1 76w tank, the type issued for operation Cobra. It has a hedgerow cutter installed, and probably lacks a ventilator on the back of the turret. These would be the first 76mm tanks to go into combat in US hands.
Two shots in one, a pile of tank ammo, and a crew cleaning their MGs and reloading ammo cans.
This is another early M4A1 76w tank. It’s already lost a fender on one side. The caption info with the picture is from the book. Rarely does it have detailed info about the tanks.This page shows an M7, and the tank that was designed to replace it The M4 105, partially. In that the 105mm armed Sherman was designed to replace the M7 in the HQ sections of Armor battalions and companies. I do not think they planned on replacing the M7s in Armored Artillery battalions in Armored Divisions.
Another dual shot showing an M10 moving down a street with supporting doughs.
Another early M4A1 76w tank, note the loaders split hatch, and how the doors only open to the straight up position, a problem only found on early versions of this tank.An M10 supporting the first Army with some hitchhikers. Note, it once had a deep wading kit, and how well worn those tracks are.An Invisible M4A1 75 Sherman!
Pretty sure this is a duplicate, but if not, here is a shot of an M4 with doughs hitching a ride passing through the Siegfried Line
M4s waiting for the call to action near Luneville.
M36 GMC 90mm Tank destroyer.
M4 getting duckbills
An M4 with the 6th AD, 68th Battalion, Company C, with duckbills, driving in mud.
Shermans acting as artillery, and an SPG based on the Sherman/Lee. The M12 155mm GMC.
M10s in the Huertgen Forest, late model versions based on the lead tanks turret.
An M4 pushing an T1E3 mine exploder.
An M4A1 with the 7th Army fording the Moselle river.
M36 GMC being whitewashed for the 1944/45 winterA M4 105, well dog in and camouflaged. It could be an M4A3 105, hard to tell.Another double shot, this one shows Doughs string barbed wire, and a M10 crew eating some chow.
A decent photo of an M4A3 crewman working on an old sewing machine.
An M10 firing at night.
An M4A3 76W tank leading some doughs and an M4 75 in the snow.
M4A3 dozer tank. This image was taken near Colmar.
Shermans on floating pontoon bridges.
The US using German Halftracks and some Shermans, a 75 and 76 job.
An M4 tank being ferried across the Moselle river on a very makeshift ferryboat.
A heavily sandbagged, probably 14th AD M4A3 76w Easy 8 tank.
An M36 on a makeshift ferry.
Several types of Sherman crossing a very long pontoon bridge across the Rhine.
An up armored E8 passing a huge column of German POWs.
An M36 crossing the Rhine on another long pontoon bridge.The DD Sherman, the craziest way to get ashore in a tank.
M4 Sherman, plus large rocket rack, equals awesome.
An M4 crew watches doughs sleep on a stone road.
The Sherman is an M4A3 76w with a split loaders hatch.
M10 TDs move through the ruins of Magdeburg.
A row of M4A3 76w HVSS tanks late in the war near Nuernberg.
An M4A3 76w HVSS tank
An Easy 8 acting as a ferry for some doughs.
M4A3 76w HVSS tank
That’s all folks, these images were all taken by the Army during the war and the books sold by the government originally and now are all up for free and used images that would all be public domain anyway, these images all should be public domain.
