June 9, 2016 by johnlyons
We have something special today to unbox and it's my personal favourite, something very dear to my heart. It's the Shermans from Warlord Games', beautifully crafted game, Bolt Action.
As I've had a Sherman in my home for 20 years I'm in love with these little models and I dearly hope to build a full squadron of Irish Guard Shermans sometime in the near future.
Have you played any of the Shermans in your games?
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Depending on the period, John might have to drop 4 M4A4 for 4 more Fireflies….
Nice kit. I love hard plastic.
Nice looking kits . Good to see the co-driver hatch is now separate instead of molded on . And also nice to see separate lift rings on the hull ,but why not on the turret ? . I wonder why the gun crutch was molded on , the M4 kit had it as a separate piece ? And nice to see crew figures and the rotatable commanders hatch and Brit style fire extinguishers , but why no separate hatch for the Firefly loader ? Have to get a couple of these for my Canadians
Nice kit and the history, John, is really interesting. John is not nuts… in a way 😉
No he’s not nuts. I was thinking the same 😎
18 tanks is manageable..!
An air brush would make that Sherman troop easy to get to table top. They are mostly green with some details.
I do love all these plastic tanks that are starting to roll on to the battle tables.
Nice kit. I’d be shelling (geddit) out if I didn’t have four resin and metal ones waiting for paint.
Related: is the command tank a regular Sherman or is it all eggs in one basket and put the commander in the shell-magnet Firefly?
typically, each troop of 4 tanks used the Firefly as it’s command tank, as they tried to put their best crews in them.
I`m backing John, and he`s not nut`s……he`s brave.
Justin i think you will find it`s 16 tanks and not 18, John`s doing 4 Firefly’s and 12 Sherman 5`s. Nice looking box set, but as i`m doing German`s it`s a no go for me.
Another great episode. Once again, I’d be just repeating everything the guys say. Suffice it to say they’re spot on regarding the size and composition of a British late-war tank troop (despite what comes in the box), the estimation of movies like Fury and Inglorious.
Painting up a full squadron of Shermans for the Irish Guards sounds like a great project. It’ll look great in a display case or on a shelf. The only part where I feel anyone undertaking a project like that would be slightly crazy would be when it comes to actually playing it on a table. Given that a tank company / squadron deploys on a front at least 1,000 meters wide, we’re looking at a table (at 1/56 scale) just under 60 feet across.
Crazy? Perhaps, but in a great way. If you play that game please remember to film it! 😀
And it might be 18 tanks . . . did British tank squadrons have an XO and CO tank like American tank companies?
the OC and 2IC (Officer Commanding and 2nd In Command) would be on their own separate from the individual troops.
From what I’ve seen and read a Battalion would look like:
HQ Squadron (Diamond signal)
A Squadron (Triangle)
B Squadron (Square)
C Squadron (Circle)
Each Squadron consisting of:
OC and 2IC tanks.
1 Troop
2 Troop
3 Troop
4 Troop
And just for argument sake, each troop made of:
Firefly (Troop commander typically)
1 Tank (possibly 2IC )
2 Tank
3 Tank
This is only the fighting arm of the Battalion, you would also have attached engineers, logistics, artillery and infantry. These extras are drawn from the divisional strength (in this case Guards Armoured Division, circa September 1944)
Where things differ between UK and US armoured forces is that the US forces would have dedicated Tank Destroyer Battalions, whereas in the UK divisions we have the Royal Artillery handling all field guns (which included towed AT guns)
Thanks @johnlyons – I hope it’s clear I wasn’t trying to “correct” anyone. It’s just Justin says “18” at the end of the video and then someone was correcting him … so I was like, “you know, Justin might actually be right, albeit by accident.” 😀
From what I can find, your descriptions of a British Tank Squadron are spot on. Four troops of four (one 17-lb Firefly and three 75mm Sherman V), with an OC and a 2IC.
4 x 4, +2 = 18.
(trying to insert images into a front-page thread … hopefully this works …)
The US seemed to organize their tanks in 5-tank platoons instead of 4-tank troops. But we only had three platoons in a company, plus a CO and an XO.
5 x 3, + 2 = 17.
We also kept our tank companies “homogenous” to the best of my knowledge, not mixing, say … Easy 8s or Jumbos with M4A2s, or A3s, or A4s.
I’ve red about Lend Lease Shermans sent to Soviets, who tried fitting the 85mm gun from their T-34/85s to some of them. Not sure how well this worked, though.
Crap, the image sourcing didn’t work. Anyway, here are the links to my research images. 🙂
UK Tank Squadron:
US Tank Company:
Great un-boxing great story’s good luck on your project @johnlyons
So let me ask you, John… I do love the kits that warlord has come out with. The plastics are much nicer than the resin in my opinion and weights of some sort could be nailed down inside of the body to give it some weight. That being said; how do you feel about Corgi Shermans for bolt action? I’m sure you have probably had this question a number of times, but as I use corgi 1/50 armor with my armies I still have not pulled the trigger on any warlord kits. Yes they corgi brand is pricey but I am willing to pay the $40- $50 US dollars in order to have have a nice heavy tank. I do tweak them myself by painting and weathering them a bit and painting the details on the die cast models to bring them to life, too. Anyway, just curious what you think… I will post a pic of one of the tanks I have touched up to give it some more life, too…
Great Video and their is nothing wrong with John as I have already done 12 T-34s in various models for my Soviets 🙂 Warlord has made so easy with the squadron boxes why not go for it and play tank war as well.
18 Shermans is perfectly reasonable, I mean I don’t have the “Tank guy” reputation to uphold and I have 21 T34/85’s done, and 2 IS-2’s, and 1 SU-76, and 17 more tanks/tank destroyers/self propelled guns bought ready to make or finish painting, and another 108 tanks/tank destroyers/self propelled guns planned. No one could argue against 18 shermans, and they look so good too.
how would of Cromwells or Churchills found themselves into squadrons?
I remember seeing the Welsh Guards had both Shermans and Cromwells during Market Garden?
Not beng up on “British Tank Formations”, i did not cotton on to why Justin had said 18. Now that I know why………
Sorry if it looked like I was picking on Justin for getting his adding up wrong, that was not my intention to do so. I thought Justin was having one of his moments, like we all get when the old grey decides to trip us up. What i typed at the time looked ok, but now i have re-read
my post, it does look like i’m having a sly dig at Justin for getting something wrong. That was not my intention in anyway…….