Are their still vehicles left in those North African battlefields of WWll or have they been policed up and the desert renewed?
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Donāt know.
But you can still see the trench around Tobruk using google maps
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Probably.
I know that some coalition troops actually found an abandoned M4A3 (105) Sherman, still wearing its US Army markings, out n the Iraqi desert while we were there.
It was brought back to the US, along with some other old tanks we found at the tank graveyard at Camp Taji; so itās well within the realm of possibility that there might be some vehicles still out there in the vast expanses of the North African desert.
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I suspect nothing much on the battlefields themselves as they were mostly reasonably close to the main coastal east-west routes from Egypt to Tunisia (and beyond). If thereās anything undiscovered itās probably further south in rarely-visited parts of the desert, such as the remarkably well-preserved RAF Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk Mk.1A (ET574) found in the Al-Wadi al-Jadid in Egypt in 2012. The pilot, Flight Sergeant Dennis Copping of 260 Squadron, went missing on June 28th, 1942 while ferrying his defective aircraft (heād had a hard landing the day before) to a maintenance unit; his body has never been found. The whole site was a time capsule, and when the RAF Museum heard looters had started to visit the site they engaged Kennet Aviation to dismantle and place the aircraft in safe storage at El Alamein. I believe the intent was to display the aircraft as found at the site of the forced landing, if it could be repatriated. Unfortunately, the El Alamein Military Museum celebrated the 75th Anniversary of the start of the Second Battle of El Alamein (October 23rd to November 11th, 1942) by having a grand re-opening on October 21st, 2017, a high-profile event which caused them to spruce up their exhibits, mostly battlefield wrecks that had sat in the open for a long, long time. They dragged ET574 out of itās container, cobbled the bits together and gave the result an inaccurate and inappropriate coat of fresh paint. If you have a strong stomach, photos of the result can be found on-line.
Thereās whatās left of a LRDG CMP 30-cwt Ford F30 abandoned with broken steering in April 1941 somewhere in the Egyptian desert, another Ford F30 in a different location with a CMP Chevrolet C60L in the neighbourhood. Desert adventurers who follow old routes not normally now used come across trucks and the like now and then, most of which have been stripped (probably at or near the time of abandonment).
Speaking of El Alamein, when Kathleen Martinez was excavating tombs and tunnels at the Greco-Roman Temple complex at Taposiris Magna in 2012 she was expecting to find human remains, just not New Zealanders from the battleā¦
Regards,
M
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I used to work with a guy whoās dad was in the oil industry in Libya when he was a kid in the pre Khadaffi days. He said that he saw plenty of wrecked tanks in the desert at that time.
Another friend of mine was a sailor in the navy. He told me of seeing all sorts of wrecked tanks along the banks of the Suez Canal from the ā73 war in the late 80ās and early 90ās.
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No idea. I know the 2nd Armor participated in Operation Torch, but I doubt they had that particular model of Sherman in 1942. The M4A3 (105) didnāt appear in combat until 1944, so how a mid-late war Sherman ended up in the middle of the Iraqi desert is something of a mystery.
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Didnāt the US sell Shermans to Iran? Could they have used them against Iraq in their war in the 80s? Weird
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We did, during the time of the first Crowned king of what was back then, they he ad a mixture of American and British tanks, with a sprinkling of German and Soviet models, like T-34s and SU-100s. And yes, they used them as recent as thf Iran-Iraq war. But by then, most of these older tanks were replaced with British Chieftains and American Pattons.
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They also seem to have collected relics for a museum:
The Italian WW2 tankettes found in Iraq ā WW2Wrecks.com
Getting back to north Africa, I also found this quote:
āThere is a lot of evidence that āreverse Lease Lendā of scrap -redundant and battle damaged tanks from the North African campaign were sent to smelting plants on the eastern seaboard of the USA in mid/late 1943. There are photos of tanks in US dumps (I think pictures were sent to the tank museum some years ago) including British cruisers and even the odd German/Italian wreck.ā
buried and abandoned tanks - Tracked vehicles - HMVF - Historic Military Vehicles Forum
Cheers,
M
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the markings on that tank are too bright and fresh. plus if iran or other countries had used them they wouldnāt still have US markings on them and probably be painted tan. possibly left behind from a movie.
Joe
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I highly doubt that some random film company wouldāve left an otherwise intact M4A3 (105) out in the deserts of Iraq after filming.
How often do you see this tank variant in any movie made in the 1960s or 70s? Iāve seen a ton of WE2 movies and none of them feature an M4A3 (105) with the words RAIDERS on the barrel.
According to what Iāve read. This tank was an Iranian Army Sherman. How did it get discovered in OD green, wearing US Army stars is beyond me. It now sits at Camp Buehring, Kuwait.
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Thatās what I was thinking as well Joe, those markings look very clean.
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Thatās what puzzled me, too (in the post I deleted) is the fact that it has fresh markings and specific 2nd Armored markings. Also note the tracks are also freshly painted OD along with the rest of the tank. The tank appears mint condition!
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More pics of the Iraqi ex-Iranian Sherman on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2523772597701709&type=3
H.P.
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You canāt look too good on the day of battleā¦
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Thats exactly what happened.
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Ah, a Twilight Zone episode come to life.
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actually the tracks i believe were part rubber. wouldnāt the rotted in the desert over 80 plus years?
Joe
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evidently there is more than 1 sherman tank. those are pictures of at least different tanks.
Joe
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