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I'd like to paint up an M4A1 75mm Sherman in that cool OD/black camo scheme with the large yellow tactical numbers but I'm short on reference for this particular scheme. If I'm not mistaken, it was used by 2nd and 3rd AD but starting when? Would it be possible to have seen some of these vehicles equipped with Cullen devices?
I've heard Zaloga has gone into some detail on this particular subject - which book of his should I get? Armored Thunderbolt? Osprey's Operation Cobra? Of course, a book with good photos is a must. Any advice is appreciated.
Respond to this message by Steve Zaloga
If you want to do yellow tactical markings and the black over OD pattern, you're pretty much limited to the 3rd Armored Division. The 2nd Armored Division appears to have uniformly painted over the yellow numbers on their tanks as part of the camouflage process. The 3rd AD also seems to have overpainted most of them, but there are a few outliers that seem to have kept the numbers.
If you do a 3rd AD M4A1 (76mm) you're limited to the Douglas device, not a Cullin (the Douglas device is the type with the triangular plates). There's a color plate of a 3rd AD M4A1(76mm) with yellow tactical numbers in my book "The Sherman at War (2) The US Army in the ETO (Concord Armor at War 7036) but it does not have the Douglas device. It's based on a few shots of 3AD Shermans up in Belgium in September 1944 from a Belgian book on the liberation of Belgium.
I don't remember seeing a photo of a black/OD 3 AD M4A1(76mm) with a Douglas device and yellow tac numbers.
I've modeled Op. Cobra M4A1(76mm) in OD/black twice: a 2nd AD one in Military Modelling VOl 32 No 7 June 2002, and Lafayette Poole's 3AD tank (no yellow tac numbers) in my Osprey modeling book "Modelling the US Army M4(76mm) Sherman medium tank.
