Bank holiday bodging

Taking advantage of the Bank holiday weekend to finish the last of the Israeli armour in use in 1967. M1 Sherman with 76mm and HVSS suspension. The IDF could not even resist making minor adaptations to these, although less drastic than with the remainder of the Sherman fleet.

They were used by two of the GASHAP territorial battalions (the other two had AMX-13) and the tank company of the Jerusalem brigade. This was technically an extra company of the 182 battalion (Central front regional GASHAP), sometimes numbered 29. By the terms of the 1948/49 armistice, the Israelis were prevented from having any armour in the city of Jerusalem, but the canny Israelis got around this by secretly stationing around 5 tanks of the Jerusalem brigade in the outskirts with the remaining 13 a bit further out.

The M1s of both units saw a lot of action in the battle for Jerusalem in 1967. If the Jordanians had succeeded in supporting their infantry with their armoured brigades, the M1s would have had to face off against M48 Pattons. As it was, they did not have it all their own way, one M1 ended up falling off an embankment and ending upside down in a gulley when encountering fierce resistance from the city walls (including bazooka fire). As the only armour available, they provided the Israeli paras with crucial support and one blew in the gates of the city in the final assault.

The models are 2x Boley Sherman and a similar model from another US company (name forgotten) heavily converted with plastic card, Milliput and Green Stuff, bits from the spares box and some very nice turned brass muzzles nominally 1:76th but not out of place on the 1:87 models. A M51 Sherman lurks in the background (needed to compare parts).