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Did you know the Marines used an amphibious version of the Sherman? I didn't. At least until I met a tanker from the 6th Marines at a local museum near where the AMPS Nationals were held in Hubbard, Ohio. He told me about how they had 'floated in' to Okinawa. So I started doing some research and that's how I found out about the T6 Floatation System. It seems that the Marines weren't too impressed with the Duplex Drive because they felt that it wasn't very seaworthy. They also wanted to be able to fire the Sherman's turret weapons while at sea (I'm guessing this was infuenced by the success of the LVTs). So a system of 6 pontoons (two front, two back, and one on each side) filled with foam was developed to allow the tank to float. Propulsion was from the tank's tracks (again a la LVTs) and the vehicle could make about 4 knots. Steering was via twin rudders controlled by simple ropes that swung the rudders left and right. Overall ground clearance was very low, about 10 degrees and the system was designed to be detached quickly once the vehicle was able to drive on it's tracks. Initial testing was successful and the system proved very sea worthy so 500 sets were ordered (for the invasion of Japan?) and it was decided to have the 6th Marines try them out during the landings on Okinawa. Most of the vehicles made it to shore but at least one got stuck on the reef due to the low ground clearance (according to the tanker I met this was the recovery tank and it caused them all kinds of problems because it was the tank where they'd stashed their beer!).
Needless to say, reference information is extremely limited. Fortunately there's a line drawing with dimensions in Hunnicut's Sherman book so at least the basics could be worked out. As for photos, I found a whopping 3 of the system being tested of which one was pretty clear with the vehicle at sea. There's also a nice set of walk around photos of an M4A4 that was used as a test vehicle so most of the fittings can be determined and there's a couple shots of 6th Marines' Shermans on Okiniwa so more details of the tanks can be seen. But the real deal clincher came when I was watching a TV show called 'The Color of War'. One of the segments was entirely on US tanks and most of film was on Marine tanks in the Pacific. And low and behold there were a series of films of the T6 system being used on Okinawa! One segment showed a vehicle out at sea by the invasion fleet. Two more showed vehicles reaching land and another shows two tanks driving inland with the bow and stern pontoons detached but the side ones still on. So I decided I had enough info to make a best guess at what the system looked like.
Needless to say, this was pretty complex scratch building job. The pontoons are just rectangular boxes so they weren't too tough. The bow was a bit more work to get the shape right. The various fittings are sheet and rod plastic. The basic kit is Tamiya's M4A3(105) converted back to an M4A3 which I used simply because I had the kit in my stash. The basic fixes were to re-weld the hull, fix the undercut that run around the turret, remove the rear ventilator and replace the gun and mount with a metal barrel and left over Dragon parts. The spray shield around the gun mantlet was made with sheet plastic and tissue paper. The wading gear is from the Italeri M4A2 US Marines (which is actually an M4A3 kit). The 0.050 cal is from Tasca and the spare tracks are RHPS. The various attachments and fittings are from sheet plastic.
The vehicle is painted in OD using Model Master colors. The markings I determined from the films and photos and the stowage is from the spares bin (and the films show the stowage piled high up like I've shown). The figure is modified from a Verlinden set.
The water was made using an art supply store product called 'Envirotek' that was tinted using Tamiya acrylic Sea Blue. The foam was made from a white Brillo Pad and the surface texture was made using clear silicone caulking you can buy in the hardware store.
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