| This set appears to be
well printed, but greatly suffers from a lack of
research. Instructions are included and consist of
side-view color profiles copied from the internet. They
do not show full marking placement (only for the vehicle
sides). The first
scan below shows the true colors of the sheet, but the
white markings were not visible, thus a second scan is
shown where I altered the brightness and contrast to
better show the whites. Click for larger pictures.
| Type |
Parent
Unit |
Unit |
Sub-Unit |
Name |
Location |
Date |
| M4A3 (76)W HVSS |
4th Armored Division |
Combat Command A |
Headquarters |
THUNDERBOLT VII |
Horazdovice |
May 1945 |
| M4A3 (76)W HVSS |
11th Armored Division |
41st Tank Battalion |
F Company, 1st Platoon |
FLAT FOOT FOOGIE (sic) |
Germany |
February 1945 |
| M4A3R2 HVSS |
1st Marine Division |
|
|
F-23 |
Okinawa |
May 1945 |
| M4A3 (75)W |
4th Marine Division |
4th Tank Battalion |
B Company |
BEELZEBUB |
Iwo Jima |
1945 |
| M4A2 |
3rd Marine Division |
3rd Tank Battalion |
A Company |
ADDER |
Iwo Jima |
1945 |
| M4A2 |
4th Marine Division |
4th Tank Battalion |
C Company |
KING KONG |
Saipan |
1944 |
| M4A4 |
Chinese Army |
1st Provisional Tank Group |
|
|
Burma |
1945 |
Peddinghaus
apparently used the website "Tanks
Encyclopedia" as its primary reference source for
these markings, which was a mistake. I have identified
quite a few problems with them:
- THUNDERBOLT VII:
The instructions don't show it, but this tank had
applique armor plates added to the hull and
turret. No bumper codes or other markings are
included.
- FLAT-FOOT FOOGIE is
misspelled (should be FLOOGIE).
- F-23: Cannot find
any reference photos for this tank, at least not
on Okinawa. I am pretty sure that these markings
are for a tank with the 1st Marine Tank Battalion
in Korea.
- Regarding the two
vehicles from the 4th Marine Tank Battalion
(BEELZEBUB and KING KONG), the yellow 4 in the
red triangle is the symbol of the 4th Marine
Division, to which the 4th Marine Tank Battalion
was attached. I've not seen any references
(photos or artwork) that shows the tanks
displaying this marking. Nor do the instructions
for this set show them being used either.
- The BEELZEBÜB
markings are incomplete. Missing are: several
markings for the rear of wading stack (name,
devil face, number 17, white target clock),
BEELZEBUB in smaller red letters for end of water
tank, large number 17 for turret side. And what's
with the umlaut over the U in the name? Shouldn't
be there. The 133 loading marking on the right
side of the tank should be above the
"UB" in BEELZEBUB.
- The KING KONG
markings are incomplete. The large letters
included here are for use on the hull sides, but
there should also be a smaller version of the
name for both the hull front and rear. I don't
believe that any photographs exist of the left
side of this tank, but since the markings were
painted by hand, wouldn't it make sense that the
writing would be a little bit different on each
side of the tank? Additionally, I feel that this
scheme (which is actually presented by other
decal manufacturers as well) is combining two
different marking schemes seen on this tank: one
seen on Roi-Namur and the other seen on Saipan. I
have been able to find only three photographs of
this tank (two on Roi-Namur and one on Saipan),
and there are discrepancies between these photos
that may indicate the markings differed between
the two battles. But that is a whole different
discussion...
- Chinese 1st
Provisional Tank Group: the Chinese characters on
the hull sides do not match the tank's serial
number. All of the markings shown here, with the
exception of the Chinese characters, are for
T202011. The characters as shown, are for tank
serial number T225399, which had different
markings. It should also be noted that this tank
(T202011) had a tiger face painted on the front
of the turret and hull.
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