4000 hours later, Adrian Barrell walk us through the restoration of his Sherman M4A4 – from range wreck to world class restoration.
My Sherman, M4A4 serial number 5271, was built in September 1942 by Chrysler at the Detroit Tank Arsenal. It was the 467th built out of a total production run of 7499 M4A4s. Issued to the US Army with Reg. No. USA W-3057081, it was transfered to the British Army and given a census number of T-146309.In British use, it was known as a Sherman V. I will tell more of its history later, not that I know much, but eventually it ended up on Salisbury Plain, along with about 25 other M4A4s and other assorted vehicles to be used as survey targets for the Royal Artillery.
This is how she was when I first saw her. More parts were removed before I got her but she was substantially complete.
This picture was taken on June 6th 1991, the day I collected her. In the intervening years, she had lost a track, some wheels, bogies an idler and various smaller parts.
The loading was performed with a Cat and this did some damage to the engine when the corner of the blade went through the open rear doors.
It was not easy to load with only a few wheels on but it went fairly smoothly and we were soon on our way home. BTW, that’s not me in the picture! Apart from a puncture from a piece of shrapnel, we had a good run back.
In my yard.