War in the skies – Veteran shares story of service as bombardier during World War II
By Jeremy P. Amick With a recollection of events as lucid as if they occurred yesterday, Jefferson City, Mo., resident John Sullivan, 89, enjoys sharing…
Together as one – Tuskegee Airman demonstrates benefit of working together as a nation
By Jeremy P. Amick At only 19 years of age, James Shipley had little life experience to his credit when he made the decision to…
Sherman M4A4 Restoration Part 13: Finishing off
The finishing touches are of course all the stowage, markings and such. I enjoy making the vehicle as complete as possible and the challenge of…
Sherman M4A4 Restoration Part 12: The Turret
Next thing to do is the turret. As with most restorations, the first thing to do is dismantle it. As previously mentioned, the breech ring…
Sherman M4A4 Restoration Part 11: Now for the interior
Now my focus was on the rest of the interior. I wanted to have her finished before I went to Normandy in June 2004 so…
Sherman M4A4 Restoration Part 10: Tracks
The tracks were nos but were a motley selection of bits and pieces. One side was in ten link sections so I just had to…
Sherman M4A4 Restoration Part 9: The transmission
Anyway, having got as much of the interior fitted as I needed, I started on the transmission. Again a lack of pictures but essentially all…
Sherman M4A4 Restoration Part 8: Blasting the hull
This is the hull after blasting. It seemed a pity to remove all of the original paint and markings but I did record everything I…
Sherman M4A4 Restoration Part 7: The Hull
As I mentioned, I spent several years getting bits together, the single most expensive was new track and roadwheels. However, the wheels turned out to…
Sherman M4A4 Restoration Part 6: Putting all the blocks together = one multibank
Having finished the blocks, I concentrated on the centre casing which joins everything together. Again, having two sets of everything helped but both sets of…
Sherman M4A4 Restoration Part 5: Rebuild of the Blocks
Starting this had made me realise how many gaps there are in my photo record. All the pictures are on film and it would be…
Sherman M4A4 Restoration Part 4: The Engines Continued
Now all the individual engines can be removed. This is best achieved by rotating the assembly to allow a vertical lift for each block. No…