M4A3(76)W Magoster / Beffe, Belgium www. shermantank.nl

This Sherman is an early Chrysler (Spring 1944) production vehicle. It broke down near Magoster, during the battle of the bulge, in January 1945. The story goes that it ran on a mine. It was pushed of the road and left in a field between Magoster and Beffe. I think it belonged to the 771st tank bat. 771st Tank Bat was attachst to 84^th infantery division from 20 Dec 44 till 22 Mar 45 . In 1985 it was recovered from the field and placed on a statue as a monument in the nearby town of Beffe. This monument is dedicated to Task Force Hogan, although it was not one of “his” tanks. Below, there is an article about the revealing of the monument. This article was placed in the “Rendeux News”, a local newspaper. Unfortunately it’s only in the France languish.

unit markings, stars etc.

This is the Sherman in Magoster / Beffe. The black painted star on the transmission housing is still there.

A tank of the 771^st. (not the one in Magoster / Beffe) Look at the, poorly visible, black painted star on the side of the hull and turret. 14 january 1945, Berismenil Belgium. Picture from “the Sherman at war, 2” by Steven Zaloga

Another tank of 771^st . This is the only picture I’ve found whit a clear unit marking of the 771^st tkbt. The star on the transmission housing is painted black. Picture from “the Sherman at war, 2” by Steven Zaloga

I am searching for more reference to build my model Sherman. I like to make my model with the same markings and numbers as the Sherman in Beffe once had. If you have any information or corrections about markings, reg. numbers , old pictures etc please contact me: mailto:contact@shermantank.nl << This is what I ( think to ) know about the markings of the 771^st so far, for the period January 1945.

History in pictures

At this spot, just outside Magoster, the Sherman layed for years.

Magoster, 1972

Magoster, 1975

Beffe, 1993

Beffe, 2011

The model I’m building. Scale 1/18. More pictures

More pictures