Sherman IB

I'm sitting on a Sherman Tank with a 105mm gun on it. The tank was made in the U.S, but, U.S tanks never had 105mm guns on them. British Shermans did however. This is not the first time I've seen this tank. The first time was at Taji in a warehouse in 4th ID's area.

As the story goes, it was found in a junk yard and two Army Mechanics were given it to fix up when they were not bolting armor kits on to HMMWVs. It was recognised as a British varient, a Sherman IB. There was a lend lease program. As well, the Israelis used them into the late 60's, and even early 70's.

Somewhere along the line this tank ended up along the Tigris River. It may have went through Briish chanells, and then...A farther possability, the Iraqis got it in one of the wars with the Israelis, the 6 day War or Yom Kippur. But one would think if an Israeli crew abandoned it or were captured they would have set the thermite to it. And it would have been hauled all of the way across Jordan. I will lean towards the Brits.

It officially belonged to Iraq, and the Iraqis must have signed it over to us. I was glad to see it again. One other thing that I saw in the heeps of Military scrap that littered the place was a German 88. That was a gun that every Allied Soldier feared and it's rusting away just yards from the Tigris.

The Appalachianist