Operation Epsom: Artwork Error

[Old_Warrior]

In the mission selection for Operation Epsom the top "strip" shows a group of Sherman tanks with white stars on them. This should be changed to have the British national emblem instead. Us "Yanks" used white stars.

[IainMcNeil]

So did the Brits - is was the universal symbol for allies as there were many nationalities and I assume they wanted something to avoid confusion.

[Old_Warrior]

Well this would seem to back up the artwork ....

http://www.missing-lynx.com/reviews/sma ... urope.html

But I cannot remember ever seeing a British tank wearing the white star. Usually there is some sort of unit symbol on the side or a symbol (triangle for instance) followed but letter or digits.

But just thinking that the Sherman in the artwork reminded me more of US tanks ...

[Old_Warrior]

Ok found this too:


3) Ely Robert Tandeter

Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2000 00:19:02 -0600
From: Ely Tandeter <ertandeter@pol.net>

These white stars, called "Allied identification stars," were intended for
air recognition in the NW European theater of war and therefore placed on
top of the turret , roof of the cab or other likewise place (facing up),
but in BRITISH TANK MARKINGS AND NAMES, by B. T. WHITE, there is also a
General Lee tank of the 150th Regiment, RAC in Burma in 1945 with white
stars on its side.

I wonder if most if not all of the stars were on the TOP of the turret at this point for the British tanks. The reason being that the unit ID was still on the side of the tank. Just FYI info at this point.

[citizen6]

There were actually several differences in the stars from single stars, stars with a bar to stars with a white circle, stars in a broken circle and differences in the circle thickness. I suspect that the prevalence of stars on the sides of vehicles after D-day was down to the individual crews themselves. A white star is a nice targeting spot, so for that matter is a Balkenkreuz. If you look at actual photos of tanks from both sides the prevalence of markings drops off as the war progresses and tend to be a bit redundant in NWE where covering the vehicle in vegetation was the go. The white stars were kept on the decks and/or turret hoods to protect against friendly fire as the allies were by far the rulers of the skies otherwise they tended to get painted over. The main exception to this trend is commandeered vehicles ie. American Panthers and German Shermans (no not the PzIV ) where they tended to be well marked so that again they weren't shot up by friendly fire. Though in terms of the artwork British tanks tended to be a bit more of a bronze-green than green-green. Maybe it's Canadian.... ......but I jest....there was a fair bit of variation of tank paint colours too (especially Axis). I think modern folk don't realise how irregular production runs were before the development of modern standardisation and quality control systems.