Texas Attorney Purchases Sherman Tank from French Museum Auction

Fox 26 Houston is reporting that A&M regent and trial attorney Tony Buzbee of Houston Texas has purchased an M4 Sherman tank in running condition.

As could be expected, little detail about the tank is provided in the TV news piece.  This particular tank was part of the collection belonging to the Normandy Tank Museum which closed it’s doors last year.  The collection was auctioned off, including two Sherman tanks, twp Stuart Light tanks, a M24 light tank and many other vehicles.  This Sherman tank is an M4A4 which was restored by the Normandy Museum to running condition, although with a Ford GAA engine rather than the A-57 Chrysler multi-bank engine usually found in the A4 variant.  This vehicle also sports what appears to be the all metal T49 style track, which tended to be less common than the rubber block style track.  The T49 track was more commonly found on Sherman tanks in the Pacific or in Italy where the terrain and/or climate were considered inappropriate for standard rubber block tracks.  The M4A4 Sherman variant was generally not found in US Army service as most of them were given to the UK as Lend Lease material.  In British service it was known as the Sherman V.  Given that this vehicle is a M4A4, it is quite possible this tank saw service with UK forces during the war, only to be repainted years later as a vehicle of the US 2nd Armored Division.

For those that wish to read the description of this tank given by the auction company, the brochure for the Normandy Tank Museum auction can be read here.

If anyone knows any more information about the history of this particular tank, please do so in the comments section!