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"What If" IDF BergeHetzer


Mark Aldrich

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Back in late 1948 early 1949 the Czechs offered to sell Israel 16 of their ST-1(Late Model Hetzer 38t). The idea was batted around but the IDF said they could purchase 50 Italian scrapped Shermans for the cost of two Czech Hetzers. Thus, the deal fell through and it never came to be. Some of my FAVORITE vehicles are VTRs (Vehicle Tracked Recovery) and this was just a way for me to build one with my love for the Middle East Wars and the IDF. There will also be a ST-1 build once it arrives from Korea. Of course, when one starts a complex project such as this he REALLY needs to pay attention to the parts and the locations. I somehow got dyslexic and put the right in place of the left Transmission housing and drilled the required holes. I caught it as I was trying to glue the final drives into place. Hopefully the repair will not be noticeable after paint.

 

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Nice! Good thing you caught it before it became a major issue. This is gonna be an excellent project to follow.

 

Slightly off-topic question: Did the Italians use Shermans in their postwar army before scrapping them? If so\, where can I find pics/info on these; especially markings and camouflage. I wouldn't mind adding a few Shermans to my Italian Army.

 

Thanks!

 

Now back to your regularly scheduled program.....

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Duke,

Tough question! Sources say Italy did have them others say no! The ones found in the Italian dumps may have been WWII vintage American machines left there in favor of not sending them back or ex-British machines for the same reason. All were barrel, and idler torched to make them unserviceable.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Nice I messed up the BergeHetzer, the Academy late showed up and I started on that!~ It was a nice easy build and only several of the items from the ST-1 will actually go on the vehicle! It is going to be fun to see a .50 mounted in lue of the MG34.

 

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