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When I first saw Open Fire! on the web, I mistakenly assumed the tanks were American Shermans because of the stars on the tanks (similar to below)



I voiced this assumption in the Open Fire! thread and was immediately put right. I'm now modelling and painting the British (Huzzah!) Shermans from the box set and I'm wondering why British tanks had American style livery? We don't usually go in for the whole "stars" thing you see.

Maybe it had something to do with the tanks being Lend-Lease items? We couldn't sell you the tanks due to our neutrality, so we "lent" them to you.

Yeah, either lend-leasing things or they did it as a generic "Allied" look

It was the allied universal recognition symbol, all allied vehicles (in Europe) should have displayed it, in theory at least, from just before the Normandy landings until the end of the war..

British tanks tended to display it on the top of the vehicle, the engine deck and the top of the turret, which makes sense given that a massive white star makes a very good aiming marker. British tanks were also often marked free hand so slightly dodgy painting is authentic in this case The star could also have been surrounded by a white circle.

In general I would be wary of going off 'modern' photos for paint schemes and markings as from my experience they are usually post war re-paints which aren't very accurate. If you can find some contemporary photos to use as a base or dig around some WWII modelling forums as I have found that they are a decent source of information.

Yep, they are not "American" stars, they are Allied Stars.

Ah, mystery solved

Further to this, I've just been reading that the stars were put on the top armour for aerial recognition.

Yer... They did, but also for air rec, very bright orange or bright pink colour material panels were put on the vehicle decks.

I seem to recall reading that the Stars where generally disliked by the crews of allied tanks as they acted as a nice white ‘target’ symbol for the Jerrys to aim at.

All of the crews painted over them or otherwise removed/obscured them.

Big P wrote:
Yer... They did, but also for air rec, very bright orange or bright pink colour material panels were put on the vehicle decks.

To be fair we still do this today in the British Army...It depends on Theatre level orders, but rest assured if US Mud movers are flying, Brits will be flying flags, banners and anything else that would be an aid to accurate Visual ID.

 LuciusAR wrote:
I seem to recall reading that the Stars where generally disliked by the crews of allied tanks as they acted as a nice white ‘target’ symbol for the Jerrys to aim at.

All of the crews painted over them or otherwise removed/obscured them.

Some crews did. It was never universal.

The problem with doing that is that it means your own side dont know who you are...


British tanks also displayed them less than their US counterparts.