SEARCH FINESCALE.COM

Enter keywords or a search phrase below:

Olive Drab LCM 3?

3420 views
7 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    November 2004
  • From: 51st state of america
Olive Drab LCM 3?
Posted by barrovian on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 2:57 PM
Just received the Italeri 1/35 LCM 3, searching on the net revealed a personal account of the U.S. LCM 3's used during the Rhine crossing being sprayed olive drab by the army and the navy crews made to wear army uniforms (they were not happy about this). Can anyone confirm this and if possible any links to colour pictures. Thanks in advance.
  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Fort Knox
Posted by Rob Gronovius on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 3:45 PM
Ampersand Publishings' Dragon Wagon book has black and white photos of the LCM 3 on the back of a Dragon Wagon at the Rhine. It looks to be the same color as the Dragon Wagon, but I cna't be sure.
  • Member since
    November 2005
  • From: Formerly Bryan, now Arlington, Texas
Posted by CapnMac82 on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 4:53 PM

To help muddy the water (no pun intended) a bit, the Army owned a very large number of landing craft, including LCM. 

I've a certain amount of family history on how AUS was 'short' of either coxswains or "motor macs" when the Rhine crossing was put together.  The USN personnel then seconded off to that task had to scrounge for uniforms, and then to cipher out the differences between the USN equipment they "knew" and the AUS craft they were "on" (and, our perpetual companion, Murphy insisted on having it work that way).

The Time-Life series on WWII has that same picture of a dragon wagon hauling an LCM on the smaller tank transporter (no wheel ramps) trailer, if my memory serves correctly.  The picture shows either an LCV or LCVP next in line (I think).  There's little "color" in the b&w image, it's under a low overcast sky.  So, the color of the LC could be from a medium gray to a medium green.

That whole deal wound up classified, so that many of the participants either never talked about it, or did so obliquely--rather like the people who were in the Naval Shore Parties for Overlord.

  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 11:05 PM
Could someone post the pic of it on the dragon wagon or have a link to it,many thanks
  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: North East England
Posted by ukgeoff on Thursday, September 14, 2006 6:29 AM

 barrovian wrote:
Just received the Italeri 1/35 LCM 3, searching on the net revealed a personal account of the U.S. LCM 3's used during the Rhine crossing being sprayed olive drab by the army and the navy crews made to wear army uniforms (they were not happy about this). Can anyone confirm this and if possible any links to colour pictures. Thanks in advance.

 

Do you have the address for that personal site?  I once saw one but forgot to bookmark it and have not been able to relocate it.

  • Member since
    November 2004
  • From: 51st state of america
Posted by barrovian on Thursday, September 14, 2006 8:04 AM

I found the quote about 2/3 rd's of the way down this site

http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/riverine.htm

then found this

http://mason.gmu.edu/~rharless/The%20Rhine.htm

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: North East England
Posted by ukgeoff on Thursday, September 14, 2006 8:58 AM
Thanks.  Unfortunately, they were not the sites I was looking for, so the search goes on.
  • Member since
    November 2005
  • From: Formerly Bryan, now Arlington, Texas
Posted by CapnMac82 on Thursday, September 14, 2006 4:42 PM

 ukgeoff wrote:
so the search goes on.

If I can both remember and squeeze in the time tonight, I'll put the TL Crossing the Rivers on the scanner to at least get the dragon wagon & LCM pic organized.

JOIN OUR COMMUNITY!

Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.

SEARCH FORUMS
FREE NEWSLETTER
By signing up you may also receive reader surveys and occasional special offers. We do not sell, rent or trade our email lists. View our Privacy Policy.