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#1: Serial Number Guide... Author: Neil_Baumgardner, Location: Arlington, VA

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 4:05 am
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Someone asked for this before, and its become a fairly frequent topic on the board... So I thought I'd try to put this all together in a single posting - obviously the idea would be to "sticky" it and update over time as info comes available. As people respond or new info is posted I can update the first post accordingly...

I need good pics for the location of SNs on M3 and M5 Stuarts and M4/M4A1/M4A2 Shermans, tank destroyers,

Neil

M1 Abrams

Abrams SNs often start with a "D" for the Detroit Tank Arsenal, or "L" for the Lima Army Tank Plant. Others do not have these letters.

Full-Scale Engineering Development (FSED) Pilot Vehicles (PV) may not have the SNs in these locations.

SN is usually most easily found on the skirts.

(Dontos)

(Joe D)

(Jeff Button)

Rear hull, beside the right tail-light - SN above, Registration Number (RN) below.

(Jeff Button)

(Joe D)

Rear Engine deck

(Jeff Button)

Turret numbers can also be found

(Jeff Button)

M2 Medium Tank

Front & rear lugs.

(Joe DeMarco)

M2 and M3 Bradley

Near the frontmost left-side lifting point. M2 SNs should start with 2AA, M3 SNs should start with 3AA.

(Jeff Button)

M3 Lee / Grant

Front & rear tow lugs

(Joe DeMarco)

(Jeff Button)

M3 Stuart

Front right differential bulge

M4 Sherman

From the Sherman register:
web.inter.nl.net/users...serial.htm

M4 and M4A1
The tank serial number is only stamped on a plate attached to the lower left hull plate.

Canadian M4A1 Grizzlies have the serial or shop number stamped just below the hull caster's logo on the front of the hull. Look for a number between 1 and 188.

(Joe DeMarco)

M4A2
The tank serial number is stamped on the two rear tow points.

M4A3
On Ford-built M4A3s, the Ordnance serial number & Ford are stamped on the four corners of the upper hull - front and rear. The smaller of the two numbers is the Ordnance s/n, the larger is the Ford s/n.

(Joe DeMarco)

(Joe DeMarco)

On Fisher-built M4A3s, the SN can be found on the differential housing (as highlighted by the black circles in the first picture)

(Joe DeMarco)

On the ultimate generation M4A3s built by Grand Blanc Tank Arsenal, the serial number is stamped on the two rear tow points. The Detroit Tank Arsenal tanks are rather problematic. Some of their vehicles have the serial number stamped on the two rear tow points, while others lack any serial number markings other than on the data plate.

(Jeff Button)

The registration number (RN) can often be found on the right front of front hull - near the MG mount, it is the larger of the two numbers on the bottom.

(Jeff Button)

M4A4
The vehicle serial is stamped on each boss to which the towing shackle is attached.

(Sherman Register)

M5 Stuart

Right front hull

M10 Wolverine

Rear tow lugs

M26 Pershing

Rear tow lug

(Jeff Button)

M36 Jackson

On M36B1s, the SN can be found on the rear tow lugs as on other Sherman hulls.

(Jeff Button)

M47 Patton

Right front tow lug

(Jeff Button)

Many M47s, even ones now in the United States, will have rebuild plates from Italy

(Jeff Button)

M48 Patton

Stamped into the front right area on the hull, just under the headlight

(Jeff Button)

M50 Ontos

(Dontos)

M60

(Joe D)

Left front tow-lug

(Neil Baumgardner)

(Jeff Button)

Rear upper deck

(Jeff Button)

M60s often have two sets of SNs stamped on the rear engine deck. The originals crossed out, and the rebuild SN added. If the SN ends with an "A" it was rebuilt at Anniston Army Depot, if it ends with an "M" it was an Mainz Army Depot rebuild.

(Jeff Button)

(Joe D)

M113

Registration numbers can be found on the front hull under the headlight

(Jeff Button)

above the ramp

(Jeff Button)

and on the side ramp door

(Jeff Button)

M114

Left rear side below the upper lifting eyelet.

(Dontos)

Registration number can be found stamped into the hull, below the front left headlight

(Jeff Button)

M728

Rear deck, like on M60s

(Jeff Button)

Last edited by Neil_Baumgardner on Sun Mar 11, 2007 2:55 pm; edited 13 times in total

#2: Re: Serial Number Guide... Author: SFC_Jeff_Button, Location: Ft Hood, TX

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 4:18 am
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Neil,
I swear to the big man above, I was thinking this very thing today and thought about asking to make it a "sticky" as well! Great job of putting this all together. I will let you decide what to add and where from the pictures I post. I even have serial number location info and pictures on halftracks, M37's, M3A1's, WC27's, M113's, M109A2, M551's, M74's and M26's. I'll just have to find the pictures. I'll concentrate on armor and leave the wheeled items for requests.

#3: Re: Serial Number Guide... Author: Joe_D, Location: Razorback Country

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 5:01 pm
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Bob,
I kinda agree with Jim but understand why you can't, is there a way to link it to a gallery for each vehicle so the the sticky links it to them??? Would be a lot easier to access. I got a feeling this could be a pretty big collection of vehicles in time. That way additional pictures could be used to ID the variations of each vehicle and how to note the differences.

Below is a guide I believe I posted a while back, Thought it might clean things up a little bit.

Just a suggestion.

Joe

#4: Re: Serial Number Guide... Author: bsmart, Location: Central Maryland

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 7:08 pm
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Doug and I had a short Email conversation earlier today which he has expanded on in another thread.

My vision is that eventually we will get a guide put together that contains pictures like in your last post for each popular vehicle. Then we will have it in a 'document' in the download section (That I am told is under utilized right now)

I'm sure the M4 section will be large, M1 and M60 look pretty well covered.
we've started on M114s (but I have some reservations)

Guides that I can think of that we need are Stuarts (M3 & M5); M113, and then there are the Foreign vehicles T54/55, Centurian, Chieftan, All the German stuff (I know I was shown a build number stamped in one of the Marders at Aberdeen by Mr Jentz once) and ther are others I'm not thinking about right now.

#5: Re: Serial Number Guide... Author: SFC_Jeff_Button, Location: Ft Hood, TX

Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 3:32 am
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I'll check the three Stuarts at the 4th ID museum tomorrow and see what I come up with. I believe there are two more at the 1st CAV museum as well. As for the M113's, I'll hit them up as well tomorrow.

#6: Re: Serial Number Guide... Author: Dontos, Location: Vine Grove, KY

Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 5:11 am
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Not to be considered a complete listing without the following:

Don

#7: Re: Serial Number Guide... Author: the_shadock, Location: Normandy, France

Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 8:29 pm
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Any possibility to know where to find a SN on a Chaffee?

Pierre-Olivier

#8: Re: Serial Number Guide... Author: L.Delsing,

Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 12:37 pm
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T-54AM constructionnumber. Location of this tank is the Deutsches Panzer museum in Munster.

#9: Re: Serial Number Guide... Author: L.Delsing,

Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 12:38 pm
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T-54AM

#10: Re: Serial Number Guide... Author: L.Delsing,

Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 12:46 pm
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T-55A in the Deutsches Panzer Museum

#11: Re: Serial Number Guide... Author: L.Delsing,

Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 12:51 pm
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T-55A

C/n MHVA36DMA

MHV = ???? (maybe name of the factory)
A = indicating it is a T-55A
36 = Number produced (in this month / year???)
D = month of production
MA = indicating year of production (1971 in this case)

#12: Re: Serial Number Guide... Author: L.Delsing,

Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 12:59 pm
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T-62 Deutsches Panzermuseum

#13: Re: Serial Number Guide... Author: L.Delsing,

Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 1:01 pm
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Soviet built T-62 constructionnumber

In cyrillic H06BT5351, in latin N06VT5351

The first letter ''H'' is indicating the year of production. ''VT'' is maybe a factory, this letter combination is coming back in Soviet produced T-72s

Last edited by L.Delsing on Sun Jul 15, 2007 8:33 am; edited 2 times in total

#14: Re: Serial Number Guide... Author: L.Delsing,

Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 1:09 pm
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German M48
The plate was located ''around'' the corner. It was a welded plate of metal with these numbers on it. On the other locations I could not find a number.

#15: Re: Serial Number Guide... Author: L.Delsing,

Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 1:10 pm
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Actual plate with numbers

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