Hi Reddit, not really sure if I can post it here or somewhere else like /r/military but I thought this is the spot I need to be. first of all, i am a scale modeller and really want to built a Wolverine with these modifications.
I have a question about these blueprints. The ETO ordinance made some special wading kits for the wolverine. And they were used shortly after d-day. Here is a picture of it with this special wading kit. It is the only picture i can find of it https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/American_tank_firing.jp.
Is there any information about it? officially it is called the adapter and stack fording kit SPA-10. Are there any names for it or pictures? Is there any institution I need to get into contact for this kind of information?
i've been mailing with the National Archives (CER) and artographic and Architectural Section (CARTO) and the last mentioned gave me the information that I should get in contact with Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) but I am not really sure how to get further.
Is there any one who can help me with this? Greetings!
Something which may be of great help to you is obtaining a copy of Technical Manual 9-2853 Preparation of Ordnance Matériel For Deepwater Fording (dated 7 July 1945) As far as I know, no full scans are available for free online, but a scan can be bought quite cheaply at this site.
It has instructions and very clear pictures of the parts used (but alas, no dimensions) during the preparation of many vehicles, including the M4A2 and M4A3 medium tanks and the M10 and M10A1 gun motor carriages.
TM 9-731B Medium Tank M4A2 also could be quite helpful, as it has a section on the M10 tank destroyer. The M10A1 has its own separate manual.
NOTE:
Steven Zaloga is very confident that the trunks manufactured in the UK for the M10 around the time of D-Day did not follow the manual or use the parts laid out in TM 9-2853, but instead used the same set of non-standardized instructions laid out by the Fifth Army Invasion Training Center in Algeria a year earlier during the invasions of Sicily and Italy, making the structure of the stacks different than in TM 9-2853.
US Amphibious Tanks of World War II by Zaloga is a good read on this subject.
I'm a modeler myself, and Evergreen Scale Models makes many useful shapes of sheet plastic including round and half-round shapes in many thicknesses if you wish to build the whole trunk. After landing, the top part of the trunk was usually discarded, rendering this moot, however. For the rubbery sealing compound used to waterproof the trunk after it was welded on (if you want to get that detailed), simple putty painted black would work.