COBI M4A3E8 Sherman Easy Eight Set 2533

COBI's M4A3E8 Sherman Easy Eight is built from 745 blocks, 25.5 cm long, with a barrel that elevates, a rotating turret with opening hatches, moving wheels and working tracks. Three figures of American soldiers are included, one of them a chaplain-medic. All markings are printed; no stickers.

The third figure is a chaplain

That is an unusual thing to find in a tank set, and it is worth knowing what it represents.

American army chaplains were commissioned officers who were forbidden to carry weapons and who went forward with the troops anyway. A divisional chaplain's actual work was not services on a Sunday — it was being at the aid station, writing letters to families, identifying and burying the dead, and sitting with men who were not going to survive.

Around 8,900 served, and over 400 were killed. They earned more decorations per head than almost any other branch, all of them for things done unarmed.

The combination of chaplain and medic on one figure is accurate too. Chaplains routinely worked alongside medical personnel because that is where they were needed, and both wore the same protection under the Geneva Conventions and the same absence of a weapon.

COBI has put an unarmed man next to a tank. It is a better piece of history than another tank commander would have been.

Easy Eight

The M4A3E8 is the final and best Sherman: a 76 mm gun with real anti-tank performance, and HVSS suspension — horizontal volute spring, with wide tracks and paired road wheels — which cut ground pressure and gave a much better ride. E8 was read as Easy Eight, from the phonetic alphabet of the day.

In the COBI range

Set 3118 is the Easy Eight at 1:35 with five figures, 2570 the M4A3 at 1:28 and 3044 the cast-hull M4A1.

Specifications

Pieces: 745 · Figures: 3, including a chaplain-medic · No stickers
Model dimensions: 25.5 × 11 × 13.5 cm (10.0 × 4.3 × 5.3 in)