Very interesting Panther F, It does appear that the air cleaners on this are in the engine compartment with access through removable panels in the turret crew compartment. As in early M-26, very diffficult to service without spilling oil all over the turret, but the M-26 at least had air cleaners on the turret side of the firewall. Like to know the mfg date on that Sherman. Only E8 I was assigned to had cleaners in the rear and I really don't recall any access panels there in my turret...but hey, that was 1955 before I was assigned to a new M-41. Wondering even more now if I had an earlier retrofit. [:-]

We have a very early E8 with split oval loader's hatch here and I will get in and check it out next week when we open up again. I just got through putting the turret innards back together on all of them and am now, more than ever, interested to see what's happening on these air cleaner locations and whether built as is or some retrofitted. I believe the air cleaners are at the rear in ours, but the mufffler baffle plate is tack welded in place, as are the engine grills, so unable to open it up for a look-see, but I will be able to get under and look into the exhaust area and look for access plates in the turret. Would make a lot more sense putting the cleaners in the turret, but tanks are not made with crew comfort or easy maintenance in mind. Bad enough in September, this tank sprung an oil leak and we couldn't get authorization to get the back deck opened up to find the leak and shut it up. I had to put a catch pan under it with kitty litter around it, then clean up the engine compartment oil through the bottom engine mount access plates when it stopped. I've seen those photos before, but thanks. Nice to see some museums that are set up where you can look at various locations and do research. Military museums are too restrictive and for the most part, artifacts are painted and left to rot, unable to fix or maintain them. .