In the meantime we removed 10 full wheel barrows of sand from the tank. Between the sand we discovered an old lighter with the text "Firefly lighter". A lighter which dates from the fifties. Seeing that in the fifties the tank entered its service in the Dutch army, propably the lighter will have belonged to a Dutch soldier. The fact that the tank crews were not able to get out of their small tank in case of emegencies led to nick names of this tank. The Americans called him the "Ronson lighter" (after a known lighter brand of that time). The British forces, who also used Sherman tank, called him "Tommy cooker".
We were also informed about the story that our Sherman had been standing as an eye catcher near the military barrack complex in Stroe before the tank was moved to the shooting range. We haven't found prove for this story. If there is anyone who can prove this story by photo's then we would like to be informed a.s.a.p.