Another close up of the La Roche Sherman,showing impact on the turret mantle.

La Roche Memorial 3

The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt was the largest, heaviest, and most expensive fighter aircraft in history to be powered by a single piston engine. It was heavily armed with eight .50-caliber machine guns, four per wing. When fully loaded, the P-47 weighed up to eight tons, and in the fighter-bomber ground-attack roles could carry five-inch rockets or a significant bomb load of 2,500 pounds; over half the weight the B-17 bomber could carry on long-range missions (although the B-17 had a far greater range). The P-47, based on the powerful Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engine, was to be very effective as a short-to-medium range escort fighter in high-altitude air-to-air combat and, when unleashed as a fighter-bomber, proved especially adept at ground attack in both the World War II European and Pacific Theaters.(taken from wiki)
"Jug" = short for "Juggernaut," which is what many pilots called the P-47. 

read more on:http:
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_P-47_Thunderbolt

P-47 Jugs

This close up shows the damage done by the 88 mm round.I don't think the crew had a chance to survive this.I wanted to visit the town museum ,hoping to get more info on the Sherman and it's crew  but the museum closed for just 1 day last week,the day I was in town :(.
The Sherman is a M4A1.It belonged to either the 2th or 3th Tank div.that stopped the Germans  and liberated La Roche in january 1945.The tank was restored by the Belgian 3th Lanciers Regiment stationed in Marche-en-Famenne and inaugurated on december 17th 2004 for the 60th anniversary of the Ardennes Battles.