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Special Thanks to Gary Barling, member C#0014, of Petawawa and IPMS Ottawa for gathering this material for the webpage
Can anyone
help? What I would like to know is did any British units operate these machines
in the NW European campaign and, if so, which ones? I need to know as I plan to
build a 'Defrocked Priest' and would like to know which markings to use.
Would
the Kangaroo's have had numbers starting with an 'S' denoting self propelled
artillery or just the usual 'T' to denote Tank and/or APC. Considering the hasty
nature of these vehicles' conversions, would the former not be the most
probable?
Stephen Lord
49 APC
Regiment for sure
I think that towards the end
of the Normandy campaign the Kangaroos were put into service. However, I don't
know about a specific unit. Later on, I guess somewhere in September 49th
RTR converted to become 49th Armoured Personnel Carrier Regiment, and stayed in
that role until end of hostilities.
Furthermore, there was the 1st Canadian APC Regiment, which was similarly
equipped.
Wienand Drenth
More likely
1 Canadian APC Regiment
I don't think Priest
Kangaroos were used by 49 APC regiment (formerly the CDL equipped 49 RTR),
though I may be wrong. The early Defrocked Priests were Canadian operated
initially in an ad-hoc unit, which became 1 Canadian APC Regiment. Check out
Hanno's Sherman site as a starting point.
Pete Andrews
1 CACR for
sure!
Only the Kangaroo
squadron operated the Priest Kangaroo in Normandy - see http://www.1cacr.org
49RTR was formed only after the success of this Canadian unit, and they were
equipped with the Ram Kangaroo.
The British did use the Priest Kangaroo, but in Italy
only - see http://www.inter.nl.net/users/spoelstra/g104/apckang2.htm
Hanno Spoelstra
Kangaroos
I finally saw a video
clip of a Kangaroo taken about the time of Operation Tractable (which came just
after the Kangaroos' introduction for Operation Totalize). The series is called
"Canada at War" by the National Film Board (of Canada). The episode is
titled Norman Summer.
At any rate, the clip shows a defrocked Priest, with the number "43"
on the front glacis and a D1 on the pulpit. It had an Allied star (right way up)
on the supplemental armour.
It was an early style Priest with the shallow pulpit (not like the Italeri
pulpit) and steel chevron tracks. It also had an LST shipping label just ahead
of the star.
Since 3rd Canadian Infantry Division had the Priests before they became APCs and
the "43" was one tac sign for an arty unit in 3rd Cdn. Div., I'd bet
there was a grey patch on the other fender.
Anyone else seen the clip or have the tech to do a frame grab?
Bill Inglee
Is This the
Picture?
Is this the picture you are referring to? (sorry for the bad quality)
Hanno
http://www.1cacr.org/
Kangaroos -
the official story (?)
Here's an excerpt from: The Second World
War 1939-45 Army, Royal Electrical And Mechanical Engineers Volume II -
Technical The War Office 1951
" Kangaroos”
When the European Campaign started, the British Army possessed no armoured
vehicles capable of carrying infantry forward into battle in comparative safety.
The heavy casualties which the Infantry were experiencing proved the need for a
vehicle of this type. The Canadians found an answer by taking the turret off a
Ram tank and producing an armoured vehicle capable of taking a section of
Infantry. The vehicle was known as the Kangaroo. It was first seen in the
assault on Boulogne in 1944 and was so successful that it was decided to convert a British
Regiment for the same role. One armoured brigade workshop converted 120 Rams,
including major alterations to stowage and the fitting of wireless sets in a
month.
Again during the winter of 1944-45 the Eighth Army Commander required a large
number of Personnel Carriers. The task was carried out mainly as a field
workshop commitment to save time transporting the tanks to be used for this
purpose from the army area to and from base workshops in Southern
Italy.
Two types of Kangaroo were produced:-
(1) Conversion of
Priest M.7.-This involved the removal of the 105mm. Howitzer and various stowage
bins; repositioning of the wireless set; blanking off the gap left by the
removal of the howitzer and mantlet; and increasing the armour and hull sides to
the level of the front superstructure. Suitable store protection and
accommodation for the Infantry to be carried was added, with facilities for
mounting and dismounting, and the vehicles when converted carried twenty in
addition to a crew of two.
(2) Conversion
of Sherman M4A2 (Mark III).-This again involved removal of the armament and the
turret, fitting of wireless set, and similar provisions for carrying personnel
which amounted to ten plus a crew of two.
Between October, 1944, and April, 1945, the following conversions were carried
out:
Priest M.7 102
Shermans III 75
the load being divided between 45 South Africa R. and H. Workshop at Rome, 661
Armoured Troop Workshops, 664 and 684 Tank Troop Workshops, and the 9th Armoured
Brigade Workshops at Ancona. The actual time allowed for the conversion was
usually the shortest possible with the personnel available, as will be
emphasized by the fact that 52 M.7s were converted in 18 days and 25 Sherman
IIIs in nine days."
Although this doesn't identify the British Regiment it does substantiate one.
hope this helps
Gary Donaldson
'Roos
As Bill Inglee points out below, the defrocked M7's most likely went into action
wearing their former markings. So the census number would no doubt have an
"S" prefix.
Been plowing through appropriate War
Diaries trying to get some details about the actual conversion. I’ve got some
data from the various RCEME workshops, but there may be more out there.
Steve
Priest Markings
Here's a lovely pic of a Priest's
markings:
Credit: The Public Archives of Canada
(DND Army 36069 ) - courtesy of Peter Brown
Caption: Priest 105 mm SP Gun in Canadian service
'Priest' self-propelled gun of the 19th Field Regiment, R.C.A., Normandy, July
1944. [Left to right]: Bdrs. D. Nashawa, G. Harper. Full names of 'the
"Wacky" Seven are - top row painted directly onto the hull side DICK
and GORD, second row on Maple Leaf background HARRY and JIM, third row also on
Maple Leaf background BERT and BRES."
Maybe the two Bombardiers are Dick and Gord? Note the vehicle has the additional or extended side armour (see top left). It could have well went on to be a Kangaroo...
Hanno Spoelstra
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