Normandy 68 years ago.

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Normandy 68 years ago.
The tank "Bomb" from the Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment (27th Canadian Amored Regiment) landed in Normandy and made it all the way to Germany in one piece at the end of the War in 1945.
 
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"Bomb" should be restored to operational condition, simply in thanks to the MEN who ran her and the ones like her....... and it should be a NATIONAL project and people should be told WHY.

Maybe finance the project with a postage stamp: 62 cents for postage and 38 for "Bomb", make it a dollar stamp. I would buy a sheet, so would many others. Sell a million and that is a nice cash pool to start rebuilding her. CBC should throw in a chunk, too: after all, she MADE their news for them!

People think of Tanks as hulking, indestructible monsters, but they are in reality so very vulnerable. Of all the D-Day Tanks, exactly ONE was still operational 11 months later. And this is it.

That alone needs to be known to the whole country.

Then perhaps someone will ask, "But what about all the others?".

And then they should be told.

Thanks, guys.
.
 
Yes they re-painted it and moved it to a safer but much less visible area on a small side street with little traffic. It will never run again, it was gutted of all moving parts and the main gun torched long ago.
 
Another fascinating piece of history that I've learned today. Quite poignant after watching "Storming Juno" air on History. Another "lest we forget" moment.

Linking this to the other thread and the Oshawa museum, if you ever get the chance to see their Sherman run, do by all means!

The other amazing thing I learned was about Exercise Tiger before D-Day.. but that's for another thread.
 
I remember going there about 6 or 7 years ago. I was just a teenager but I paid close attention, took a lot of pictures and remember as much as I think anyone could. I was very lucky to live over in Europe for a bit.
 
hacer2 said:
heck we have problems doing that kind of milelage and round count on our leopards under training conditions, i would hate to imagine in a theater of operation doing so much with an actual threat. what a story!
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The Sherman was supposed to have been a easy to maintain tank,but very loww tech compared to the Canadian Army Leopard..which is very high tech,and lots of man-hours to keep up the maintanence
 
hacer2 said:
heck we have problems doing that kind of milelage and round count on our leopards under training conditions, i would hate to imagine in a theater of operation doing so much with an actual threat. what a story!
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be thankful its not a chieftain, ive heard a rumour of 4 tanks going through 8 motors on a 48 hour exercise
 
True - I was [briefly] a CE Techie in REME in the late 1960s, based at the RAC centre at Bovington. I remember following a squadrom column lin line down to the nearby ranges, and how a Chieftain would often mis-gearchange withing half a mile of starting up, bringing it to a halt [third to reverse in a tenth of a second is not good on a 60-ton tank]. It was a simple one-minute fix but took three hours to achieve due to the crap that had to be moved out of the way to get to the selector linkage.

Apart from the total sh!te engine, it was a good tank, and was a sure-fire opposition killer. The 120mm penetrator would clean both sides of a T-62 hull at 1500m....or in the glacis and out through the engine bay.

tac
 
Great thread. Thanks for posting.

I've spent most of my life in Tatamagouche. It's where I live and am raising my children. I'll be doing some research and talking to some old timers to find out a little more about Ernest Mingo.
 
tacfoley said:
True - I was [briefly] a CE Techie in REME in the late 1960s, based at the RAC centre at Bovington. I remember following a squadrom column lin line down to the nearby ranges, and how a Chieftain would often mis-gearchange withing half a mile of starting up, bringing it to a halt [third to reverse in a tenth of a second is not good on a 60-ton tank]. It was a simple one-minute fix but took three hours to achieve due to the crap that had to be moved out of the way to get to the selector linkage.

Apart from the total sh!te engine, it was a good tank, and was a sure-fire opposition killer. The 120mm penetrator would clean both sides of a T-62 hull at 1500m....or in the glacis and out through the engine bay.

tac
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Interesting post, i always enjoy hearing from former REME personal on their opinions on various tanks, vehicles, and weapons, my dad served in Normandy in the Guards Armoured Division,{2nd Battalion Welsh Guards}, equiped with the Cromwell Tank which had the Rolls Royce Meteor engine, he always had a lot of respect for REME, as they had to work long hours under difficult conditions to keep the battalions tanks battle ready.
 
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