The
Sherman
in Canadian Service
by
Steve Guthrie
S
u m m a r y
|
Title, Description &
Publisher |
Service Publications "Canada:
Weapons of War" series: The Sherman in Canadian Service by Steve Guthrie;
Service Publications, Ottawa, Canada 2002 |
ISBN: |
1-894581-14-8 |
Review Type: |
FirstRead |
Media and Contents: |
80 pages; soft cover; landscape
format |
Price: |
CDN$8.95 |
Advantages:
|
Nice, concise history of the
Canadian use of the M4 Sherman series tanks |
Disadvantages:
|
Considering scope of the subject,
very few |
Recommendation: |
Highly Recommended to all Sherman
fans and those interested in Canadian military history |
Reviewed by
Cookie Sewell
HyperScale is proudly supported by Squadron
One of the highest compliments paid to the American M4 Medium Tank series by
any of the non-American users was that of Field Marshall Montgomery, who
referred to it as the "Universal Tank." As such, all of the Allies in WWII made
use of the tank in one of its five major production versions. But unlike other
nations, who received the tanks via Lend-Lease, Canada was more closely involved
with the tanks and at one point even produced them in Montreal.
Well-known Canadian armor modeler (or armour, as the Canadians do make a
difference in the spelling) Steve Guthrie has written this handy overview of the
Sherman in Canadian service. It does not attempt to cover the history of the
tank in detail, as it has been done very well elsewhere in technical
publications, but rather relate the tank to its service in Canada and with
Canadian Commonwealth forces in Europe.
The book covers a good deal of organization and history of Canadian armoured
units, which were based more along the British pattern than the American one. A
Canadian Sherman regiment, for example, had 64 tanks whereas its American
battalion counterpart only had 53 or 54 Shermans. Also, the Canadians made use
of the upgunned "Firefly" versions of the Shermans with the British 17-lb
antitank gun whereas American units did not.
Quite useful is a listing of the Sherman regiments and how they evolved from
their predecessors. American tankers are used to the system of
battalion/regiment allocations and the occasional nickname for the regiment, but
since Canadian units evolved from earlier formations with names into numerically
ordered regiments (but kept their sobriquets) it is really very handy. For
example, the 10th Armoured Regiment was originally the Fort Garry Horse; the 2nd
Armored Regiment, Lord Strathcona's Horse or the Royal Canadians. (The latter
also fought with Shermans in Korea, but that is outside the scope of the book.)
Overall this is a handy little guide and history of how Canada used the Sherman,
and should be part of the library of every Sherman fan. Thanks to Service
Publications for the review sample. (Service Publications can be reached at
http://www.servicepub.com or at PO Box 33071, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2C 3Y9.
Cookie Sewell
AMPS
Review Copyright © 2003 by Cookie
Sewell
Page Created 04 January, 2003
Last updated 22 July, 2003
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