A question for my brothers from north of the border (or anyone else who may know): Did Cromwells serve in the Canadian Armoured Forces during World War II?

I have Googled and found a single pic (looks like it was scanned from an old book) of a supposed Canadian 4th Arrmoured Division Cromwell. Nothing else came up "solid." Can anyone confirm or deny?

BTW, I built the Tamiya Cromwell over the weekend. What a fabulously detailed and easy-to-build out-of-box kit -- the best thing I've built since a Skybow Dodge! I'm looking to mark and paint it a little different than what comes in the box ... and perhaps enter it into "Canadian Steel" with my CMP truck that's nearly done.

Hi Bob, I been frustrated with the lack of info regarding Canadian Tanks in WWII, But I did find this photo, should help:


Cheers
Bruce
ps I hope this isn't the same pic you found.

Interesting pic. Bruce - the AOS for an Armoured Recce Regiment is on the wrong side of the vehicle! Should be on the left side as viewed from the front.

Sorry Bob - all my references don't come up with any Canadian use for the Cromwell in Europe for 1944/early 1945 I'll keep looking for you though.

Nope ..No Cromwells for us Canadians ..we used the Sherman all the way through Europe ..well some stuarts too .

Rick

Bruce -- that's the same pic I found and was not satisfied. Thanks anyway.

Dave and Rick -- I was afraid this was the case. I guess it will be British. Oh well, it was still fun to build.

Thanks, guys!

At least one Canadian unit did have Cromwells for a short period of time. The Royal Canadian Artillery unit supporting the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion after D-Day took over a British Marine unit of Centars. Cromwells were used to replace casulaties.

Here's a link to a Canadian Military History document that references this (towards the end of the document):

http://www.forces.gc.ca/dhh/downloads/cmhq/cmhq139.pdf

I haven't seen any photographic evidence of the vehicles used so I can't say what markings they had. Maybe someone else might have some info here.

hi bob,

if you want something a little different, many cromwells training in Britain before D-day were painted with black camoflage, not something seen modelled too often.

unfortunately the RMASC centaurs cannot be build with what comes in the cromwell box, tamiya do a seperate kit for that version.

regards

joe

I found a photo in a book listing a Cromwell as being crewed by Canadians and I asked the same question here last year. However the guys are correct it seems as though other than those Centaurs we didn't use the tank instead we had Shermans.

I also have a book caiming pictures of canadian crewed cromwell tanks but I cant tell a difference in uniforms, and the tanks are operating in normandy.There is to my knowledge no evidence of these soldiers being Canadian (no Tim Horton's cups arround). Te tanks have cammo mesh draped over their turrets and guns in some places at least, and have a large ammount of their personal kit on the bustle and rear of the tank. Did Canadian armoured officers wear a berret? These men do. This unit is also not near the front because it is traveling in a line with all guns facing forward and the crews are all standing up out of the hatches. The picture is in "The World At Arms" by Readers Digest and printed in 1989. Hope this helps, but more than likely it is just a misrepresented unit, as I ca see only one marking and it doesn't even make sense to me.

The 4th Canadian Armoured Division's Recce Regt was the South Alberta Regiment, who had Sherman V's (and some Fireflies later)all the way through the NWE campaign, so the caption is wrong. These Cromwells might be Polish ones, but I am not even sure if they were issued Cromwells.

Mike Canaday

I think the photo is a Polish cromwell as operated by the 1st armoured.

You may find this site of some use , from what I can see from a quick look through is that there are no canadian units listed as using the cromwell

http://freespace.virgin.net/shermanic.firefly/a27m.html

Just to contradict myself lol , I did a little more digging and guess what the Canadians did use Cromwells.

The 4th Canadian Armoured Division 1944 , South Alberta Regiment (45) was
similarly organised as the armoured regiments of the division, but with the main difference that the unit was equipped with three Cromwells and one A30 Challenger tank per troop. Later in the campaign the Challengers were gradually replaced by Firefly tanks.

The cromwell in the picture you posted is T187935 which would suggest it is was part of the run
T187000 -187999 and therefore would be a Cromwell MkIV & VI 'D' hull Built by Leyland


Talk about confusion

Try David Fletcher at the link below, if anyone has info Bovington will.

http://www.tankmuseum.co.uk/home.html

Regards
Mike..

Hi fellas,

Tinman has it about right. The only Cromwells that I am aware of in service with the Canadian Army were the Centaurs that were briefly taken over from the Royal Marines in Normandy.

That photo might be better captioned "Polish 1st Armored Division Cromwells advance with the Canadian 4th Armored Division.

The South Alberta Regiment used Shermans and Stuarts. I've known a number of veterans with the SAR's including an MC winner. My father in law served with them for the last three months of the war and I was involved (in a small way) with the publication of their regimental history "South Albertas,
A Canadian Regiment at War", written by Don Graves.
No matter how you twist and turn it, no Cromwells will fall out of it. :-)

I'd rather have wished that we had used them though.
It would have provided a bit more inspiration to finish one.

I must ask, where did you dig up info that the SAR had Cromwells? WIth a rather large, new book specifically about the SARs and it being full of wartime photos showing only Shermans & Stuarts, I am curious who still promotes such very innacurate information.

If it is a web site, I'd probably send them an email noting how wrong they were and the location of the proof.

Not to fault you, but I like to contact incorrect web sites to prevent further misinformation.

Paul