2nd Canadian Armored Brigade on Greatest Tank Battles (WWII)

[denimboy]

For those interested in Canadian Armored history.

Tonight on Military Channel's Greatest Tank Battles was the history of the 2nd Armored Brigade Fusiliers de Sherbrooke Regiment who fought their way inland against a stubborn and ruthless German defense.
How they fought the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend for Caen and more.
Very informative.

They so rarely talk about Canadians on Military Channel that I was kind of excited about it.
Look for the schedule as it will air again in the next days.

 

[Snaketnk]

I watched it a while ago; interesting for sure. My only serious peeve (besides them re-capping the episode every 10 minutes) is that when they say they were 1000m apart, the animation shows them about 100. Just made me (and the other guys) laugh when we saw it.

 

[denimboy]

Yeah, the animations are very simple but you get to see something while the narrator repeats himself 
I thought it was funny when the Canadian had to wake up his gunner sleeping in the turret.

 

[cphansen]

For those interested in Canadian Armored history.

Tonight on Military Channel's Greatest Tank Battles was the history of the 2nd Armored Brigade Fusiliers de Sherbrooke Regiment who fought their way inland against a stubborn and ruthless German defense.
How they fought the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend for Caen and more.
Very informative.

They so rarely talk about Canadians on Military Channel that I was kind of excited about it.
Look for the schedule as it will air again in the next days.

Les Fusiliers de Sherbrooke is not the regiment specified there.

At the start of WWII it was decided to setup a CASF anglophone infantry battalion from the Eastern Townships. The Personnel came from The Sherbrooke REgiment and Les Fusiliers de Sherbrooke. The  unit was The Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment, please note the actual name is Fusilier not Fusiliers. The regiment after infantry training went to England where it was converted to Armour unfortunately at that time since the language in operational use was English, they transferred the non fully bilingual Francophones. The Sherbrooke REgiment and Les Fusiliers de Sherbrooke continued as militia units during WWII and trained as infantry, they were never called up as units insted they provided trained troops for the CASF.

The Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment was disbanded after WWII and The Sherbrooke Regiment was converted to armout and the battle honours were carried by both original regiments. In the late sixties The Sherbrooke Regiment was merged with the 7/11 Hussars to create The Sherbrooke Hussars. The Sherbrooke Hussars thus carry the battle honour of the Sherbrookes and the 7/11 and thus have the distinction of carrying battle honour from both Europe and Asia. The 7/11 Hussars provided personnel to the Royal Rifles which went to Hong Kong

I hope this gives you more info on the histroy of the RCAC. The Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment may no longer be on the ORBAT, but its histroy is now being perpetuated by two fine PRes units, The Sherbrooke Hussars and Les Fusiliers de Sherbrooke

 

[denimboy]

I wrote Fusiliers de Sherbrooke because that's what was stated on the show if I remember correctly .
I honestly don't know the history of this particular regiment.  :-[
Thanks for clarifying the subject!

 

[cphansen]

I wrote Fusiliers de Sherbrooke because that's what was stated on the show if I remember correctly .
I honestly don't know the history of this particular regiment.  :-[
Thanks for clarifying the subject!

I noticed that they kept calling the unit The Sherbrooke Fusiliers Regiment which is what the English translation of Les Fusiliers de Sherbrooke is. And if you tried to find the unit name by going by the battle honours, you would see the same honours on the Guidon of The Sherbrooke Hussars and the Colours of Les Fusiliers de Sherbrooke. the SFR or 27th Armoured is a very interesting unit and if you want more info, there are several books available. One is our own OLDSWEAT's book No holding back Operation Totalize, another is Bloody Buron and a third is The Sherbrooke Regiment, unfortunately the last is well out of print, but the National Archives has a copy, which your library can get for you. There are also many articles online about Brigadier Radley Walters, a most interesting and admirable gentleman, a good example of a good thinking officier. His career should be inspiring to any Junior Officier

 

[Journeyman]

One is our own OLDSWEAT's book No holding back Operation Totalize, another is Bloody Buron and a third is The Sherbrooke Regiment, unfortunately the last is well out of print, but the National Archives has a copy, which your library can get for you. There are also many articles online about Brigadier Radley Walters, a most interesting and admirable gentleman, a good example ....

I'm afraid I was skimming too quickly, and the bit highlighted in yellow registered in my mind as one statement.

I was about to argue the point.  >

 

[211RadOp]

I'm afraid I was skimming too quickly, and the bit highlighted in yellow registered in my mind as one statement.

I was about to argue the point.  >

Are you saying Oldsweat is an interesting and admirable gentleman?  I won't argue the interesting part, but admirable? 

 

[Journeyman]

Actually, it was "gentleman" that caused me to re-read it    ;D

 

[Old Sweat]

Leaving aside the comments from the peanut gallery, the program tried to cover the whole campaign, which was too large a subject. One could also note that the 1st Hussars and the Fort Garry Horse could have been mentioned.

Of interest, I interviewed Rad and the other member of his regiment who appeared in the program and have met Ken Tout. Re the 12th SS Panzer Division, Rad told me that as time went on, he sensed a continuing deterioration in ability and combat power in that formation. I believe he said that the Canadians felt they were more than a match for them. (I am away from home, so I don't have access to my files.) At the start of the battle in Normandy the division had a full armoured regiment of close to 150 Mk IVs and Panthers and two panzer grenadier regiments, each of three battalions. By early August the division was down to about forty tanks and three weak panzer grenadier battalions. Most of these were lost in the subsequent fighting over the next two weeks.

 

[cphansen]

I still think the 12th SS Hitler Jugend was one of Germany's best fighting units, but the Canadians came to out class them. There's a difference between units which have trained together for years like the CASF units and units which were stood up, supplied with good equipment and fanatical and ruthless officiers and men but only trained together for a comparitivly short time.

While the Germans may have had frighteningly effectve equipment and good personnel, they were not as effective as the Canadians. The Germans inflicted many casualities but received many more from the CASF.

The Canadians were good, they were committed to ending the war with the annhilation of the Nazis, for which we should be eternally grateful.

By the way does anyone have any details about Rad's Circus, which was a collection of German vehicules captured and operated by Rad's squadron. The circus included a Panther Mk II reconnaisance tank. I was surprised to hear of the Germans using and building a Panther for recce.