Ram Kangaroo APC

Once the Allies had successfully established a beachhead after the landings on D-Day, their next goal was the break-out of Normandy. However, the rising causality rates due to the heavy fighting were cause for concern the Canadian General Harry Crerar. He would turn to Lieutenant-General Guy Simonds, commander of the II Canadian Corps for a solution.

Simonds first thought to transporting infantry in armored vehicles during Operation Totalise in August 1944. The operation required the infantry to cross large areas of open ground when would expose them to enemy fire, therefore transporting the infantry in an armoured vehicle would reduce the number of causalities.

Leading up to the operation, the M7 Priest HMC had just been superseded by the Sexton so Simonds organized R.E.M.E. workshops to remove the 105mm howitzer so the discarded Priests could be used as troop transports. These vehicles become known as Unfrocked or Defrocked Priests.

While Operation Totalise proved less successful than hoped, the use of the Defrocked Priest held promise and by September 1944 a special Kangaroo unit had been form, the 1st Canadian Armoured Carrier Regiment. However, the Priest had now been replaced the Ram Kangaroo created by converting the Canadian Ram tank that was now surplus to requirement after Canadian armoured units switched to the Sherman tank prior to the Normandy landings.

The two-man crew consisted of a driver and a commander who also acted as the wireless operator and manned the .30 cal machine-gun. Additional machine-guns could be fitted to the bolt holes turret ring if need be.

Other than the 1st Canadian Armoured Carrier Regiment, the Ram Kangaroo was used by the 49th Royal Tank Regiment; both part of the 79th Armoured Division. The Ram Kangaroo served with distinction till the end of hostilities in Europe and even into the post-war years in limited numbers.