Just come across a reference to a Ram Cougar T160118 on a page the 25th Canadian Armoured Delivery Regiments' receipts. Anyone know what a Ram Cougar is? It is a new one on me. Cheers Kevin
It seems to be an alternative name for the Badger flamethrower Kevin. Ram Badger (with Wasp Mk II Flame Thrower) - MLU FORUM
Thanks for clarifying that. I am beginning to wonder if it is anything to do with whoever is completing to receipts / issues. Some of the r / i forms are shown as Ram Badgers or Ram Wasps. A couple more oddities have cropped up Valentine 22 and Ram AAC. looking at the Valentine census numbers I am wondering if these are actually Valentine Archers. Cheers Kevin
Maybe AAC = armoured ammunition carrier. Not seen Valentine 22 before... but could it actually be DD? Cougar seems to have been superseded by Badger.
Thanks for the clarification. There seems to be quite a few odd names around as far as 25 CADR is concerned. I have just come across a Staghound Bantu. I looked this up and it is a mine roller and apparently only 6 were built. Cheers Kevin
The "Valentine 22s" are in fact Archers. Or Valentine SPs. Please don't call them Valentine Archers... (pet peeve: Bovington seems to have just made this up.)
Hi Chris, Thanks for the confirmation. I had more or less guessed that they were Valentine SP's by the census numbers that are listed they all start with S279???. Cheers Kevin
Honestly, I have no idea. 22 is twice 11 and 11 was the last model of Valentine gun tanks, but... that doesn't explain it. Kevin, you're right about the census numbers of course. Somewhere in those files (though I don't seem to have kept the pages? oh dear) are allocations of those "Valentine XXIIs" to anti-tank regiments. I've got that in November 55th (Suffolk Yeomanry) Anti-Tank Regiment (of 49th Division) received its first Archers, including census numbers S279606 and S279608. The first production Archer was S279596 so these were among the first Archers manufactured. That came from the Canadian files - I can only assume it's because they were in First Canadian Army, but they are the only British regiment I found in the files.
BTW my suggestion of DD is not as madcap as it may seem. In November 1944, DD demand so exceeded supply that the War Office offered SHAEF 80 Valentine XI DD held in depots which they declined.
Hi Chris, I am currently going through March 1945 and so far I have only found 1 Staghound from 11th Armoured Division, although not every vehicle is listed in the receipts / issued column. No these are definitely Valentine SP's. Attached are the notes I typed up for John Pearson who kindly gave me all the details he had gathered regarding the Valentine production. All of this I believe is contained in Dick Taylor's Valentine book series. John lent these to me while he was in the process of restoring / rebuilding his Valentine DD. I was lucky enough to see it fired up but sadly never got to see it completed with screens. Cheers Kevin
Thanks for sharing these Kevin. n.b. I wasn’t contesting Chris’ information, just explaining my original train of thought.
Hi Chris, Just found another British A/T reference S290729 issued to 62 Anti-Tank Regiment. ( T12740 pg 320 ) Cheers Kevin
Interesting - thank you Kevin. They were a 1st Corps unit originally - though they supported us Canadians in the first five weeks of the Normandy campaign!
Attached is a list of Write Offs' from Canadian Heritage T12740 - 25 CADR. Can anyone confirm what the the abbreviations TOS and SOS mean. Cheers Kevin