A Ram Kangaroo, a rare variant of a World War II Sherman tank, abandoned in England

@ElentirENG ES 2·23·2024 · 23:43 0

During World War II the need for armored troop transports for certain operations became evident.

The M-4 Sherman tanks submerged in the sea off the coast of the island of Saipan
The lonely remains of Sherman tanks that fought in the Battle of Normandy

Due to the Canadian Army's lack of this type of vehicle and the shortage in its ranks of American M-3 armored half-track transports, Canadian Lieutenant General Guy Simonds had the idea of converting some M-7 self-propelled guns Priest on armored personnel carriers (APCs), removing the 105 mm main gun and leaving enough space to transport up to 10 equipped soldiers. These vehicles were improvised in the area of operations and received the nickname Kangaroos.

In addition to using the M-7 Priest, the Canadian Army also made Kangaroos with British Churchill tanks, with American Sherman tanks and with the Canadian version of these, the Ram. Canada manufactured 2,032 units of the Ram but they never saw combat as tanks, being used for training and being transformed for other uses, from flamethrowers to observation. One of those missions was the transportation of troops. Many Ram tanks were converted into Kangaroos, and one of them ended its days at the Buxton training ground in England. Destination Discovery posted this video of that old APC:

You can see some screenshots of this video here. Here we see the circular hole that was originally occupied by the tower of the Ram tank, before being converted into a Kangaroo.

The secondary turret hole, located on the front left side, next to the driver's seat. It was equipped with a .30 caliber (7.62 mm) machine gun.

The vehicle's barge has numerous projectile impacts, apparently of .50 caliber (12.7 mm).

The interior of the vehicle, with part of its transmission still intact.