Hi Bill;
In answer to your question regarding the "Heavy Support Squadron" - it was a temporary change to the brigade's orginzation which took place in June 1942, when the brigade headquarters was expanded to include a heavy support squadron having a strength of five officers and ninety-two other ranks. It was equipped with nine Churchills, each mounting a 3" 20-cwt Mark I gun which fired a projectile at a speed of 2000 feet per second and could penetrate armour 100mm thick at 200 yards. It was to be used against what were being referred to as enemy super-heavy tanks until the 17-pounder anti-tank gun came into full production. These tanks were called Churchill Gun Carriers and could be assigned when required to individual tank battalions (Re: PAC, RG 24 Volume 14062). This squadron was disbanded in March 1943.
(Source: DRAGOONS OF STEEL, Canadian Armour in Two World Wars)
There is more on the Churchill Gun Carrier, in a thread on the Armour Forum, located here:
Churchill w/3" gun
In regards to "I can't figure out exactly what this fellow did." - he was definitely an armoured corps trade (ie: a member of the Canadian Armoured Corps proper), I would say that he was a driver. He definitely was not a gunner, due to the fact that one of his postings was to the 1st Canadian Armoured Carrier Regiment (1 CACR - "The Kangaroos") - they were not "gun tanks", and by the sounds of it, he was with 1 CACR from their formation, through to their disbandment, interesting.
Also, somewhere along the line, he must have returned to the UK for some reason, because you say that he went through No. 2 Canadian Armoured Corps Reinforcement Unit and then on to Italy in June 1943, and yet he was posted to the Fort Garry Horse in Nov 1944, which would have meant that from Italy - he returned to the UK, for whatever reason, and then was put back into the armoured corps reinforcement pipeline, and came out in North West Europe, posted to the Fort Garry Horse and then to 1 CACR a week later. It wasn't until February 1945, that the Canadian Forces in Italy started moving to North West Europe/the UK, to be re-united with First Canadian Army (
Operation GOLDFLAKE).
Hope this helps.
Cheers
