[maple_leaf_eh]

As I read the new regimental history of the Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment, there are three vehicles mentioned all the time - 75mm Shermans, Fireflies and Stuarts. The echelon is almost never described, except in terms of the support they provided. Not the author's fault, just the emphasis of the War Diaries and sources.

Other passing mentions are the regiment's antiaircraft tanks, the artillery observer's tank, the Armoured Recovery Vehicle or ARV, and tracked ammunition carriers. Your M7 fits the purpose of the last type, namely mobile enough to follow the armour and common enough to be easily serviced. The Canadians by late 1944, the Canadian formations had enough experience and savoir faire to know what they wanted and willingly find it. Someone winked and pressed his arguments to the Ordnance Corps officer, who looked at the vehicles in his lines, and wondered how he was going to keep repositioning them as the battle moved. The M7s weren't required, so if someone was foolish enough to want them, let him have them.