[David Herbert]

Regarding Ram ARVII production,

There were definitely more than one built because I have seen the remains of two. Hopefully photos below, sorry that they are rather poor.

The more intact one was at Cashmore's scrap yard in south Wales in March 1981. Someone showed me a photo in a book about scrapping railway rolling stock (no idea which book but I seem to remember it was right at the back). I visited and managed to get in and take photos. I expressed an interest in buying it but was told it was too useful as an anchor point when winching scrap around the yard but they would let me know if it became available. A year later the yard had been cleared and when I found my previous contact he said that he didn't think I was serious. What was there was in reasonable condition but there was no visible army registration.

The destroyed one was on Sennybridge AT2 range in August 1988. It was totally destroyed but obviously not the same one as it still had its overhanging rear armour.

Adrian Barrell in post #2 of this thread gives post war registration numbers for 47 Ram ARVIIs. These numbers would have been issued against existing serviceable vehicles (in 1947) that were being renumbered from their wartime 'CT' numbers which would have been unchanged from when they were new gun tanks. The 'RE' prefix on what I assume to be the prototype CT159854, is not a conventional addition but I have seen Sherman V ARVs in Normandy with REC prefixes replacing the T so this is presumably a version of that. This all fits in with an order being raised in May 1945 to convert 100 vehicles but cancelled five months later. I do not have access to their record cards but if they exist they will give the 'CT' numbers against the post war style numbers and also disposal information which might be interesting.

I think it is safe to assume that at least 47 Ram ARVIIs were built and that 47 remained in service post 1947. They would have been very useful as they were faster than the Churchill ARVII but had the same winching ability though they were not as good in very heavy going.