Wartime NWE image of a CIRD Sherman?

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Jason Ginn

Could this be a CIRD tank that was in use as a regular gun tank, or am i just seeing things?

Jason,

Great find, I see the same things.

From my webpage on the Canadian Indestructible Roller Device (CIRD):

The device was available for D-Day and was shipped across the channel. Sherman CIRDs were issued as pilot tanks, on the scale of one per troop, to the three regiments of the 79th Armoured Division operating flail tanks in North West Europe. RAC Reports note that one of these, 30 Armoured Brigade, was equipped with "36 pilot Sherman Vs with 12 Roller equipments". However, there are no records of the CIRD being used in action and all units were withdrawn before the end of 1944.

First of all, there were more Sherman tanks with the attachments available than rollers, so even during their deployment it was possible to see Shermans w/o the roller sets driving around. I suspect that after the units were withdrawn the Shermans with attachments were (re)issued as normal gun tanks. At least that is how the one in Netherlands Army inventory was used.