Knowledge of the Canadian Army on 6 June, 1944

[Mark W. Tonner]

This may be the wrong place for this but, I've had a subscription to Military Modelling Magazine since 1972, but this morning, after receiving the latest issue, I just bit my tongue and muttered a whole bunch of CENSORED words.

The reason being is this, one of the articles is about a model of a Sexton 25pdr SPG (with deep water wading trunk) that was submitted by a modeller in the United Kingdom (I presume). It is suppose to represent a Sexton that was used by one of the Canadian Artillery Regiments of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division on D-Day.

This is where I have a problem:

1. - the 12th, 13th and 14th Field Regiments, R.C.A., along with the 19th Army Field Regiment, R.C.A., which was attached to the 3rd Cdn Inf Div on D-Day, were all equipped with the 'M7 Priest 105mm How.' self-propelled guns and not with Sexton's.

2. - it goes on to say that the British, more or less, came up with the idea of the 'M7 Priest Kangaroo' for Operation GOODWOOD which took place in July, 1944 - me thinks that Simonds would be rolling over in his grave over that one! The idea for the 'M7 Priest Kangaroo' was CANADIAN - their first use was in Operation TOTALIZE in August, 1944, by Second Canadian Corps.

3. - as an aside, the markings on the model are also wrong, except for the formation sign - which is the correct one for the 3rd Cdn Inf Div, but the Arm of Service marking is for the Junior Infantry Battalion of the Infantry Brigade in an Armoured Division (1944) (63 on green background), the Battery Quarter shown, is that for the 1st Battery (the red square upper right), but the tac 'C 2' is for the second gun in "C" Troop, which would mean that the Battery Quarter for the 2nd Battery (the red square bottom right) should have been used.

I little research on the part of the modeller, into the Royal Canadian Artillery regarding the equipment used by the Field Regiments of the 3rd Canadian Divisional Artillery, would have told him that they were equipped with the 'M7 Priest 105mm How.' equipments on 6 Jun 44 and not with 'Sextons'. Where he got that the British were the first to employ the 'Priest Kangaroo' during Operation GOODWOOD in July, 1944, I haven't a clue.

Anyways, rant over. I've included a photo of the finished model, which the modeller put a lot of work into, but which is also very historical flawed. I know we only had the one beach on 6 Jun 44, but the information regarding the Canadian's and what we used or didn't use on Juno is out there........

Cheers