Cromwell with Canadian forces

[dsfraser]

Well, to make a long story short, I bought a Tamiya Cromwell on eBay, and don't know what to do with it! If I'm to build it at all, it has to be Canadian, but I have precious little info on the Cromwell and nothing at all on Canadian use. Will someone toss me a life ring?

This is sooo far out of my expertise I'm at a total loss. I'm quite horrififed to watch it happen, as a bystander as it were, but I'm slowly getting drawn into building HQ models of Canadian tanks. For decades I've concentrated on Soviet armour, and I can tell you chapter and verse on T-34s, but all I know from Cromwells is that they were named after Oliver! (They could have called them 'Twist'!)

Even worse, AFV Club have announced what appears to be a killer model of the Churchill Mk.III, as used at Dieppe, and this is another model I have to build. I have wanted to do so for forty years, ever since I saw the images of the Calgary Tanks stranded on the beach — and that was before I lived in Calgary.

And I guess I will have to flesh this out with a Firefly. Tasca have a terrific model now of this tank, so there's another. I should live so long. My wife, Giod bless her, is already giving me a hard time about my stash, and I only got back into tanks last September.

So . . . if anyone here can give me a link or a reference to good information on Canadian use of the Cromwell, preferably clear photos, I will be grateful, and indebted.

Heavy sigh. Modelling is such a slippery slope.

Kevin, I have a ton of Russian books and links, and will keep an eye open for Canadian Valentines sent to the USSR. They loved them there! to the point where Stalin insisted they be kept in production just for the Red Army.

Regards all

Scott Fraser
Calgary