Post-War British Ram Kangaroo Question

[Jason Ginn]

Wow!

This is awesome! I never could have imagined that someone would have this much info at hand!

Assuming that these registration number blocks are inclusive would it be accurate to say that that there were 544 or 545 Ram tanks allotted registration numbers under the 1947 system? These can be broken down as follows:

Ram APCs (Mks I & II) - Qty. 259

67 ZR 40 - 69 ZR 17
71 ZR 20 - 72 ZR 00

Ram ARVs (Mk II) - Qty. 47 (or 48)

72 ZR 20 - 72 ZR 56 (or 57)
23 ZV 72 - 23 ZV 82

Ram II GPOs - Qty. 229

72 ZR 68 - 74 ZR 72
75 ZR 00 - 75 ZR 19
75 ZR 23 - 75 ZR 26

Ram II 6 pdr gun tank - Qty. 9

20 ZV 29 - 20 ZV 37

A July 1945 Canadian Army accounting of Ram tanks held overseas shows that of the 1567 remaining after VE Day there were 849 in British stocks. Two years later it appears that this number had dwindled to about 545.

It seems 44 of the 849 (40 with 75mm guns and 4 O/P's) were transferred from British stocks to the Netherlands in 1947. The July 1945 doc referred to above indicates that there were 39 75mm equipped Ram II's in Canadian stock and 1 in British stock and the list on Clive's site contains at total of 40 75mm equipped tanks, but the 1947 census listing show 9 six pdr. gun tanks and no 75's, so all this seems to agree.

I imagine that a large portion of the unaccounted for vehicles (about 260) were sold off as scrap during 1946-47.

Details of 67 ZR 43 in your pic are:

Ex T-40701

Engine No: 124776

Initially listed as in 51 Armd Veh Depot on 4 Feb 53

Struck off Census Return for disposal to TW Ward, Sheffield on 19 Sep 56...

I have had time for a little more research in the past week have learned that "A" vehicle cards are held at Bovington. Is this info held on one of these cards?

By chance do you know if it is possible to search the "A" vehicle cards using the old WD number or just by the the post-war census number? A bit O/T but I would love to be able to complete service history of Ram CT40892, a post-war British APC conversion brought back to Canada during 2004. It is listed as a cruiser held in Canadian Army stock overseas during June of 1945 and ended up on a range in the UK configured as a APC but that's about all I know for certain. I haven't had a chance to contact the Archivist at the Tank Museum to see if this type of search is possible but i guess if it isn't i can always use it as a excuse to go to see Bovington, and 250 vehicle cards!

See: http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2060

Thanks again!

J