Tank AA, 20 mm Quad, Skink

[maple_leaf_eh]

Several posts back, there was a question about why the demonstration Skink was always getting stuck. The answer was the mud was unbelievably bad at that time in that sector.

Reading the latest regimental history of the 27th Canadian Armoured Regiment, the squadrons would get lined up to escort Kangaroos, Universal Carriers or carry infantry forward, and half might be bogged down within a few hundred yards of the startline. In one passage, the author comments that no gear was low enough to move the tanks. The famous tank Bomb carried the troop commander when he advanced with one other tank onto an objective - the other two were stuck, and then fought off determined counterattacks until the Kangaroos could struggle all the way forward. Lt JW Neill won an Immediate Military Cross for that.

To Skinks: (page 589) " ... On 5 February, the officers of the regiment got the opportunity to see the new anti-aircraft tank, nicknamed SKINK. It consisted of a Sherman II chassis with a special turret mounting four 20mm Polsten-Oerlikon cannons. The turret could traverse 360-deg in six seconds and carry 2,000 rounds of ammunition. The guns could elevate 80-deg and depress 5-deg. .... " I ordered the War Diaries, but that month is somehow missing.

Throughout the book are scattered mentions of the RHQ's Anti Aircraft troop in Crusaders. Although their employment is not described, beyond an instance of one trying to act as a recovery tank and losing a track, which strung a Sherman, a recce troop Stuart, and the Crusader on a raised train railbed. The crews and fitters reportedly stripped down and went swimming trying to locate their tracks. Since the Crusaders were still on strength in the winter of 1945, I speculate they would have been roled as RHQ defences and a holding section for incoming replacement crews or a place for men to rotate out of the tanks for rest but still stay with the regiment. More than once between DDay and late fall 1944, the history mentions having either extra tanks and not enough trained crews.