Tank AA, 20 mm Quad, Skink

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by strat1

The attached WarSpot article has some issues with some incorrect information, and is a miss mash up of various documents/ reports. There was more than one SKINK built, there were 3 completed, 1 stayed in the UK( deployed to NWE spring of 45), 2 remained in Canada (used post war in trials as late as 1947), all the hulls were not scrapped from the project, they ended up being sent to Portugal as part of the MDAP in the mid 50's, most being converted to APC's. There are 4 known SKINK turret survivors, only 2 were used as Range targets, the other 2 were used as range arc markers and were saved by the Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians) in 2003. One turret is still with the Regiment, the other was sent to the Canadian War Museum in exchange for spare parts for vehicle restoration projects.

Hi Anthony, thanks for pointing this out. I saw those errors too but refrained from commenting on the article.

[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.

[David Dunlop]

I ran across this photo on line the other day of a wooden mockup of the first version (welded) Skink turret.

The article this photo was imbedded in claimed it was never the intention to build complete Skinks. Rather, the focus of the work was to develop an AA Turret as a conversion kit for the Sherman. The concept was aiming for a simple removal of the existing Sherman turret and basket assembly and drop the Skink turret and basket in its place.

Went back to find the ariicle, and no luck yet but I did save a copy of the photo.


David

[maple_leaf_eh]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

...

Went back to find the ariicle, and no luck yet but I did save a copy of the photo.

David

For history on Windows, CTRL and H. You'll see all the sites the PC has visited in a set length of time. A few days ago won't be deep down the list.

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Or you can drop the picture into Google image search — sorry, Google Lens as it’s called now, and tell it to look for the source of the image. That got me, among other hits:

http://panzerserra.blogspot.com/2011...n-aa-tank.html
https://canadianarmsandarmour.ca/the-m4a1-grizzly

Both have more photos of the prototype turret, but on a quick browse through, I don’t see any mention of the “quick conversion” idea. Maybe it is in there and I just didn’t notice, of course

[David Dunlop]

Found it, but the site is a pop-up ad nightmare.

https://tankhistoria.com/experimental/skink/

Be a big help as well, if their references were documented as the overall concept is interesting.


David