Churchill T32203R and American Engineers

[sapper740]

I was doing some research on the 555th Heavy Ponton Battalion which had been posted to two U.S. Army bases where I too had trained or visited. The 555th was in Ft. Lewis, Washington from Nov.5, 1943 to Jan. 8, 1944 and in Ft. Polk, Louisiana from Aug. 31, 1944 to Jan. 28, 1945. During a visit to the Ft. Lewis museum and upon seeing my Canadian uniform and my interest in some of the 555th memoribilia, one of the docents remarked how the 555th had tested their bridging in WWII with a Brit Tank. I filed this little tidbit of information aside until I visited their website:

http://555thheavypontonbattalion.com...s/Page365.html

and was pleasantly surprised to see photos of the "Brit Tank" which was Churchill T32203R. From Jan. 11, 1944 to Aug. 27, 1944 the 555th was in Arizona on the AZ-CA border testing their M1 floating bridge on the Colorado river. There are several pictures on their website of them testing their bridging with Stewarts, Shermans, and their lone Churchill. It would be interesting to hear how they came to have ownership of this Churchill and perhaps someone will be able to offer more information from the hull number.

CHIMO!

Derek.