Gas- and diesel-powered AFVs in the Allied armed forces

[Crewman]

Hello,

At first quotation from the GOC 4th Canadian Armoured Division Maj.-Gen. George Kitching's memoirs:

Once we were ashore in France and had set up our headquarters, I went to see General Simonds. He invited me into his caravan where he was in conversation with General Dempsey who commanded 2nd British Army. I knew Dempsey from Italy and although he greeted me very pleasantly, it was obvious that he was under a considerable amount of strain. His first words after greeting me were, "Are your tanks petrol or diesel?" When I told him they were petrol, he seemed disappointed. I did not understand the significance of this remark until after he had gone when Guy Simonds told me that only two days before over 150 tanks of three British divisions had been knocked out during an all-out attack to gain the high ground south of Caen. Since many of the tanks were petrol-fuelled Shermans, they had caught fire more easily and more rapidly than those fuelled by diesel. General Dempsey wished that our tanks were diesel and, as we became involved in battle, so did we.


Source:
George Kitching
Mud and Green Fields. The Memoirs of Major-General George Kitching
Vanwell Publishing Ltd., St. Catharines, Ontario, 1993
ISBN 0-920277-73-X
page 188

It sounds a little like the Allies in the ETO had wide offer of the tanks and other AFVs to select gas- or diesel-powered vehicles for them. In fact majority of the vehicles were gas-powered. What the GOC of armoured division could do? Almost nothing, if I am not mistaken but maybe I am wrong? The Army's offer was not so great:

▪ M3A1 Stuart (or Stuart Mk. IV) powered by the Guiberson T-1020-4 Diesel engine

▪ M4A2 Sherman powered by GM 6046 diesel engine

▪ M10 tank destroyers and their Achilles versions powered by GM 6046 diesel engines


Did I miss any model? Was there a possibility for the GOC to select the tanks for his division?


Best regards

C.