Trooper Earl Duncan Prior, 12th Manitoba Dragoons

[Terry Witiuk]

Although I am not related to Earl Duncan Prior, I have permission Earl's descendants to post some of his service history here on MLU. I am in the process of framing his medals and related items for the family. Given the nature of his service with the Royal Canadian Amoured Corp and the unique information, items and photos that have been preserved by the family, I felt there would be others on this forum who would appreciate the opportunity to both remember and read about Earl's service. It is all overwhelming, especially his handwritten training notes.

Trooper Earl Duncan Prior
12th Manitoba Dragoons, Royal Canadian Armoured Corp
18th Armoured Car Regiment
Died of Wounds, September 1, 1944

[Terry Witiuk]

Trooper Earl Duncan Prior, 12th Manitoba Dragoons

[Terry Witiuk]

Trooper Earl Duncan Prior, 12th Manitoba Dragoons

[Terry Witiuk]

Trooper Earl Duncan Prior, 12th Manitoba Dragoons

[Terry Witiuk]

Trooper Earl Duncan Prior, 12th Manitoba Dragoons

[Terry Witiuk]

Trooper Earl Duncan Prior, 12th Manitoba Dragoons

[Terry Witiuk]

Many Thanks to Marco Hogenkamp in the Netherlands who provided the following information.

Hello Terry,

This is what I can make up from the documents you posted on the MLU forum.
They are not very clear to read but on one of them I can read that Tpr Prior was “SOS from 18th Armed. C.R. “ on August 30th.
The next entry is “SOS Deceased (Died of Wds) on September 1st.
At that time Tpr Prior was a Gnr-Op “C” (Gunner-operator Class C) , so he would have either been operating the Staghound’s 37mm gun or would have been operating the wireless set.
The photo from Tpr Prior in a (I assume his) Staghound shows the registration number F116815.
I am pretty sure this photo was made in France shortly after the regiment landed near Courseulles on July 8th (RHQ and B-squadron) and 9th 1944.

I had a look in the war diary pages from August 1944.
In August 1944, C-squadron lost an armored car by a Pantserfaust hit on the 30th so I am quite sure that Tpr Prior was involved in this incident (see document 1666).
The location was nearby the village of Bierville (north-east from Rouen) in France.
The car lost was the “Lieutenants Car” from Lieutenant W. R. Laird.
Wally Laird was the Lieutenant from 13th Troop (C-squadron) so I am pretty sure Tpr Prior served as gunner/operator in the Lieutenants Car from 13th Troop.
The registration number from Wally Laird’s Staghound was F116815, the same number a shown on the Staghound photo you posted on MLU.
I have the name from another man who was a crewmember on the same car, Tpr Arnold J. Higgins, D-167018, from Verdun, Quebec.

I have one photo and a still from a video showing F116815 after it has been knocked out, see attached photo’s 116815-C131.
The missing wheels have nothing to do with battle damage but were removed by the regiment because there was a shortage of 14.00x20 tires.

The second Staghound in 13th Troop, also called “Sergeants Car” was involved in an incident that happened immediately after the Lt’s Car was knocked out.
This incident was widely covered by Canadian newspapers.
You can read about this in the war diary pages 1667 and 1668.
13th Troop was one of the 20 so called “fighting troops” in the XII Manitoba Dragoons who did the actual reconnaissance work, a quite specialized and dangerous task as the troop was on its own and there was no back-up.

By the way: August 30 was a very bad day for the Dragoons as also the other squadrons lost armored cars and at least 6 men were killed that day.

If you would like to read about the XIIMD, I can recommend the book from Bruce Tascona, ISBN 1-55056-006-9.
It is out of print a long time but there is one on eBay right now.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/XII-Manitoba...item541a4b37e7

I can also recommend to contact the museum in Brandon.
There is a story about my Stag’s restoration also.
http://www.12mbdragoons.com/