Monument to the 1st Canadian Armoured Carrier Regiment

A memorial to a unique unit of the Canadian army will be unveiled in the Netherlands this month:

[. . .] the regiment with the motto Armatos Fundit ("Protecting Soldiers") sprang from an idea — the idea of Canadian general Guy Simmonds, who desperately needed a way to protect soldiers. For as part of British Gen. Montgomery's plan for the battle of Normandy, the Canadian infantry was tied up for weeks in meat-grinder battles on the left flank of the allied armies against powerful German armoured forces under Field Marshal Rommel.

Eventually, Rommel was wounded and fate took a hand. Hitler ordered a bold western thrust against the allies, aimed at Avranches, through a gap between Caen and Falaise. If the Allies could cut off this pocket jammed with SS panzergrenadiers, 400 Tiger and Panther tanks and hundreds of 88-millimetre cannons, the battle for France would be won.

Simmonds needed a way to move his infantry at high speed at night across rough terrain right through the heart of the Germans to seal the mouth of the bag behind them. It would be the kind of stunt invented by the Germans themselves — by such men as Rommel and Guderian. It was called blitzkrieg — "lightning war."

Simmonds found 76 "Priests" — American self-propelled artillery pieces that were being replaced by a new type of Canadian-made piece. Priests were like a tank but were open at the top and didn't have a turret. Simmonds had the guns taken out and extra armoured plate were welded across the gaps.

The "defrocked priests" thus became the first serious armoured personnel carriers. They could carry 20 men and their battle kit at 26 miles an hour with a thick wall of steel around them and a heavy machine gun to protect them.

The operation was a success. Allied fighters blasted the trapped German armour with rockets and all the firepower was brought to bear on them. The rout was complete. It was only a dispute between British and American generals about how to proceed that allowed many of the Germans to escape towards Paris. But it was the beginning of the end for the Germans.

Hat tip to SOMNIA.