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Shelldrake: Canadian Artillery Museums and Gun Monuments
Shelldrake: Canadian Artillery Museums and Gun Monuments
Shelldrake: Canadian Artillery Museums and Gun Monuments
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Shelldrake: Canadian Artillery Museums and Gun Monuments

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Shelldrake is an informative and detailed synopsis of the carefully preserved and restored guns and artillery on display in Canada. The Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery is represented by a long and distinguished line of gunners with historical ties back to the days before Canadas Confederation. The honour of defending Canada while standing ready to support operations overseas in peace and war continues to this day. In doing so, it is necessary to remember that the weapons of war are an integral part of what keeps this nation safe, although the examples that have been used to make it so are few and far between. The descriptions of Canadian artillery and the places of honour where they can be viewed highlights the importance of the equipment that brought our nation forward at key turning points in history when our guns were in use as tools of war at home and overseas. This guide book will show the interested reader where to find examples of the historical guns preserved in Canada, and perhaps serve as a window on how Canadas military contribution to security in the world has evolved.

LanguageEnglish
PublisheriUniverse
Release dateFeb 22, 2012
ISBN9781469750019
Shelldrake: Canadian Artillery Museums and Gun Monuments
Author

Harold A. Skaarup

Major Hal Skaarup has served with the Canadian Forces for more than 40 years, starting with the 56th Field Squadron, RCE and completing his service as the G2 (Intelligence Officer) at CFB Gagetown, New Brunswick in August 2011. He was a member of the Canadian Airborne Regiment, served three tours with the Skyhawks Parachute Demonstration Team, and worked in the Airborne Trials and Evaluation section. He served as an Intelligence Officer overseas in Germany and Colorado, and has been on operational deployments to Cyprus, Bosnia, and Afghanistan. He has been an instructor at the Tactics School at the Combat Training Centre in Gagetown and at the Intelligence Training Schools in Borden and Kingston. He earned a Master's degree in War Studies through the Royal Military College, and has authored a number of books on military history.

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    Shelldrake - Harold A. Skaarup

    Shelldrake

    Canadian Artillery Museums & Gun Monuments

    Harold A. Skaarup

    Ubique

    iUniverse, Inc.

    Bloomington

    Shelldrake

    Canadian Artillery Museums and Gun Monuments

    Copyright © 2012 by Harold A. Skaarup

    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

    Many significant elements of the use of artillery in Canadian military history have not yet been told. The information that is found within this collection of technical data, historical reports and military photos may not be complete or fully accurate. The story will continue to unfold as additional research turns up the missing data.

    iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

    iUniverse

    1663 Liberty Drive

    Bloomington, IN 47403

    www.iuniverse.com

    1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

    Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

    Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

    Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

    ISBN: 978-1-4697-5000-2 (sc)

    ISBN: 978-1-4697-5001-9 (e)

    iUniverse rev. date: 2/15/2012

    Table of Contents

    Dedications

    Epigraph

    Foreword

    Preface

    Acknowledgements

    Introduction

    Chapter I Canadian Field Artillery Museums and Gun Monuments

    Chapter II Pre-Confederation Artillery in Canada

    Chapter III The Guns of Canada’s Citadels and Fortresses

    Chapter IV Canadian Artillery, Post 1867 Confederation

    Chapter V Canadian Artillery in the Great War

    Chapter VI Great War Trophy Guns brought to Canada in 1920

    Chapter VII Canada’s Gunners in the Second World War 1939-1945

    Chapter VIII Canada’s Coast Defences

    Chapter IX War Prize Guns and Equipment brought to Canada in 1945

    Chapter X Canadian Artillery after the Second World War

    Chapter XI Foreign Guns and War Trophies on display in Canada

    Chapter XII Artillery Terminology

    Chapter XIII The Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery

    Chapter XIV Project HARP

    List of Abbreviations

    Afterword

    Bibliography

    About the Author

    Endnote

    Cover Photo: Ordnance QF 25-pounder Gun with limber, 2 Royal Canadian Horse Artillery Headquarters, CFB Petawawa, Ontario, (Author Photo).

    Dedications

    For both of my grandfathers, Unteroffizier Frederick Christensen Skaarup and Sergeant Walter Ray Estabrooks, two gunners who fought on opposite sides of the line during the Great War, and for all those members of the Armed Forces of Canada whose primary task at home and abroad has been and is to keep us safe.

    1.%20Cap%20badge%20worn%20by%20Canadian%20Gunners%20during%20the%20Great%20War%2c%20HAS%20Photo.tif

    * Photo. Artillery Cap badge worn by Canadian Gunners during the Great War.

    (Author Photo)

    During my service as a soldier and officer in the Canadian Forces, I was taught to use the combat arms radio call sign Shelldrake whenever the message traffic being relayed referred to artillery. The armour elements were Ironsides, hence the titles of the companion volumes to this series, and for the interested reader, Acorn was my call sign as the Brigade Intelligence Officer.

    Epigraph

    As a soldier in the Canadian Army with service overseas in Cyprus, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Afghanistan, I came to appreciate that no matter which side you are on, the weather and terrain tend to be the same, only the enemy is different. Political decisions, attitudes and current events affected those soldiers who came before us in much the same way as they do now, and often in many strange ways.

    There are always two sides to a story, but because my grandfather Frederick C. Skaarup died before I knew him, I did not hear the stories from the other side. He was living in the German occupied area of southern Denmark when the Great War came and he was called up for active duty. Having been conscripted into the German Army in 1910, he served two years compulsory service as a gunner and bandsman (trumpeter), and then went into the reserve mobilization force. He was recalled on mobilization, and therefore fought in the Great War in France and Belgium from day one in 1914 through to its conclusion on 11 November 1918. In 1926, he immigrated to Canada with his family and settled in the farming community of New Denmark in the North West section of New Brunswick, not far from the Saint John River.

    My grandfather Walter R. Estabrooks, from Carleton County, New Brunswick, was a Canadian gunner who also served in the Great War. Unlike many of his comrades, he survived and came home to establish his family near Hartland on the Saint John River. As a boy chopping wood and haying with a team of horses on his farm during the summers we came home to visit from the RCAF Stations where my father served, I had lots of opportunities to hear about his experiences during the war. My Skaarup grandparents died before I got to know them, so I asked a lot of questions and was rewarded with many interesting stories.

    I was curious as to whether or not my two grandparents had fought in the same area, or perhaps been in the position where they might have been firing on each other during the war. Because of our family tradition in the field of music, Grandfather Estabrooks was able to tell me this incredible story about how he knew they had been in the same place at the same time on a battlefield in France.

    I met your grandfather Skaarup about 1937 or 1938. The next winter Mrs. (Anne) Skaarup came down and I exchanged words with them quite often while threshing. There were no combines then. We often listened to him playing the trumpet on the veranda in the evenings. We discussed the war many times. While serving on the guns in France on 5 February 1918, I had charge of a team getting some lumber salvaged from an old blown up school. We heard a German band playing the boys rotating out of the line to go on leave in Lens just across no-man’s land from Liévin where we were. We checked the dates and your grandfather said that he may have been playing in that band.

    I have seen troops coming out of the line tired and dirty after a big push, and make their first halt for a little rest. Sometimes a band would be waiting for them. Marching when not weary and with a good band will give some folks a tremendous thrill. But can you imagine a depleted unit coming out of the line from a hard position, tired, dirty, muddy and lousy, stumbling along just after dark, a few minutes’ halt just out of maximum gun range? Orders are given, Fall in. Quick March. Imagine that a band has been waiting for them and what it would feel like as it begins playing The British Grenadiers. The men would hunch their equipment up higher on their backs and their shoulders would straighten up. They would all have fallen in line four abreast without an order. No need for left-right. The muddy boots would seem to lighten up, and darned if the feet don’t seem to get the beat of the music. They are old hands, and would soon be disappearing into the night.

    And about those Whiz-bangs, a Whiz-Bang was an artillery shell fired by the Germans. It traveled with great speed, and was fired by a fast action gun. There was not much time to duck as one just heard Whiz. Bang! A Woolly Bear was another type of shell that was used for demolition, and when it burst on impact, it made a big hole and left a tremendous cloud of black smoke. They were slower than a Whiz-Bang and could be ducked by a man with a sixth sense.¹

    This guidebook is intended to honour our military heritage, because it needs to be remembered and preserved for all of those who have served or continue to serve in the Canadian Forces on our behalf.

    Foreword

    The history of those who have served Canada as soldiers, both in peace and war, predates Confederation. One of Canada’s oldest and amongst the most distinguished regimental families is that of the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery, whose gunners and their guns have been present and active whenever needed. Over the many years since Canadian gunners fired their first shot in defence of the nation, hundreds of thousands of eager and motivated young men and women have served with pride and enthusiasm while wearing the distinctive Royal Canadian Artillery hat badge. To the members of the larger artillery community the gun is the centrepiece of a long and rich cultural tradition bearing the Royal cypher, acting much like the regimental colors of the infantry regiments as the centre piece of pride and devotion. Gunners have been expected - and have - to fight to the death to protect their guns, and when on formal parade treat them with veneration and an intense degree of symbolism that is not readily understood by those who are not members of the artillery family. When guns become old they do not always fade away. In hundreds of cases they are carefully mounted and preserved as displays and memorial symbols, a tangible link to the thousands who fought our wars and paid the ultimate price. This guidebook is an informative and detailed synopsis of some of the carefully preserved and restored field artillery guns currently on display in Canada.

    Major Hal Skaarup’s book is reflective of the passion that gunners have for their guns, and his descriptions of the Canadian guns and the places of honour where they can be viewed will highlight for the interested reader that military planners have had to be continuously creative in adapting to the changes necessitated by contemporary warfare, no matter what the era. Examples include guns that predate Confederation to those that saw action as recently as Afghanistan. It is important to recognise and remember the importance of the people and equipment that defended our nation forward and were present at all of the key turning points in history. This guidebook shows where to find examples of the guns that served, and are preserved, in Canada, and may serve as a window into our past while reminding us that there is a price to pay to preserve our society and values, and gunners and their guns have always done their duty.

    Lieutenant-General (Ret’d) Andrew Leslie, CMM, MSC, MSM, CD.

    Preface

    Military equipment has played a constant role throughout my 40 years of service with the Canadian Forces. My father served in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) for many years, retiring as a Warrant Officer in 1974 and moving back to his farm near Lakeville, New Brunswick . As a dependent member of his family, we lived at a number of bases and stations including overseas at 3 Fighter Wing, Zweibrücken, Germany from 1959 to 1963, and on at home in Canada at Borden, Trenton, North Bay, Gypsumville, Gander and Chatham during his service. As both a dependent back then, and in my current service as an Army Intelligence Officer, I have had the chance to see NATO firepower when its list of combat ready fighting equipment numbered in the thousands. Today, to have hundreds of pieces of Canadian heavy combat equipment available at any given time would be unusual, with the exception, perhaps, of our forces serving in Afghanistan.

    During my service in the Canadian Forces as an Army Intelligence Officer (G2), I too had the great good fortune to be posted overseas, twice to Germany. I worked in Lahr with the Headquarters Canadian Forces Europe Intelligence Section from 1981 to 1983, and as the Intelligence Officer with 4 Canadian Mechanised Brigade Group, 1st Canadian Division Forward from 1989 to 1992. While serving with 4 CMBG, our NATO colleagues from US bases at Hohenfels and Grafenwohr in Southwestern Germany provided our Intelligence Section with a large number of Soviet-made guns, tanks and armoured fighting vehicles (AFV), as well as a variety of small arms which were used to familiarize our soldiers with foreign weapons and equipment.

    The Russian equipment we handled included 122-mm D30 Field Guns, 152-mm Howitzers, T-55 and T-62 tanks, a T-80 tank mock-up and BRDM-2, BTR-60, BTR-152 APC, BMP-1 and BMP-2 Armoured Fighting Vehicles. On exercises we (Blue Force) fought against a mock enemy (Red Force) (sometimes called Fantasians) from other nations, and would often engage in long-running operations with our NATO allies. We moved every night and hid by day in our M577 Command Post Vehicles, and using duplicate sets of HQ vehicles we leapfrogged each other from hide to hide and laager to laager. The exercise participants often covered hundreds of kilometres as the exercise unfolded while ranging from the south-eastern area of Germany near Regensburg on up to the Rhine and Mosel Rivers near Koblenz and beyond.

    I remember the Berlin Wall going up as a child in theatre in August 1961, and the tension in homes of the Canadian families during the critical years of the Cold War. My family and I were in living in Lahr (1989 to 1992) when things changed again as the Berlin Wall fell in October 1989. With this change, most of us realized the brigade’s future in Europe was soon to end. It was not long afterwards that the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina soon took everyone’s attention, and soldiers from 4 CMBG moved south to take part in sorting out the conflict in the Balkans. Even with the ongoing conflict in Europe, the brigade was withdrawn and the bases in southern Germany closed in 1993. Division and Brigade-sized elements of the CF began to diminish as Canadians began to seek a Peace Dividend and when the 11 September 2001 attacks took place, soldiers everywhere knew that a military price would have to be paid. It was not long before we were on our way to Afghanistan, and casualties began to roll in. I was serving with NORAD in Colorado when the terrorists struck. Not long after my return to Canada, I received orders to be sent back for a second tour in Bosnia.

    My orders were changed, however, and in January 2004, I found myself in Kabul serving with the highly dedicated and professional soldiers of 5e GBMC as part of the Kabul Multi-National Brigade. A week later, a suicide bomber killed a young Newfoundlander named Murphy and wounded several more Canadians. Within a few hours, a second suicide bomber had killed and wounded British Gurkas and many others not far from the front gate to our camp. We still had to travel those same roads every day, and the drivers taking us to and from the various camps and headquarters located many kilometres apart through crowded Afgan streets drove us with a very wary and watchful eye. My deputy, a sharp-minded Intelligence Officer named Melissa sat behind me with her pistol in her lap keeping a watchful eye at those staring into the windows of our vehicle on each of our daily trips to the HQ.

    The peculiar state of risk and circumspect calm of our daily routine in interesting circumstances made me think of some of the conversations I and my colleagues had had with veterans of the Normandy Campaign during a battlefield tour of Normandy with the Canadian Land Forces Command and Staff College (CLFCSC) in May 1989. Our group had the privilege of being escorted and briefed by battlefield experienced officers including Brigadier-General S.D. Radley-Walters, CMM, DSO, MC, CD. Listening to him describe the battles he took part in while standing on the ground in the bare farmer’s fields where the action took place in the summer of 1944 was a fascinating experience. The stories have been told that General Rad had been shot out of four tanks and two armoured cars during his earlier visit to Normandy.

    We stayed in Caen, and by day were driven by bus to St. Aubin-sur-Mer and the Normandy beaches with a group of Canadian and German veterans. Our group hosted German Second World War combat veteran Colonel Helmut Ritgen of the Panzer Lehr Division, and his perspective on the actions that took place on the ground we were standing on was sobering to say the least. There are always two sides to a battlefield story, and it is rare now to have an opportunity to speak with people who were actually there when things recorded later took place. Suffice it to say, there is a lot that isn’t in the history books from the participants perspective. We visited Bernières-sur-Mer and Courseulles-sur-Mer, both invasion beach landing sites, as well as Creully, Putot-en-Bessin, Buron, and Villons les Buissons. (We were also provided with a French Army box lunch, which included a bottle of red wine). You will hear these battlefield sites mentioned on occasion by a number of Canadian gunners who took part in the combat operations that made use of many of the guns mentioned in this guidebook.

    The Canadian and German veterans described their experiences at Marcelet, Carpiquet, Caen and a number of other battlefield sites, with lectures and briefings on site at Hill 112, St. André, Troteval Farm, Bourgebus, Tilly and the area covered during Operation Totalize. (On the evening of 8 August 1944, 720 guns of all kinds supported the launch of Operation Totalize, firing a tremendouse bombardment straddling the Caen-Falaise highway, ploughing a swath four thousand yards wide and six thousand yards deep. Every two minutes the guns lifted two hundred yards…some 312 guns, including the heavies, fired a 20-minute intense bombardment onknown hostile batteries).²

    The tour ended with a visit to one of the Canadian cemeteries some of which had a large number of unknown Canadian soldiers. Our visit ended with a Hercules flight from Carpiquet Airport, the site of a major battle involving Canadians early after the D-Day landings. If you have not had the opportunity to do so, please visit these sites for yourself. It is a moving experience to walk the battlefields of Normandy where our soldiers fought – and where many are buried - for what we have today.

    Throughout our military training at home and abroad and during preparations for operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Afghanistan, we had to become familiar with how effective our own equipment was and what we were likely come up against in engagements with opposition forces. Seeing the damage that could be and often was inflicted by the wide variety of artillery weapons we had to confront brought home the very real need to ensure our troops were well-trained and familiar with equipment recognition, both friend and foe. As such, we taught courses that trained men and women in how to recognize the difference in gun bore evacuator placement, road wheel spacing on tracked self-propelled guns, camouflage patterns, and signature weapons and equipment for unit recognition.

    It would seem that the value of artillery is such that once the guns have served their purpose and outlived their useful serviceablity; many have been disposed of as scrap. Only a few have been set aside for preservation in Museums or for display outdoors as gate guards or as memorials. Even fewer War Trophies from the Great War and the Second World War have been kept for display, although Canadians have recently begun to take an interest in salvaging some of them. The reader will find information here on a number of German, Japanese, Italian and former Warsaw Pact equipment that has been preserved.

    This handbook is one attempt to identify historical artillery that survives in Canada and to list the guns and equipment in a catalogue format that will enable the serious researcher and gunnery enthusiasts to find them and learn something about their history. The list includes Field Artillery, Self-Propelled (SP) and Anti-Aircraft (AA) Guns in Canada that have been or are currently being salvaged and preserved, particularly where they are of significant historical interest.

    There are unfortunate numbers of Canadian-related combat equipment that have seen service on the battlefields of Europe where no examples exist. A good number brought back to Canada, including captured war prizes from the Great War were melted down or turned into scrap for war production in the Second World War, or sold off to private collectors to support a Museum that had the kit but couldn’t afford to keep it maintained. Many others in more recent years have been lost to scrap yards, buried, or sold to people in other countries. On the up side, there is a wonderful collection of individual historic artillery survivors in Canada that can still be found and viewed in museum collections, and some are on display as gate guards, monuments and memorials.

    The purpose of this handbook is to provide a simple checklist of where the surviving Field Guns of all ages and eras in Canada are now, and to provide a photograph of each of the major types mentioned for recognition purposes. This list is also appended with a brief summary of the guns presently on display within each province by location, and where applicable a bit of the weapon’s history during its use the Canadian military. Due to space limitations, the details contained in this handbook are limited to a selection of only those pieces of artillery that can be found in or have a connection with Canada. The story of the gun worldwide is vast and beyond the confines of just one book.

    If you are interested in other books on military equipment like this one, they are available through the author’s website at www.SilverHawkAuthor.com and with online bookstores. It is my sincere hope that the list of Canada’s preserved and historically significant artillery and artefacts will continue to grow as more of them are recovered and restored. It is my hope that you find this handbook useful.

    Major (Ret’d) Harold A. Skaarup

    Fredericton, New Brunswick

    Acknowledgements

    I would like to acknowledge and thank the staff and volunteers of the Canadian Military Museums Association. Their patience and assistance in helping to ensure that the data that has gone into the compilation of this handbook is as complete as it can be to the time of printing has been invaluable. Each and every visitor to your Museums and displays owes you that same appreciation, and to all of you, thank you for preserving our military heritage.

    The support provided by Canada’s Veteran Gunners was outstanding including he generous input of Brigadier-General (Ret’d) Ernest B. Beno, outgoing Colonel Commandant of the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery based in Kingston, Ontario; the staff at The Directorate of Heritage and History; and to Major (Ret’d) Marc George and Clive Prothero-Brooks with the Royal Canadian Artillery Museum, CFB Shilo for historical data and photos of their museum’s equipment.

    Regimental Colonel Peter Williams and Major Robert Hart at CFB Shilo provided input into the research, along with many other gunners including LCol David C. Nauss, G1 Pers HQ LFAA, Halifax; Capt Steve J. Kuevers, Battery Captain, 61 Field Battery, 20th Field Artillery Regiment; LCol Sylvain Gagné; Capt James Hornell, Range Control Officer, CFB Suffield, Alberta; Chief Warrant Officer Normand Roberge, Unit Museum Officer, 30th Field Artillery Regiment, Ottawa; Richard E. Ayoub, Montreal; Maxwell J. Toms; Terry Honour; Wayne Yetman DMSS 6-2-2, LCMM for MVI, Midas, LMDE, Weapons Status Panel, Weapons Veto Panel, OPI Disposals; Cameron Martel; Major Tim J. Isberg, DCO LFWA HQ, Edmonton; LCol John R. Woodgate, 36 CBG HQ, Halifax; LCol William Smy, Lincoln and Welland Regiment; Col Dany Fortin, Army G3, CFB Kingston; Sgt Robin B. Marlow, Recruiter, 1 Field Regiment, Halifax; Sgt Donald Phillips, Electronic Optronic Instructor, Maintenance Training Battery, The Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery School, Combat Training Centre, CFB Gagetown.

    Captain James C. Simmonds, DRDC Valcartier; Capt David Vandevenne, 51 Field Regiment, 31 CBG HQ, London; WO James A. Williams, Ops WO, 11th Field Regiment; Capt Scott Dawson, Instructor-in-Gunnery, Adjutant 20th Independent Field Battery, Lethbridge; CWO Chadley Wagar, RSM 5e Régiment d’artillerie légère du Canada; Sgt Rhéaume Philippe, 6 RAC, Montmagny, Warrant Officer Éric Néron

    6e Régiment d’artillerie de campagne; CWO Michel Paprocki, 5 RALC; LCol Robert Beaudry, RCA; Sgt Scott Jenereux, 56th Field Regiment, Simcoe; Bdr Stephen MacPherson, 18th AD Regt, Lethbridge; Jason Ginn and Doug Knight with the Canadian War Museum provided a detailed update on the CWM’s gun collection in Ottawa. Juliette Bulmer with the Fort Beauséjour-Fort Cumberland Parks Canada service provided a great deal of research support and answered numerous questions on the guns preserved with Parks Canada.

    Gary Melville with the Army Museum in Halifax provided support in the form of photographs, research material and contacts with Parks Canada. Sgt Daniel C. Rogers, Dress and Ceremonial Assistant with Directorate history and Heritage, Ottawa, gave excellent reference advice and the correct Canadian identification of theatres of operations according to Canadian Military Historians. Col (Ret’d) Larry Wong, Secretary of the North Saskatchewan Regimental Association provided excellent details on their Great War artefacts. Kevin MacLean, Museum Collections Technician, Galt Museum & Archives, Alberta investigated and conducted research on the guns in Lethbridge. Robert H. Spring provided data on Japanese guns on the west coast. LCol (Ret’d) John Davidson provided technical details on the Honest John Rocket and M114 155-mm Howitzer.

    LCol Mike Sullivan and Capt Paul Hillier with the Royal Canadian School of Artillery, LCol W.R. Foster, Maj B.D. Corbett and Capt A.J. Pitre from the Armour School, and LCol M.A. Lipcsey with the Tactics School at the Combat Training Centre, CFB Gagetown, Sgt R.F. Elward, CFSEME Weapons School, CFB Borden, and O.S. Clarkson with the CFB Borden Military Museum were extremely helpful in tracking down answers to equipment locations and their status. MCpl J.R.K. Laforet, CFB Petawawa Military Museums was a fine source of information on the guns at Petawawa.

    Rick Shaver, Chairman, Canadian Military History Museum, Brantford, Ontario provided background data and serial numbers on the guns in their museum’s collection. Scott Gillies, Curator & Manager, Eva Brook Donely Museum and Archives, Simcoe, Ontario, investigated and reported locations of historic guns. Brenda Hicock, Cecilia Nin Hernandez, Dan Zelynwj, Angela Palermo, and Lauren Archers with the City of Vaughan Recreational and Cultural Department, Cultural Services Division, generously provided research material and photographs of the Great War Guns at Woodbridge, Ontario. Arlene Royea, Managing Director, Brome County Historical Society, Knowlton, Québec, provided data on the Great War Guns in their museum.

    LCol Chris Hand highlighted the history and significance of Fort Beauséjour at Aulac, New Brunswick by walking groups of officers and men from CFB Gagetown through the battlefield on numerous tours. I believe he helped to pique the interest of a new generation of Canadian soldiers on our military history and how it concerns all of us to this day. Nelson Sherren of St. John’s, Newfoundland provided first hand observations and information on the historic guns of Newfoundland and Labrador. His niece Joyce Sherren kindly provided photos of the guns at Catalina.

    Dale Murray, Director (volunteer) of the 5 (BC) Regt RCA Museum provided valuable information on the locations of guns in British Columbia. Tom Tomaso, Harry Rice and Bob Chamberlain, past President of the Kingston Gunners Association reviewed the list of guns for Kingston. George Oehring and Randy Stowell assisted with investigation into the location of guns brought back from Lahr, Germany.

    The members of the New Brunswick Military History Museum, including Marcel Richard and Jason Meade with the original CFB Gagetown/New Brunswick Military Museum and the Friends of the Museum and Captain Kevin Anderson with 3 Area Support Group at CFB Gagetown provided extensive support for the background research found in this volume. Angela Noseworthy with the Admiralty House Museum, Mount Pearl, Newfoundland provided photos of brass guns in their collection.

    Rory M. Cory, Senior Curator and Director of Collections for the Military Museums in Calgary, Alberta provided a wonderful list of contacts and information. Al Judson with the King’s Own Calgary Regiment was a great help with contacts in the AFV collections world. MWO Brian Speck, LFWA HQ researched and checked the serial numbers of war trophy guns in Edmonton.

    Author Clive Law was generous with his offer of photos and reference notes from his historical AFV series of books (www.servicepub.com). Roxanne den Hollander and MWO K.C. Krone with CFB Wainwright provided valuable information and photos of their outdoor equipment displays. Ken Lee provided photos and data for the equipment on display with the Ontario Regiment Museum.

    Rosemary Vyvyan and Karin Taylor, Curator with the Huronia Historical Parks provided historical details and photos of the earliest gun in Canada, the Penetang Gun of 1630. Daniel Robert Director of the Musée du 12e Régiment blindé du Canada also provided photographs and assistance. Jon Barss, Interpretation Officer, Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse National Historic Sites of Canada provided an update on all guns on display at Fort Rodd Hill. Cheryl Young provided serial numbers for the guns in the town of Carman, Manitoba.

    Professors Lee Windsor, David Charters, Marc Milner and Brent Wilson with the Brigadier Milton F. Gregg, VC, Centre for the Study of War & Society, at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton have been a great source of inspiration and support. Francesca Holyoak with the Archives Desk at the Harriet Irving Library was very helpful in tracking down the whereabouts of artifacts alloted to UNB.

    I would also like to thank the radio Canada staff, Levon Sevunts, Carmel Kilkenny and Marc Montgomery for taking the time to interview me for the project thereby helping a much wider audience to be aware of our military history.

    My colleagues and instructors at 3 Area Support Group and the Combat Training Centre Tactics School, Infantry School, Armour School, Royal Canadian School of Artillery and the Canadian Forces School of Military Engineering, CFB Gagetown, New Brunswick are some of the most dedicated professional soldiers in the Canadian Forces and it has been a great privilege to have served with them.

    For all who gave their support, time, assistance and expertise on the artillery and equipment listed here, your patience and assistance has been invaluable. Again, I would like to extend my thanks to each and every one of you. Acorn sends.

    Introduction

    I would imagine that many of you who are reading this book are very likely familiar with the standard routine of military training exercises and the rigours of being in the field in all seasons, not to mention the conditions found on deployment these days. Whether or not you have experienced it, I am sure you can well imagine what it is like to train and work in the heat, the dust and the mosquitoes in summer, the wind, the rain and the mud in the spring and fall, the snow and the cold in the winter and of course the routine day-to-day challenges of combat exercises in the training areas of the Canadian Forces. For most in the Army, this includes CFB Gagetown, CFB Valcartier, CFB Petawawa, CFB Kingston, CFB Shilo, CFB Edmonton, CFB Wainwright, CFB Suffield and all the field and exercise training areas of LFAATC Aldershot and LFCATC Meaford, and their environs.

    As an Army Officer in the Canadian Forces, it has been my privilege to have served alongside a tremendous number of highly professional military men and women of our nation while taking part in training in Germany, the UK and the USA and while on operational deployments to Cyprus, Bosnia-Herzegovina and in Afghanistan. During my training and military professional development, I have learned much about our long military history. My interest in our multi-faceted historical record has led me to write about it and to seek out the stories about Canada’s military servicemen and women and the tools and equipment they used to preserve our security when warclouds darkened our horizons.

    As a military history enthusiast, I have learned over the years that there are many with similar interests in preserving our story. We have all seen the odd old gun or retired tank placed on display outside a Militia Drill Hall, War Memorial, city park site or Royal Canadian Legion Hall, and many will have enjoyed visiting a number of our military Museums. The vast majority of retired wartime combat equipment used by members of the CF have dwindled in number, many being scrapped, others being shot up as targets, while a few have been sold to overseas operators and collectors. Fortunately, a handful of important examples of retired CF guns and war machines have been preserved and may be found in a wide variety of locations throughout Canada.

    Curators, docents and volunteers working in Canada’s military museums have been successful in preserving a good number of retired military weapons of war and many are still being sought after and in some cases, being restored to running condition again. As an artist, photographer and military history enthusiast, I have attempted to keep track of where historic Canadian military equipment has survived and is presently located and to make that information available to others with the same interest. For those of like mind, the purpose of this handbook is to provide a simple checklist of the classic Great War, Second World War and recently retired artillery that is part of our Canadian military heritage and a location guide to where they can be found in Canada. The book includes a number of photographs to illustrate an example of each gun wherever possible, and lists the locations of the survivors by province.

    The number of restored Canadian guns is actually increasing as a few rare examples are being recovered from scrapyards and monument sites and salvaged for restoration. (Ultra rare items such as Skink AA gun turrets come to mind). One of the aims of this book is to help an enthusiast track down these monuments and museum artefacts and to have a simple reference book on hand with more detailed information about them such as a serial number, a Museum location and contact information which might be helpful in learning a bit of the history of a particular gun.

    The handful of guns on display are only small representatives of the numbers the Royal Regiment Canadian Artillery once fielded. As an example, during Operation Plunder which took place in Northwest Europe from 23 to 24 March 1945, II Canadian Corps fielded 4,155 guns which fired in support.³

    As the primary purpose of this book is to serve as a guide on where to find the guns on display in Canada, Chapter I lists their locations and type by town and city from British Columbia on the West Coast To Newfoundland on the Eas Coast A more detailed description of the guns and photographs of them in their present location is included in Chapter II.

    The guns detailed in this handbook are listed alphabetically by manufacturer, number and type in the order that they came into service with the CF. The data includes guns found in the various collections and museums in Canada. The book and is also meant to serve as a companion guidebook Ironsides, Canadian Tanks and Armoured Fighting Vehicle Museums and Monuments.

    Chapter I

    Canadian Field Artillery Museums and Gun Monuments

    British Columbia

    Chilliwack

    M4A2E8 Sherman Medium Tank, 76-mm Gun, Serial No. 69301, built by Fisher, Reg. No. 30129780, Caroline, Chilliwack Memorial Park.

    Fort Rodd Hill National Historic Site of Canada, Colwood

    RML 13-pounder Field Gun on display along the main path through the sites.

    QF 6-pounder Hotchkiss Gun, on display near the site entrance.

    BL 6-inch Gun Mk VI (No. 841) mounted on a display base, Upper Battery.

    BL 6-inch Gun Mk III/IV (No. 302) mounted on a display base under a replica gin triangle (used for mounting and dismounting guns and carriages on and from traversing platforms, Lower Battery.

    QF 6-pounder Twin Gun Mk I on Pedestal Mount Mk I, Belmont Battery.

    QF 6-pounder Hotchkiss Gun Mk I (Serial No. 502) on Garrison Carriage Mk I, Belmont Battery, on display by the 13-pounder.

    QF 6-pounder Hotchkiss Gun barrel (not on display) Mk I.

    QF 12-pounder 12-cwt Gun on Pedestal Mount Mk I, Belmont Battery.

    90-mm M1A1 AA Gun, on display near the parking lot.

    Ordnance QF 40-mm Bofors AA Gun, on display along the main path, near the exit.

    QF 3-pounder sub-calibre Gun (for 6-inch BL Gun Mks VII,

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