Tanks of Canada

This article on military tanks deals with the history and development of Canadian tanks: their origin during World War I; the interwar period; World War II; the Cold War; and the modern era (click here to read the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps page).

Canada originally formed the Canadian Cavalry Corps in 1910, however, Canada's first tank units were not raised until late in 1918. Initially these units were considered to be part of the Machine Gun Corps and the 1st Canadian Tank Battalion, 2nd Canadian Tank Battalion and the 3e Bataillon de chars d'assaut were all too late to join the fighting in the First World War. However, the 1st Canadian Tank Battalion was still training in Mark V tanks in the U.K. when the Canadian Tank Corps was finally authorized two days after the armistice. It seems like tanks were forgotten by the Cavalry after the war. Although, in the 1930s there were some small attempts at mechanization with motorcycles, experimental armoured cars and the purchase of a few tracked Carden-Loyd machine gun carriers for training. The first tanks since the First World War did not arrive until a few machine gun armed Vickers Mark VI light tanks appeared the year before Canada went to war with Germany again. From these modest beginnings the modern Canadian Armoured Corps began on 13 August 1940. Initially the Canadian Armoured forces brokered a deal to obtain scrap iron on behalf of the Canadian Government because isolationist laws prohibited the U.S. from foreign arm sales. At the time there were no tanks available to be acquired from Britain so the Canadians were desperate to get some. Therefore, 219 US M1917 tanks – a First World War design were obtained at scrap prices. They were sufficient to begin some tank training and familiarisation, but otherwise they were of very limited combat use. Events of the Second World War would thrust Canada into large scale tank production with thousands of Valentine, Ram, and Grizzly tanks and their armoured variants being produced. Canada would also go on to build modern armoured fighting vehicles that served during the Cold War, the War in Afghanistan and global peacekeeping operations.

After the fall of France, it was decided the nascent Canadian armoured divisions would be equipped by tanks produced in Canada. To form the 1st Army Tank Brigade, Valentine tanks were ordered. This British design was to be built in Canada. Aside from the necessary adjustments to the design to incorporate local engineering standards and available components, the Canadian Valentines used a GMC engine. This engine, being an improvement over the original, was later applied to British production. Even before the loss of the majority of the United Kingdom's tank force in France in 1940 after Dunkirk, it was recognised that tank production in the UK at the start of the war was insufficient and capacity in the US was taken for British needs. So it was necessary that if Canada was to equip with tanks they would have to be manufactured locally. In June 1940 the Canadian Pacific Railway's Angus Shops in Montreal, as the only large firm with spare capacity, had received a contract to produce 300 partially fitted out Valentine tanks for the British; this was followed later with one for 488 complete tanks for Canada. However the Valentine was an infantry tank and Canada required a cruiser tank for its recently formed armoured division. In the end 1,940 Valentines were produced by CPR most of which were supplied to the USSR. Although the Valentine used a number of American produced parts, its reliance on British components, difficulties in adapting its manufacture to North American methods, and other problems such as limitations to the availability of the right type of armour plate affected Valentine production. In practice, Canada never used most of the 1,400 Valentines they built as they were supplied under lend-lease to the Soviet Union.

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Wikipedia