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When Canada entered World War IIin 1939 it did not have any form of tankunit, and the first Canadian tank trainingand familiarization units had to beequipped with old World War I tanksfrom American sources. However, itwas not long before the Canadian railwayindustry was asked by the UK if itcould manufacture and supply Valentineinfantry tanks, and this proved tobe a major task for the Canadians whohad to virtually build up a tank manufacturingcapability from scratch. Butthe Valentines were 'Infantry' tanksand the new Canadian tank unitswould need 'Cruisers' for armouredcombat. At that time there was littleprospect of obtaining tanks from theUnited Kingdom and the United Stateswas not involved in the war, so the onlything to do was design and build tanksin Canada.But what tank? Again, at the time itseemed opportune to build the AmericanM3 (then entering production for aBritish order) but this design, laterknown as the Grant/Lee, had the drawbackof a sponson-mounted mam gunat a time when it was appreciated thata turret-mounted gun was much moreefficient, Thus the Canadians decidedto adopt the main mechanical, hull andtransmission components of the M3,but ally them to a new turret mountinga 75-mm (2,95-in) main gun. But therewas no prospect of a 75-mm (2.95-in)gun at the time, so the readilyavailable(40-mm/1.58-in) weapon waschosen for initial installations, with thechance of fitting a larger gun later. Thisturned out to be the 6-pdr (57-mm/2.244-in) gun,Building such a tank from scratchwas a major achievement for Canadianindustry, and the prototype was rolledout from the Montreal LocomotiveWorks in late June 1941. It was christenedthe Cruiser Tank Ram Mk I, andturned out to be a remarkably workmanlikedesign making much use ofcast armour; the drive train and suspensiondemonstrated its M3 origins, Itwas not long before the initial 2-pdrgun was replaced by a 6-pdr in theRam Mk II, and production proper gotunder way by the end of 1941. Thesecondary armament was one co-axialand one hull-mounted 7.62-mm (0.3-in)machine-gun. Almost as soon as productioncommenced numerous designmodifications were progressively introducedbut none of these changeswere fundamental as the Ram was abasically sound tank. Armour thicknessranged from 25 mm ( 1 in) to 89 mm(3.5 in).All the output went to the new Canadianarmoured regiments and many ofthese regiments, as they were formed,were sent to the United Kingdom. Butthe Ram was never to see action as agun tank, By mid-1943 large numbersof M4 Shermans were pouring offAmerican production lines and as thistank already had a 75-mm (2.95-in) gunit was decided to standardize on theM4 for all Canadian units, Thus theRams were used for training only. Asthey were withdrawn many had theirturrets removed to produce the RamKangaroo, which was a simple yetefficient armoured personnel carrierwidely used in the post-June 1944 campaigns.Some Rams had their guns removedand were used as artilleryobservation posts (Ram Command/OPTank), while others were more extensivelymodified to become armouredrecovery vehicles, Some were usedfor various experimental and trial purposes,such as the mounting of a 94-mm(3,7-in) anti-aircraft gun on top of thehull.But the Ram's greatest contributionto the conflict was the adaptation of thebasic Ram hull to take a 25-pdr artillerypiece. The gun was placed in a simpleopen superstructure on top of the hull,and in this form the Ram became theSexton. A total of 2,150 was producedfor the Allied armies so the Ram productionline made a definite contributionto the Allied victory.SpecificationRamMkllCrew: 5Weight: 29484 kg (65,000 lb)Powerplant: one Continental R-975radial petrol engine developing298 kW (400 bhp)Dimensions: length 5.79 m (19 ft 0 in);width 2.895 m (9 ft 6 in); height 2.667 m(8 ft 9 in)Performance: maximum speed40,2 km/h (25 mph); range 232 km (144miles); vertical obstacle 0,61 m (2 ft);trench 2.26 m (7 ft 5 in)Canada had no armouredforces in 1939 but decidedto build her own tank toequip the expandingCanadian army. The Ramtank utilized the chassis ofthe American M3, butmounted its mainarmament in the turretrather than in a sponson as on the original US vehicle.
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