Bomb (tank)

Bomb is a Canadian Army Sherman Tank of the 27th Armoured Regiment (The Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment) which landed at D-Day and fought across northwest Europe until the end of World War II, the only Canadian tank that fought without interruption from D-Day to VE Day. Today Bomb is preserved at the William Street Armoury in Sherbrooke, Quebec.

Bomb is preserved in Sherbrooke, Quebec. Pictured here in April 2015.

Origins

Bomb a year after D-Day

Bomb was built at General Motor’s Fisher Tank Arsenal in Flint, Michigan as an M4A2 Sherman Tank, serial number 8007, the 898th vehicle built at the arsenal. It was shipped to England where it was issued with the War Department number T-152656. The tank was assigned to B Squadron of the Sherbrooke Fusiliers as the regiment converted from older training tanks to new Shermans in preparation for the invasion of France as part of the 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade.^[1] The tanks of B Squadron all had names that started with B such as Barbara and Be Good. The name Bomb was inspired by the cap badge of the fusiliers which features a stylized grenade.^[2] The original crew was led by crew commander Sergeant Harold Futter. The driver was Lance-Corporal Rudy Moreault with co-driver Trooper "Red" Fletcher. The gunner was Trooper A.W. Rudolph and Trooper J.W. (Tiny) Hall was the loader.

Battle service

A Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment tank, possibly Bomb, hunting snipers in Falaise, August 1944 with troops of the Fusiliers Mont-Royal

Bomb landed at Juno Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944, with the Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment at Bernières-sur-Mer and was almost immediately involved in fighting at Authie and Buron where the Fusiliers destroyed 41 tanks in their first two days of fighting.^[3] Even more intense tank battles followed in Normandy, as German Panzer and SS units tried to crush the Allied beachhead, while the Allies sought to break out. The tank fought in the actions around Caen, including the costly fighting on Bourguébus Ridge, and the capture and clearing of the city of Falaise.^[4] The tank started with the call sign 22, but in July the Fusilier tank troops were re-organized and Bomb became a troop command tank with the call sign 21 painted on the turret.^[5] Following the Allied breakout, Bomb travelled 4,000 kilometres (2,500 mi) across northwestern Europe, helping to liberate northern France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Sergeant Futter, the crew commander and Trooper Red Fletcher, the driver, were wounded by shell fragments in Normandy in July 1944 and were replaced by Lieutenant Paul Ayriss and Trooper Ken Gerow <name spelling edited by grandaughter>. A month later, Lieutenant J.W. Neill replaced Ayriss as commander of the tank, and was later awarded the Military Cross.^[6] In the Netherlands, Walter White of West Gore, Nova Scotia, took command of the tank and led B Squadron of the Sherbrookes from Bomb. After fighting in the Hochwald Forest in Germany, White led a reconnaissance to the banks of the Rhine River. The Fusiliers improvised an amphibious capacity by sealing all openings on the tanks and wrapping them with compressed air hoses to achieve buoyancy. German units on the others side of the Rhine were taken by surprise when the tanks suddenly appeared behind them. Lieutenant White was injured by shrapnel in his leg a few weeks later during fighting in Deventer.^[7] Lieutenant Ernest Mingo, from Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia, took command of the tank. The regiments and its tanks cleared German army units along the IJsselmeer and through the northern Netherlands and pushed into Germany. The tank fought off fanatical German attacks in the final days of the war, as German frontal attacks left the fields in front of the Fusiliers covered with the bodies of German troops.^[8] Finally, in the border town of Emden, Lieutenant Mingo received news from the tank’s radio, "Unload, clear guns, the war is over." By VE Day, the tank had fired 6000 rounds in battle. It survived two hits from enemy shells and was quickly repaired by its own crew, never missing a day of action.^[9] Bomb was the only Canadian tank to fight without interruption from D-Day to VE Day.^[10] The tank and crew members Rudolph, Moreault and Hall were the subject of a Canadian Army Film and Photo Unit short documentary made in 1945 entitled The Green Fields Beyond (number 2090) in 1945.^[11]

Preservation

Bomb with its crew 8 June 1945 in Zutphen, Netherlands. Standing are the four tank commanders who served with Bomb

Bomb was rescued from a Belgian scrapyard to be shipped to Canada. It was one of four Canadian tanks shipped from service in Northwestern Europe to preservation in Canada, along with Forceful III in Ottawa and Holy Roller in London, Ontario.^[12] The tank was on display at the Champs de Mars Park in Sherbrooke, Quebec, and later moved to the front lawns of the William Street Armoury.^[13] The armoury was the base of the Sherbrooke Regiment, one of the two militia units that had mobilized the 27th Armoured Regiment. After the Sherbrooke Regiment and the 7th/11th Hussars amalgamated in 1964, the tank has been looked after by its successor unit, the Sherbrooke Hussars.

For many years, Ernest Mingo, the tank's last commander, would make an annual visit to Sherbrooke from his home in Nova Scotia to visit Bomb and comrades from the Fusiliers,^[14] while Dutch families, grateful for the tank's role in liberating the Netherlands, sent an annual gift of tulip bulbs to Mingo and Walter White at his home in West Gore, Nova Scotia.^[15] The tank was restored in 2011, receiving plaques to reflect its battle service and a paint scheme that reflected its wartime appearance.^[16]

References