Ram Command /OP

[Roger Lucy]

I want to get through all of DND's copious files on the Ram before tackling the question of what happened to the bulk of DM&S' files. Some are accessible, but these are mainly contract files which can yield some interesting information, but what happened to all of the Army Engineering Design Branch's out-put (and the files cited in the Design Record and in AHQ Report 38 on Tank Production) remains a mystery. A footnote in the AHQ report says "Note: All Department of Munitions and Supply Files are in deep storage in the basement of the New Supreme Court Building" -that was 60 years ago. After the Design Record was drawn up, and the AEDB disbanded, the bulk of its project files were reportedly entrusted to DND for future reference, in case it became necessary to ramp-up defence production again. One fears that after mouldering there a while, they may have been scattered or ended up in some dumpster.

The pilot Ram OP was assembled in the fall of 1942, and having served its purpose, converted back into a gun tank in May 1943. After toying with converting the Ram Is in the UK into OP tanks, using kits sent over from Canada, 84 new production OP tanks were ordered. Their production after delays caused by non-delivery of the engines from the USA, began in August 1943 with the last OP tanks delivered by mid-October. In addition there had been plans to produce 33 Grizzly OPs but these were cancelled when Grizzly production was halted in January, 1944. Instead an additional 24 Ram IIs converted to OP tanks in the UK by the Canadian Base Ordnance Workshops. in May 1944.

Re the Sexton GPO, that was indeed a unfrocked Sexton with extra radios and map tables.28 were ordered in June 1943 but cancelled in November.instead they were converted from existing vehicles in the UK.