Leopard 1 Driver Training Cabs in Canada

[James P]

Borden is the home of the trades schools and held a couple tanks for mechs and techs to be trained on. The turret stand looks the same as the stands for the Gunnery Sqn turrets at Gagetown, as the (cabbed) hulls spend there days wallowing up and down the various bowling alleys there. That is a pretty good picture showing something sort of out of the usual BTW.

[Robin Craig]

Mr Fred Appel who is on the FB group for the RCEME has posted the following on the subject today which sounds like confirmation in some way:-

" If my memory serves me right, Canada purchased 5 of these Driver Training Cabs. 4 for Gagetown and 1 for CFSEME. The were installed on the Leopard Chassis after the turret was removed. The installation was conducted by unit personnel with the supervision of the Krauss Maffei FSR. The Driver Training Cabs were stationary, they did not traverse. The barrel was a dummy but simulated the barrel being present to the driver. The Crew Commander had full override controls over the driver."

[Ed Storey]

This reaffirms Gord's figure of six Driver Training Cabins way back in post #5 so what is really needed now is a document which confirms this number.

[strat1]

July 1978 ,9 Leopard C1’s issued to Royal Canadian Armoured School. They were divided between Gunnery and Driving and Maintenance squadrons. The turrets were taken off, placed on turret stands, the hulls were fitted with an Instructors cabin for driving training.

More might have been purchased, but no records show this, or the number of 37 cabins. To convert a gun tank to driver instructor was a plug and play affair with quick disconnects.

23 Leo 1 hulls were sold off, all were to be de-milled with armour sections taken out of upper/lower front hull areas. a few have made it back to Canada , the Ontario Regiment Museum bought 2 which were movie props, the vismod movie turrets have been taken off, and vismod C1 looking turrets added, but they used the CFB Borden German Leo 1A4 for measurements to build the new turrets, so they are actually 1A4's, not our 1A3 turret versions.

Cheers

Anthony

[Ed Storey]

So this leads back to why in 1992 was DND reporting that it had 37 Driver Training C1 tanks?

[James P]

Hi Strat1 I did not see that odd shaped home made turret in Oshawa in June. They mocked up a couple very, very, nice looking C1 turrets.

[Ed Storey]

Where the turret stands the Turret Training Leopard C1? If so, the Data Summary C-11-220-000/MA-000 from 1984 lists a quantity of 5.

[Ian Johns]

I know the old owner of the one on the right and if I remember correctly I remember seeing 2 or 3 training cabs in his yard. I'll check the next time I'm there.

Originally Posted by strat1

July 1978 ,9 Leopard C1’s issued to Royal Canadian Armoured School. They were divided between Gunnery and Driving and Maintenance squadrons. The turrets were taken off, placed on turret stands, the hulls were fitted with an Instructors cabin for driving training.

More might have been purchased, but no records show this, or the number of 37 cabins. To convert a gun tank to driver instructor was a plug and play affair with quick disconnects.

23 Leo 1 hulls were sold off, all were to be de-milled with armour sections taken out of upper/lower front hull areas. a few have made it back to Canada , the Ontario Regiment Museum bought 2 which were movie props, the vismod movie turrets have been taken off, and vismod C1 looking turrets added, but they used the CFB Borden German Leo 1A4 for measurements to build the new turrets, so they are actually 1A4's, not our 1A3 turret versions.

Cheers

Anthony

[BradB]

Found this on F-Book today - not sure how pertinent it is, but it is a Training Cab Leo!

Sorry - in detail, group photo from a 1981 Advanced Driver and Maintenance Course in Gagetown.

Brad

[Dan Martel]

Originally Posted by BradB

...group photo from a 1981 Advanced Driver and Maintenance Course in Gagetown.

Brad,

Why so many infantrymen on an advanced driver and maintenance course?

Cheers,
Dan.