M10 17 pdr S237818

[John McGillivray]

“Leilan” is a girl’s name.

L troop of the 5th A/T Regt RCA was destroyed near Quesnay Wood with the lost of all four of its 17pdr M-10s, on the 10th (?) of August, 1944.

From the book South Albertas (p117)

“It is not known why B Squadron was withdrawn from St. Hilaire Farm but in any case Swatty decided to replace them with the troop of M-10 self-propelled 17-pdr. guns from 5th Anti-Tank Regiment assigned to the SAR. This unit's heavy anti-tank weapons were normally allotted, on a troop basis, to the other units in 4th Division for defensive purposes, the self-propelled equipment going to the armoured regiments, the towed pieces to the infantry battalions.

“By this time the Recce Troop had worked out a safer route to the farm and L Troop of the 5th Regiment was sent that way in the early afternoon guided by their troop leader in a jeep. Unfortunately they made a wrong turn and moved too close to Quesnay Wood - within minutes all four guns were brewed up by AP fire and only one crew escaped. The commander of the last vehicle in action, a Sergeant McAlinden, "was last seen firing his gun while his M-10 was burning" and received a posthumous Mention in Dispatches. The troop leader survived and drove back to Langannerie, where he ran into Captain Jay Moreton of B Squadron. Jay had "heard the firing going on and shortly after a guy turned up and ... said his four tanks were gone and he was just a young fellow and he was weeping all over the place." There was nothing that Jay or anyone else could do to comfort the man.”

[marco]

Hello Kevin and John,

Hereby two other photo's from M10'S.
The first one is S-230553 named JOYCE II.
Location is Bergen op Zoom in Holland in Oktober 1944.

The quality isn't to good

Source:
http://www.markiezenhof.nl/

Marco

[marco]

And the other one is S237843 named JEAN.
Same location and source.

Also, I can advice anyone interested in the South Alberta Regiment to have a look in this photoarchive.

Go to "beeldbank" (=photoarchive) and search on "bevrijding" (liberation).

Succes,

Marco

[kevinT]

Hi Marco,

Thanks for posting those. I have a doubt about the WD serial for S230553.
According to the list I have S230470 - S230769 was for M7 105mm howitzers and S230770 - S231069 was for M10's.
As you say it is not a good image, so do you think it is possible that 553 could be 883 or 993?
Can anyone else make it out? Sadly my steam powered computer is unable to get a good copy of the image.

Cheers
Kevin

[marco]

Hi Kevin,

Yes, that is possible.
The best I could make out of it is S-230553 but it might be S-230883 as well.

Best regards,

Marco

[Mike Slusar]

Originally Posted by John McGillivray

“Leilan” is a girl’s name.

L troop of the 5th A/T Regt RCA was destroyed near Quesnay Wood with the lost of all four of its 17pdr M-10s, on the 10th (?) of August, 1944.

From the book South Albertas (p117)

“It is not known why B Squadron was withdrawn from St. Hilaire Farm but in any case Swatty decided to replace them with the troop of M-10 self-propelled 17-pdr. guns from 5th Anti-Tank Regiment assigned to the SAR. This unit's heavy anti-tank weapons were normally allotted, on a troop basis, to the other units in 4th Division for defensive purposes, the self-propelled equipment going to the armoured regiments, the towed pieces to the infantry battalions.

“By this time the Recce Troop had worked out a safer route to the farm and L Troop of the 5th Regiment was sent that way in the early afternoon guided by their troop leader in a jeep. Unfortunately they made a wrong turn and moved too close to Quesnay Wood - within minutes all four guns were brewed up by AP fire and only one crew escaped. The commander of the last vehicle in action, a Sergeant McAlinden, "was last seen firing his gun while his M-10 was burning" and received a posthumous Mention in Dispatches. The troop leader survived and drove back to Langannerie, where he ran into Captain Jay Moreton of B Squadron. Jay had "heard the firing going on and shortly after a guy turned up and ... said his four tanks were gone and he was just a young fellow and he was weeping all over the place." There was nothing that Jay or anyone else could do to comfort the man.”

Hello John

August 10th is correct. My Father Cliff was a sergeant for L troop of 5th A/Tk regt. RCA. All four M10's were destroyed. The story from "South Albertas" is very interesting. I have two other accounts of that "battle" one from his commanding officer and one from one of the soldiers who witnessed it first hand.

I am putting together all the info I can about that day. My father was taken prisoner and spent 9 months as a P.O.W. in Fallingbostel.

Looking forward to hearing from you sir.

Cheers !
Mike Slusar

[John McGillivray]

14th Bty 5th A/T Regt. War Diary

http://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oo...17/566?r=1&s=3

[John McGillivray]

From Colonel G.W.L. Nicholson’s book “The Gunners of Canada” Vol II, page 322.

“Another of Lt.-Col. Harkness’s batteries, the 14th Anti-Tank Battery, suffered a heavy loss when one of its troops was almost completely wiped out when it missed its way and ran unto an enemy trap at Quesnay Wood. Only one of the gun crews escaped, and all four M-10’s were destroyed. It was a regrettable incident that served to point up the importance of good map reading in military operations. Courageous and devoted to duty to the end, Sgt. M.J. McAlinden was last seen firing his gun while his mount burned. He was posthumously awarded a Mention in Despatched.”

[Mike Slusar]

Hello John

Thanks for the link and information, I have seen that page of the war diary before. Its nice that they are readily available online. I was not aware of the book reference. I now have another avenue of research, thank you so much for that. Sergeant McAlinden was definitely part of my fathers "L troop". I have that info from his commanding officer Lt. Jack Connors. Jack wrote his memoirs but to the best of my knowledge it never got published.

I'm really interested in locating the photo that Kevin T refers to in a previous post. My fathers tank was called LEILANI so i'm almost positive he is describing a picture of my dads burnt out M10

Sincerely, Mike

[kevinT]

Originally Posted by Mike Slusar

Hello John

Thanks for the link and information, I have seen that page of the war diary before. Its nice that they are readily available online. I was not aware of the book reference. I now have another avenue of research, thank you so much for that. Sergeant McAlinden was definitely part of my fathers "L troop". I have that info from his commanding officer Lt. Jack Connors. Jack wrote his memoirs but to the best of my knowledge it never got published.

I'm really interested in locating the photo that Kevin T refers to in a previous post. My fathers tank was called LEILANI so i'm almost positive he is describing a picture of my dads burnt out M10

Sincerely, Mike

Hi Mike,

I was having trouble with the search option on Missing Lynx so I put in a request for the original poster, Michael Kenny to repost it. It is there now showing the name and census number although it only shows the name as LEILAN.
Anyway I hope this is what you are looking for.

cheers

Kevin

[Mike Slusar]

Hello Kevin

Thank you so very much for this. Up until a few weeks ago i never knew this picture existed, then i stumbled onto your post from 2008. I have been piecing together my fathers war history and have always wondered if pictures would surface somewhere. As you can imagine i have viewed countless pictures of M10s over the years since my father passed away (2007) without finding anything related to his regiment.

The picture shows something like debris or foliage covering the far end of the lettering so i'm positive that the name on the tank is LEILANI. This is confirmed in a book written by my dads commanding officer Lt J.F. Connor 14th Bty 5th A/Tk Regt RCA

The book is called World War 2 - The Way I saw It, and it states the following
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Several months earlier we had decided to give names to our M10s. The lettering was uniform, six inches in height and painted on each side of the hull. The names had to be those of ladies beginning with the letter "L". They would be of the crews own choosing.

L 1, Sgt Slusar's M10 was named LEILANI
L 2, Sgt Garrah's M10 was named LAURA
L 3, Sgt McAlinden's M10 was named LENA

The only female name beginning with "L" that Sgt Gray could come up with was LUPINO. Not a Christian name but he and his crew were quite satisfied with it, so L4 bore Lupino on each side of the hull.
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As you already know when we discover more evidence to support our research it uncovers more leads and clues that leave us asking more questions. My questions are who took this photo? Was it an allie or axis photographer? Where would I begin the search for the original photo? If this photo was taken their could be more photos of the rest of "L" troop.Where would i be able to view paperwork confirming the census number is attached to the 5th A/Tk Regt?

Once again Thank you for your kind efforts in getting this photo reposted.

Cheers