Farley Mowat's Stug

[David Dunlop]

Thanks for linking that up, Hanno. That is indeed the old Shilo Stug.

At one time, there used to be a Base Gate situated on the western approach to CFB Shilo. The Stug sat on the North side of the road near the gate, facing west. On the opposite side of the road sat a Long Tom heavy artillery piece that had served with a Newfoundland Regiment during the war.

A few years after GATES was established at CFB Shilo, the western gate disappeared, along with the Stug. The local story was that some higher ups at the base deemed the Stug was a ‘tank’ and not appropriate for an artillery museum so it was traded out west for something more ‘artillery appropriate’. Not at all sure what that actually was, but I suspect that in the process of the trade, Shilo may have lost title to the Stug. From what we knew at the time, the engine from the Stug was removed when it became one of the gate guardians and it was probably either scrapped, or some farmer bought it and its sitting in a shed somewhere in the area. There used to be a big surplus/scrap dealer in the Brandon area that bought a lot of stuff from the base. Might have ended up there. And the rest, as they say, is history.

David