Royal Canadian School of Artillery

[Ed Storey]

Originally Posted by Colin Alford

The second link includes an image which is captioned as a Flak 18 in Petawawa circa 1945-46. I believe the dating to be incorrect given the vehicles shown in the background. This gun appears to me to be different to the surviving examples in either Kingston, or Ottawa.

As Colin correctly points out, the image of the Flak 18 published in the CMH Magazine was not taken in 1945-46. It was taken after 1952 as there are a pair of post-war SMP vehicles in the background, a M135CDN 2½ ton truck and M62 5 ton wrecker.

The gun itself in the photograph appears to be similar to the one that has been on outdoor display on the base for some 60+ years although it lacks the shield. The carriage for the Petawawa gun ended up being used as targets on the Mattawa Plain as I remember, as a young infantry reservist in the late 1970s, seeing them all shot-up when in the training area. I believe the carriage along with several Valentine hulls were all cleared as scrap decades ago.

Attached is the Garrison Petawawa gun as it appeared in 1982. It has been repainted many times and is now in some garish camouflage.

50-15 Flak 36 88mm Anti-Aircraft Gun copy.jpg