German Armour at Petawawa

[Robin Craig]

Does anyone have images of German WW2 armour being used as targets at Petawawa post war?

Failing actual pictures does anyone have first hand or verifiable accounts of such armour being used as targets?

R

[charlie fitton]

Don't recall any at Pet, but I know of a lot in Meaford..

[Ed Storey]

There was a Panther as the wheels from a Flak 36 and a sFH 18 15cm used as targets on the ranges in Petawawa. There could well have been more stuff.

Petawawa was littered with wartime Valentines, Rams and the odd Sherman. Of course post-War Shermans and Centurions were also out there as well.

The earliest item I ever saw was a pair of inter-War 18 Pdr Ammunition Limbers that were completely shot-up by the late 1970s.

As Charlie mentioned, Meaford appears to have been the Canadian hub for German WWII kit being used as targets. The Stug III which is on display in the Italian section of the CWM was recovered from Meaford in the 1970s.

[maple_leaf_eh]

There was one mentioned on the AFV News Forum. I shared it with Ed a month or so ago. The posting is repeated verbatim from Pierre Olivier:

' Vytas Boyev sent me this email some days ago :
"Back in 1991, my National Guard unit was conducting a jump wing exchange exercise with the Canadian army (the Queens Own Rifles airborne company) in Petawawa, Canada.

My unit jumped on a drop zone, that was next to the TOW/anti-tank range. The jumpmaster that dropped us badly miscalculated, and we were dropped on the live fire range.

After I landed, I stood up and was facing the unmistakable glacis plate of a Panther, about 50 feet away from where I landed. It was badly damaged from being used as a training target, and I was excited to see such a sight, as sad as it was in its condition (I was even more miffed that somehow, I did not see the panther on the way down)." '

Ed Storey replied to me that he remembered seeing fleeting glimpses of those shapes in 1979 when doing heliborne inserts near the TOW Antitank range.

[maple_leaf_eh]

German AFVs in Canada - over the years there have been many discussions of this topic on the various vehicle forums. I suggest you register on the AFV News Discussion group and beat the heck out of their search functions. Like in UK, when the steel and sheet metal stops looking like a target, or Range Control get fed up with too much junk in the impact areas, someone contracts for a scrap dealer to do a clean up.

[barriefield-brian]

I recall when I was a kid there was a tank out in the field off Gore road here in Kingston. We snuck in once and had a look at it, obviously used as a target as the turret was blown off. Don't know what type of tank it was but am curious to know if anyone else remembers it. Cheers Brian

[Ed Storey]

There was a WWII Sherman with a CIRD mountings along the golf course until the mid-1990s.

[David Dunlop]

I have heard reports of German armour being used for targets at Borden, and a few parts of something being recovered in the 1980's.

Shilo had a large range at one time as well. Have heard of a Lancaster being shot up there, as well as Shermans and Centurions, but do not know if any of the German armour that made it to the museum was ever put out for targets.

David

[Robin Craig]

Frankly, as anyone will tell you, the second war just is not my gig, I am however not such a philistine that I would deny others their pleasures.

The subject of this Panther came up on another forum that some of us frequent. Being as we are in Canada I knew that some of you learned types would know all about it.

I will report back to the foreigners of your findings

Thanks

R

[Darrell Zinck]

Hi Robin

Although I have no photo of it, the badly fractured and incomplete roof plate of a Panther was thrown onto the scrap truck after a range cleanup of Juliet Tower Range in the Fall of 2003.

Terry

Are the hull pics from the AFV News Forum post?

regards
Darrell

[maple_leaf_eh]

Yes, the thread is named something like "Panzers in Canada".

[Bob Cohoon]

I remember seeing a big German halftrack, the type that towed 88 guns, in Elliott`s scrapyard in Newtonville, Ont. , in 1987 or so, and it was a range target, thousands of bullet holes on it. It was sold to a museum, or restorer, in England I was told .I think some German equipment wound up like that after it had been evaluated