Kangaroo Guidon Ceremony Sept 10/2011

[Michael Reintjes]

Good Day

We are planning another inspiring event here in St.Thomas that will involve old military green stuff. Knowing that you have graciously supported these types of event in the past,,, We like to have some WW2 vehicles to be on parade with us, i.e. jeeps Scout Car, Command Car, and possibly Bren gun Carriers which have to be in good safe running order since the vehicle will carrying passengers. The event organizers will be hopefully supplying or covering some of the fuel costs, or provide some transport to haul vehicles to this event.



I been tasked, to locate some well Trained & Equipped Canadian WW 2 military re-enactors to help with the Presentation of the Guidon to ” 1st Canadian Armoured Personal Carrier Regiment”, known as the Kangaroo Regt of the Second World War. The Kangaroos were formed, served and disbanded in North West Europe.



The WW2 Type vehicles will be driven on a closed Parade route that will be escorted by police through St.Thomas for a Freedom of the City Parade that will be carrying veterans and re-enactors’.


Any post WW2 vehicles are also welcomed to carry some of the younger vets.



This once in a life time event is planned for September 10, 2011. We are issue more details, once we have idea what vehicles and re-enactors are consider attending, Please responded if interested or forward your contact information.
Thanks



Rob Teslia WO, CD (ret)

31 CER ARMOURY KITSHOP.

40 Wilson Avenue.

St.Thomas, Ontario

Canada N5R 3R2

Kitshop 519- 631-3316 ext 7521

rob31cerkitshop@rogers.com

Home office 519- 631-2409

Cell 519-719-0906

rob.t@rogers.com

[Jon Skagfeld]

MLU members: May I draw your attention to Mike Dorosh's web site www.canadiansoldiers.com for information about a ceremony to be held in Ontario this September.

This is to be a guidon presentation and street parade.

[Jon Skagfeld]

Today, got the latest edition of Canadian Military (Esprit de Corps).

There is a 5 page article about the Kangaroos...background, formation, action, disbandment.

Geoff Winnington-Ball is mentioned as a driving force to have a permanent memorial site on Canadian soil. (Dammit Geoff why couldn't you hang on for 5 months or so?).

A timely article, tying in nicely with the planned guidon presentation to be held in St Thomas, ON, 10 Sep 2011.

[Haridimos]

Do we have a photo of the cover?

How can we purchase the book?

Is there a link or smth?

[Mark W. Tonner]

Originally Posted by Jon Skagfeld

Today, got the latest edition of Canadian Military (Esprit de Corps).

There is a 5 page article about the Kangaroos...background, formation, action, disbandment.

Geoff Winnington-Ball is mentioned as a driving force to have a permanent memorial site on Canadian soil. (Dammit Geoff why couldn't you hang on for 5 months or so?).

A timely article, tying in nicely with the planned guidon presentation to be held in St Thomas, ON, 10 Sep 2011.

Jon, I’m curious, who wrote the article?

Cheers

[Jon Skagfeld]

Mark: Article credited to KGE "Chuck" Konkel, with the title "We were soldiers once, and young...", LGen Hal Moore and Joe Galloway.

Knowing your interest in 1CACR, I figured that you would eventually respond.

Stand by Hardomos, while I ponder the technological mumbo jumbo of scanning a posting the cover of the magazine.

[Mark W. Tonner]

Originally Posted by Jon Skagfeld

Mark: Article credited to KGE "Chuck" Konkel, with the title "We were soldiers once, and young...", LGen Hal Moore and Joe Galloway.

Knowing your interest in 1CACR, I figured that you would eventually respond.

Thanks Jon!

[Mark W. Tonner]

Originally Posted by Jon Skagfeld

Stand by Hardomos, while I ponder the technological mumbo jumbo of scanning a posting the cover of the magazine.

on behalf of Jon . . . the magazine cover . . .

Cheers

[Jon Skagfeld]

Hehehe...title not related to IAs on a Bren gun!

Mark...thanks for doing that and for blanking out personal info which I forgot to do.

VRI

[Bill Miller]

Details available now!
Full Details of the event and a look at our "replica" Guidon are available on my website now.

I'm thinking that Geoff would have been very pleased how this has played out and how quickly we were able to put it all together (many kudos to the entire Elgin Organization, both the Veterans Association and 31CER for putting 110% into this). Geoff was the one that got the ball rolling and the day will be tinged a little bittersweet with his absence.

It's going to be quite the day for "my guys" and as it is much like a christening, graduation, marriage and wake all rolled into one day for the Kangaroo veterans, it should be quite moving too. I would encourage any of you that can make it to come down to St. Thomas on Sept 10th, to cheer on the vets and come see the Kangaroo Tank!! - what's that old Buick slogan? "Talk to the man that drives one", well here's your chance. There will be a few old trooper's in attendance including Mr. Vic Norburn who we believe was the first Canadian tank driver across the Rhine.

It should be an interesting day. If you wish to attend the formal dinner that night ($65/plate - 5 course meal including wine) please contact me for details and booking. Seating is limited.

Shortly, I'll have information on commemorative pins and a coin (limited to 200 only, numbered) we are offering as a fundraiser for the Kangaroo Veterans' Association (Parades ain't cheap). Again, those interested can contact me direct.
__________________
Bill Miller (Regimental Archivist and proud Son of Tpr WJ Miller, 1CACR)
http://www.canadiankangaroos.ca

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Jon Skagfeld

MLU members: May I draw your attention to Mike Dorosh's web site www.canadiansoldiers.com for information about a ceremony to be held in Ontario this September.

See Kangaroo Guidon ceremony re enactor help needed on their forum for more info and pictures.

H.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Jon Skagfeld

Article credited to KGE "Chuck" Konkel, with the title "We were soldiers once, and young...", LGen Hal Moore and Joe Galloway.

Seems the text can be found online here: "We were soldiers once ... And young".

H.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

I am sorry to say I cannot attend the ceremony.

If any members of this forum are, do enjoy this unique event and please report afterwards here.

Thanks in advance!

Regards,
Hanno

[Marc Montgomery]

I'll post coverage as the links will disappear
first from CBC website follows

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Kangaroos honoured for war service

Soldiers carried in Kangaroos were protected from bullets and shrapnel. Soldiers carried in Kangaroos were protected from bullets and shrapnel. (CBC)

1st Canadian Armoured Carrier Regiment, the "Kangaroos"

A Canadian army unit that changed the way battles are fought was honoured in St. Thomas, Ont., on Saturday. The 1st Canadian Armoured Carrier Regiment was the first unit to carry infantry into battle in armoured carriers, in its case, tanks with the turrets removed that could carry 10 soldiers.

First used in Europe in 1944, the vehicles were dubbed Kangaroos because they had a protected "pouch" for the soldiers. The regiment was also called the Kangaroos.

Soldiers inside the tanks were "safe as a church," recalled Kangaroo veteran Donald Simpson. "Bullets were bouncing off the tanks, rather than bouncing through them and killing them."

(photo) Donald Simpson served in the Kangaroos. Donald Simpson served in the Kangaroos. (photo)

Many lives were saved, and the Kangaroo became the prototype for the armoured personnel carrier, used in today's armies to carry troops safely. The regiment was disbanded at the war's end, but Saturday, Simpson and nine other Kangaroos — all over 90 — were honoured by the official retirement of its colours, in the shadow of one of the few remaining Kangaroo vehicles. The colours were handed off to the Elgin's (31 Combat Engineer Regiment) in St. Thomas.

"Do we need accolades for what we accomplished? No, were were satisfied that we did a good job," Simpson said.

Bill Miller organized the retirement of the colours. His father, Bill Miller Sr., was a Kangaroo but was too ill to attend the event.

============

From Globe and Mail newspaper Sept 9
story follows
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During the final months of the Second World War, as Allied armies waged a brutal campaign to liberate Europe, a rough-hewn band of Canadian soldiers revolutionized ground warfare with an unusual new technology.

They were called the 1st Canadian Armoured Carrier Regiment, assembled to drive Kangaroos, tanks modified to carry troops. The unit laid the groundwork for the tactics of today’s light armoured vehicles, protecting soldiers from gunfire while they travelled to enemy lines, but was swiftly dissolved at war’s end and its history was largely forgotten.

“There wasn’t really any push to recognize what the Kangaroos did,” said Colin McMechan, a trooper in the regiment. “It was just going to fade.”

In a ceremony this weekend, the regiment will get some overdue credit. After decades of obscurity, veterans alerted the Department of National Defence that they wanted formal recognition of the unit, and found a serving regiment to take up the Kangaroos’ battle honours, ensuring its story will be perpetuated.

The unit was born out of a problem after D-Day: Tanks often got ahead of infantry, leaving the soldiers to be mowed down in the open fields of northern Europe before they could reach enemy lines.

On the orders of Canadian Lieutenant-General Guy Simonds, a group of engineers hunkered down in an orchard near Bayeux, France, and removed the guns from U.S. M7 Priest motorized artillery pieces. The extra space in these “defrocked Priests” could carry 14 soldiers, a crew of two and a machine gun. The secret project was code-named Kangaroo, a reference to the safety of its namesake animal’s pouch.

In August, 1944, the new vehicles were rolled out at Le Havre, France, where the infantry units they carried captured every objective. The army soon converted more tanks, this time Rams, into Kangaroos and created a full regiment to man them. Members were drawn from across the Canadian Armoured Corps. Some were castoffs; many had never driven a tank.

“It was an opportunity for some units to get rid of their trouble makers,” said William Miller, the son of a Kangaroo veteran. “A lot of these men wanted to be doing stuff; they didn’t want to sit around and shine their boots.”

First, the Kangaroos helped push the Wehrmacht out of southern Holland in January’s Operation Blackcock. They then made their way north and east.

In some battles, enemy fire was so intense that infantry could not disembark. So they shot directly from the Kangaroos, turning them into moving bunkers. One time, Mr. McMechan said, they attached a howitzer and flame thrower to the back and towed them up a hill to capture a fortification.

The regiment also ferried supplies to the front and carried prisoners back. On one particularly miserable night, tanks became mired in the mud in Hochwald Forest and had to be pulled out with chains.

The unit wasn’t always successful. One infantry regiment was wiped out after the Kangaroos dropped them off. Another time, the Germans broke Dutch dykes, flooding roads behind the Canadians.

“Fear tends to leave you after a while, you say ‘If my number is up, it’s up,’ ” said Donald Simpson, a signals lieutenant, who had some close scrapes, including getting caught in the crossfire between the two sides during a mission to rescue wounded men.

The regiment was among the first Allies to cross the German border, the Rhine and the Siegfried line. By the time the Nazis surrendered in May, an estimated 770 men had served in it; 17 were killed and 21 injured.

The Kangaroos folded at Enschede in the Netherlands, the only Canadian regiment to disband without ever setting foot on home soil.

In recent years, the Kangaroos began pushing for recognition. Largely through the work of Mr. Miller and Chuck Konkel, a Toronto policeman and history buff, they reached an agreement with the 31 Combat Engineers, nicknamed the Elgins, to take on the regiment’s history.

“From a Canadian point of view, they received some unique battle honours. But they came and went pretty quickly,” said Ken Reynolds, a historian with the DND’s history branch.

At a ceremony in St. Thomas, Ont., on Saturday, the Elgins will accept a standard listing the Kangaroos’ honours to hang in their armoury. A Kangaroo bought by the Canadian War Museum – one of only a handful that still exist – will be paraded in the streets.

For their part, some veterans are greeting the immortalization with Canadian modesty.

“We followed orders,” Mr. McMechan said. “We just tried to do as good a job as we could.”

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Perpetuating Kangaroo history

The 1st Canadian Armoured Carrier Regiment’s insignia was unique in the Canadian army, featuring an image of a kangaroo rather than a more traditional maple leaf or beaver, backed by the orange of the Dutch monarchy instead of British crimson.

The unit’s members and its commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon Churchill, are said to have paid out of pocket to have their badges made.

While the regiment achieved a raft of battle honours in mere months during the Second World War, it had disbanded by the time they were granted.

Now, the 31 Combat Engineer Regiment, nicknamed “the Elgins,” has agreed to perpetuate the Kangaroos’ history. The union is appropriate, since many members of the CACR, including Col. Churchill, had previously served with the Elgins.

This relationship will be cemented by handing off a guidon – an armoured unit pennant listing battle honours – created by the Kangaroos to the Elgins at a ceremony on Saturday in St. Thomas, Ont.

A handful of the estimated 25 living Kangaroo veterans, plus their families, are expected to attend.

Adrian Morrow

[charlie fitton]

...and a damn nice day it was...too.

Havn't had that much fun with the carrier since the big drive down the Ottawa River Parkway a few years back...

[Jon Skagfeld]

I attended the full weekend guidon presentation in St. Thomas.

That Ram tank figured prominently in the ceremony on the grounds of the Armoury.

A huge Bravo Zulu and many kudos to the Elgin Regiment Association (especially Wayne Dale, President) for their efforts in making this happen.

Meet and greet on Friday...all messes open. I spoke at length with Vic Thorburn who reputedly was the first armoured vehicle driver to cross the Rhine.

On Saturday, I spoke with Don Simpson who was 1CACR Regt Sig O. Since I was wearing RCCS blazer and flannels, we naturally sought each other out. Don was interviewed by CBC and the clip was on The National.

Under a cloudless sky, 31 CER, the Elgin Regiment Association, the Windor Regiment band, 1CACR vets (9 of them) and the VIP stands formed a hollow square. The Reviewing Officer was...

The Right Honourable 11th Earl of Elgin and 15th Kincardine
Lord Elgin and Kincardine
Honourary Colonel
Andrew Douglas Alexander Thomas Bruce, KT, CD, LL, JP, LLD, DLITT.

During the ceremony, I missed something and I still don't know if the guidon was consecrated or "just" blessed.

Reenactors, in battledress with 1 CACR flashes, slow marched the guidon in front of the parade.

At the end of the ceremony, I was puzzled as to why the troops marched straight off instead of the usual march past and advance in review order.

The dinner was held on the drill floor. I don't think I've ever been in an Armoury with the drill floor being on the top floor.

The 5 course dinner was excellent (when the various courses finally arrived).
The main entree was the Roast Beef of Merrie Olde England; the red and white wines were specially bottled and labeled. Miniature Kangaroo pennants were at each place setting and available to take home as a memento.

Rob Teslia, who runs the 31 CER kit shop, bent over backwards showing visitors around. He was my dinner companion; we traded many war stories.

MLU members who were in attendance, mostly on "Saturday, were:

Bruce Parker, Charlie Fitton and Stewart Loy with their carriers, Brian Asbury, Mark and Denise Tonner, Gord Yeo...hope I didn't miss anyone!

PS...the roll past through St Thomas and past the reviewing stand in front of City Hall consisted of some 30-40 vehicles. Lots of citizens showing appreciation.

An historical event that I would not have missed.

[Michael Reintjes]

My photos from the event here.....
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...b77f0ef&type=1

...and here...
http://www.network54.com/Forum/28173...Avenue+Armoury

cheers,Mike

[Michael Reintjes]

http://relishelginmore.weebly.com/kangaroos-2011.html

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Bill Miller sent me this link to the national TV news spot that aired the evening of the event:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zrrrPBS9Do

H.

[Gunner]

Hi Hanno:

You'll be pleased to update your data-base to show the two Rams from the Swords and Ploughshares Museum have contributed to this historic occasion. The Kangaroo at the ceremony was a CWM vehicle overhauled with parts (primarily running gear) from the S&P Rams. They also contributed to the overhaul of the CWM's longtime Ram Cruiser which, as you know, had been burned on the ranges prior to recovery and has always suffered from a somewhat 'compressed' suspension. It too now has 'new' running gear.

The incredible work by DEW Engineering of Ottawa turned four Rams into the, soon to be running, Kangaroo and the, soon to be running, Cruiser with enough bits left over to perhaps make up a gate guard; a complete upper hull being the big headache.

Jason Ginn saw the project through and a lot of hard work was done by the team at DEW. Perhaps Jason can be cajoled into posting photos of the process (I have a few which I'll try to dig up). The team at DEW completely stripped the vehicles down for derusting, careful patching and the latest in anti-corrosion coatings. Their attention to accuracy and their care for the historical significance of these Canadian made icons is to be commended.

I'm completely thrilled that our old beasts played an important part in bringing some Canadian history back to life... our little museum certainly could never have accomplished what the CWM and DEW have done! My only regret as a hard core Gunner, is that the Kangaroo wasn't done as a Gun Tractor variant!!!

Congratulations to the "Kangaroos" and kudos to the hard working association members in bringing to the public's attention the Kangaroo's crucial contribution to the breakout in Normandy and to changing armoured infantry doctrine around the world!

Cheers! Mike