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A Kangaroo was a World War II British or Commonwealth armoured personnel carrier, created by conversion of a tank chassis.
History
In 1944, Crerar's First Canadian Army was concerned by manpower shortages and Lieutenant-General Guy Simonds, commander of the Canadian 2nd Corps, devised Kangaroos as a way of reducing infantry losses.
The first Kangaroos were converted from 102 M7 Priest self-propelled guns of the Artillery regiments of the Canadian 2nd Corps in Normandy in 1944. These were non-operational because their gun barrels were too worn. At a workshop they were stripped of the artillery equipment and the front aperture welded over, then sent into service to carry 12 troops. They were first used in Operation Totalise south of Caen and subsequently in Canadian attacks on the various Channel ports, operated by the Canadian Armoured Carrier Regiment.
The majority of vehicles converted were Canadian Ram tanks or Shermans and other Priests (which were sometimes referred to as "unfrocked" or "defrocked" Priests). The name Kangaroo was applied to any similar conversion. In Normandy they were operated by the 49th APC Regiment under the 79th Armoured Division. Kangaroos were then used throughout the campaign in northwest Europe.
Significance
During the Second World War, most Mechanized Infantry was carried in light vehicles such as the Universal Carrier or M3 Halftrack. These vehicles had much better tactical mobility than a truck, but far less armor or mobility than a tank. This presented a tactical problem - if the carriers were needed so that Infantry could accompany tanks, they needed to be just as mobile and just as well protected, particularly since the Canadian and British formations had difficulty in replacing losses. The Kangaroo was the first attempt to solve this problem and, though they were expedient conversions, they largely solved the problem. The Kangaroo can be seen as the forerunner of the modern Armoured Personnel Carrier.
External links
References
- The Battle for the Rhine 1944, 2005, Robin Neillands (chapter 7, The Battle for the Scheldt)
Armoured personnel carriers | World War II British armoured fighting vehicles | World War II Canadian armoured fighting vehicles
"Kangaroo (armoured personnel carrier)"