Holy Roller is a Canadian Army M4A2 Sherman tank of the 6th Armoured Regiment (1st Hussars) which landed at D-Day and fought across northwest Europe until the end of the Second World War in Europe, one of two Canadian tanks that fought from D-Day to VE Day. [1] Holy Roller is on display as a memorial in Victoria Park, London, Ontario.
Holy Roller was built at General Motors' Fisher Tank Arsenal in Flint, Michigan, in the last week of September 1942. It is an M4A2(75) model with serial number 7606 and U.S. registration number 3062855. It was shipped to England, where it was issued with the War Department number CT-152655. [2] It was not until late May/early June 1944 that it was issued to the 6th Armoured Regiment (1st Hussars), just before D-Day.
Holy Roller landed with the 6th Armoured Regiment (1st Hussars) at Juno Beach, crewed by William Reed, George LeGrand, Frank White, Frank Fowler (who coined the name "Holy Roller"), Terry Doherty and Everett Smith. [3] It served throughout the North-West Europe Campaign in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and into Germany.
Holy Roller was one of four Canadian tanks shipped from service in northwestern Europe to preservation in Canada, along with Forceful III in Ottawa and Bomb in Sherbrooke, Quebec. The tank was placed on display outside the London Armouries on Dundas Street, then moved to Queens Park at the Western Fairgrounds before finally being moved to its current location in Victoria Park. [4]
In early 2021, the Royal Canadian Legion and a local craft brewer launched a campaign to raise CA$250,000 to finance a year-long restoration of the tank. The plans call for the tank to be removed from its Victoria Park site and disassembled, with parts being restored, repaired, or replaced as necessary, before being returned to the park in time for the 78th anniversary of D-Day on June 6, 2022. The Toboggan Brewing Company created Holy Roller Lager to support the campaign, contributing a portion of sales of cases of the beer to the project. [5]
The refurbished tank was returned to Victoria Park and hoisted onto a new concrete pad on May 31, 2022. [6]
The 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade was an armoured brigade of the Canadian Army that saw active service during World War II. The brigade was composed of the 6th, 10th and 27th Canadian Armoured regiments and saw service in northwest Europe, landing in Normandy on D-Day and remaining in combat up to Victory in Europe Day.
The 3rd Canadian Division is a formation of the Canadian Army responsible for the command and mobilization of all army units in the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, as well as all units extending westwards from the city of Thunder Bay.
The Royal Canadian Dragoons (RCD) is the senior armoured regiment of the Canadian Army by precedence. It is one of three armoured regiments in the Regular Force and forms part of the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps.
The 1st Hussars is an armoured Primary Reserve regiment of the Canadian Armed Forces, based in London and Sarnia, Ontario.
DD or Duplex Drive tanks, nicknamed "Donald Duck tanks", were a type of amphibious swimming tank developed by the British during the Second World War. The phrase is mostly used for the Duplex Drive variant of the M4 Sherman medium tank, that was used by the Western Allies during and after the Normandy Landings in June 1944.
The 79th Armoured Division was a specialist armoured division of the British Army created during the Second World War. The division was created as part of the preparations for the Normandy invasion on 6 June 1944, D-Day.
The Westminster Dragoons (WDs) was a yeomanry regiment of the British Army Army Reserve, located in central London. Its lineage is continued by one of the Royal Yeomanry's six squadrons. Formed in the aftermath of Second Boer War as part of the County of London Yeomanry, the WDs fought in the Battle of Gallipoli and led British forces onto the beaches during the Normandy Invasion in 1944. The squadron most recently saw action on Operation Telic for which it was mobilised for the 2003 war in Iraq.
The Ontario Regiment (RCAC) is a Primary Reserve armoured reconnaissance regiment of the Canadian Army. The unit is based in downtown Oshawa, Ontario, and is named after Ontario County (1852–1973). Formed in 1866, and more commonly known as the 'Ontarios', 'black cats' or 'ONT R' (pronounced "ON-tar"), the regiment ranks among the oldest continuously serving Reserve (Militia) regiments in Canada and is one of the senior armoured regiments in the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps.
The Sherbrooke Hussars is a Primary Reserve armoured regiment of the Canadian Forces and perpetuates the Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment of the Second World War.
The 11th Armoured Division was an armoured division of the British Army which was created in March 1941 during the Second World War. The division was formed in response to the unanticipated success of the German panzer divisions. The 11th Armoured was responsible for several major victories in the Battle of Normandy from in the summer of 1944, shortly after the Normandy landings, and it participated in the Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine, the Rhine crossing in March 1945. It was disbanded in January 1946 and reformed towards the end of 1950. In 1956, it was converted into the 4th Infantry Division.
Les Fusiliers de Sherbrooke is a Primary Reserve infantry regiment of the Canadian Army. It is based in Sherbrooke, Quebec, with a sub-unit in Granby.
The 24th Lancers was a cavalry regiment of the British Army that existed from late 1940 to mid-1944. Assigned to the 8th Armoured Brigade, the regiment fought during the Invasion of Normandy before being disbanded in July 1944. After disbandment, the regiment's personnel were sent to other cavalry regiments as reinforcements.
The 9th Armoured Division was an armoured division of the British Army, raised during the Second World War. It never saw active service during the war as a complete division.
The 30th Armoured Brigade was an armoured formation of the British Army that served in Western Europe Campaign as part of the 79th Armoured Division. After the reformation of the Territorial Army in 1947, the brigade was re-created within the Territorials based in Scotland and finally disbanded by 1967.
The 27th Armoured Brigade was an armoured brigade of the British Army that served in the Second World War and played a crucial role in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944 and the following Battle of Normandy until disbandment in late 1944.
The 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) was a Yeomanry regiment of the British Army. It was raised in 1901 from Second Boer War veterans of the Imperial Yeomanry. During the First World War it served dismounted at Gallipoli, was remounted to serve in Macedonia, Egypt and Palestine, before being converted to machine gunners for service on the Western Front. 2nd and 3rd Line units remained in the United Kingdom throughout.
Operation Perch was a British offensive of the Second World War which took place from 7 to 14 June 1944, during the early stages of the Battle of Normandy. The operation was intended to encircle and seize the German occupied city of Caen, which was a D-Day objective for the British 3rd Infantry Division in the early phases of Operation Overlord. Operation Perch was to begin immediately after the British beach landings with an advance to the south-east of Caen by XXX Corps. Three days after the invasion the city was still in German hands and the operation was amended. The operation was expanded to include I Corps for a pincer attack on Caen.
The East Riding of Yorkshire Yeomanry was a unit of the British Army formed in 1902. Units of Yeomanry Cavalry were raised in the East Riding of Yorkshire in the 18th and early 19th centuries at times of national emergency: the Jacobite Rising of 1745, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. These were stood down once each emergency was over. The East Riding of Yorkshire Yeomanry, was established in 1902, and this saw action during the First World War both in the mounted role and as machine gunners.
Sydney Valpy Radley-Walters CMM, DSO, MC, CD, nicknamed "Rad", was a tank commander in the Canadian Army. Credited with 18 German tanks and many other armoured vehicles, he was the leading Western Allies' tank ace of the Second World War.
Bomb is a Canadian Army Sherman Tank of the 27th Armoured Regiment which landed at D-Day and fought across northwest Europe until the end of World War II, one of the few Canadian tanks that fought without interruption from D-Day to VE Day. Today Bomb is preserved at the William Street Armoury in Sherbrooke, Quebec.