October 1943
Italy

A Canadian Sherman tank of the 14th Armoured Regiment (The Calgary Regiment) overlooks the town of Potenza, which had been captured on September 20.

A SHERMAN OF THE CALGARY TANK REG.

McEwan wedding

April 1942
England

Wartime Wedding
The mostly young and single troops of the Canadian Army lost little chance to socialize with British women. Many meetings led to weddings. Young Canadian solider Robert "Bob" McEwan, from Barrhead, serving in England with The Edmonton Regiment, married an English girl, Gladys "Garry" Ashford, of Oxted, in April 1942. At the end of June 1943, Garry watched her husband board the ship taking him to the invasion of Sicily.  She would never see him again.  Bob was killed in action.

Private Bob McEwan marries before shipping out

Sherman tanks

September 1943
Italy

Sherman tanks of the 12th Armoured Regiment (Three Rivers Regiment) are inspected at Lucera in southern Italy in September 1943. In December they would back up the infantry of The Loyal Edmonton Regiment and The Seaforth Highlanders of Canada at Ortona.

By this stage of the war Canadian armoured units were equipped with the American designed Sherman tank. It was not universally loved by the troops. Its high profile made a splendid target for anti-tank gunners, and it was relatively undergunned and underarmoured against the leading German tanks. A serious defect was a tendency for the fuel tank to go up in flames after the tank was hit by enemy fire. Some troops derisively referred to the tank as the &quot;Ronson&quot;, from the advertising slogan of a popular brand of cigarette lighters: &quot;lights every time&quot;.  The Germans called them &quot;TOMMY COOKERS&quot; as they had a tendency to burn and cook their Canadian crews inside.  I believe they eventually converted to Diesel and changed their ammo storage inside to increase safety.  I spoke with one old veteran who served with the British Columbia Dragoons tank brigade in Italy.  He described salvaging parts from burnt out tanks and having to remove their burnt crews, he said they came apart like cooked chickens.  A grim reality that ww2 tank crews on both sides seemed to accept and live with.