Canadian Tank Aces

[Old Sweat]

Two things are needed to rack up high scores like the German Aces did. The first is time in combat. The Germans had years of experience. The Second is abundant targets. The tank battles on the Eastern front were huge involving hundreds of tanks. It was only in Normandy that the Canadians encountered German Armour in large numbers. The Normandy battle lasted only 76 days.  In Italy, Holland and Germany the Canadians only encountered small numbers of German tanks and SPGs. Canadian tank crews couldn’t run up high kill numbers because the German tanks simply were not there to be killed. 

Excellent summary, Dog Walker. It should also be remembered that most Allied Shermans were outmatched by German tanks and SPs. See the chart on p. 374 of No Holding Back for a graphical comparison of effective ranges of German tank and anti-tank guns versus the Sherman's 75mm.

 

[Genetk44]

I saw an interesting program a few weeks ago, I forget the name but I think it was on History Channel Canada, hosted by that fellow from King and Country...Norm Christie....that purported to prove that the British tanks were too far away from the Tigers to have killed them...and that the Canadian tanks were not only well within range to do the job but were in perfect killing spots.  
Anybody else see that particuler program?

Cheers
Gene

 

[Old Sweat]

A number of us saw the program which was hosted by Norm Christie. It is discussed on the first page of this thread. The Wittmann affair is also discussed in Appendix E of No Holding Back. This is the second time I have referred to it on this thread, but I am prejudiced as it is by my favourite author, me.

 

[Genetk44]

Apologies for haveing repeated, in my previous post, something that was already discussed at the start of the thread. Actually I read the thread right from the beginning....yesterday...my memory must be going to s**t 

And unfortunately I don't have the book...No Holding Back...is it available at Chapters/indigo???

Cheers
Gene

 

[TangoTwoBravo]

My oblique comment was that the German propaganda machine appeared inclined to create tanker "aces", while the Allies did not seem to have the same inclination. This is not to say that the German aces did not have an impressive number of destroyed AFVs to their credit, but that the level of propaganda may have some bearing on why German tanker names are well know and Allied ones are not.

 

[Old Sweat]

And unfortunately I don't have the book...No Holding Back...is it available at Chapters/indigo???

I learned a few weeks ago from my publisher that the initial printing is sold out. The best place to try is Amazon.com which may have some copies in their stock. Failing that, Stackpole Press in the States is coming out with a soft cover edition this summer. And the public library is always worth a try.

 

[TangoTwoBravo]

Any word on a Tractable sequel? 

 

[larry Strong]

Abe Books has a bunch of them for sale. The first one listed is even autographed:

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=Brian+A+Reid&sts=t&tn=No+Holding+Back&x=81&y=12