Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 105 “My husband passed away in Aug/93 and he used to talk so much about the Kangaroos. He always said not much was written about that branch. He belonged to the Legion in Bridgewater and mentioned it one time to the president that no one seemed to know about the Kangaroos. If only someone could write an article in the Legion Magazine” - a letter from Hedy Smith to the Kangaroo Regiment Association in October 1999. The Canadian Army sustained heavy losses during the Battle of Normandy; the infantry was forced to move on foot or in trucks, which made them vulnerable to enemy fire. This prevented them from advancing at the same speed as the tanks and self-propelled artillery. At that time there were no such thing as an armoured personnel carrier (APC). To rectify that weakness, Lieutenant-General Guy Simonds commander of II Corps of the CanadianArmy, ordered the conversion of some American made M7 Priest self-propelled guns into APCs. At one point Simonds made a remark about how a kangaroo carried it’s young; hence, “Operation Kangaroo” was the unofficial name given to the initial refit of the Priests. Approximately 250 men of the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps, the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps and the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (British) participated in the conversion project. Work started on the afternoon of 2 August 1944 and 15 of the Priests had been converted by dusk. With their 105 mm gun removed, each vehicle could carry twelve soldiers. Almost 80 of the M7 Priests were modified in this manner and were nicknamed Priest Kangaroos (also referred to as "Defrocked Priests", "Unfrocked Priests" or "Holy Rollers"). After that the term 'Kangaroo' was applied to any Canadian RAM tank or American Sherman tank that had been converted into an APC. The Nova Scotia troopers of the Kangaroo Regiment Submitted: Gary Silliker CD American M7 Priest troop carrier continued ...
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