2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade

In June 1943 the brigade was dispatched to the United Kingdom. The following month came an intensive inspection of the units of this brigade and of the 3rd Canadian Army Tank Brigade by Lieutenant-General Harry Crerar, the commander of I Canadian Corps. The purpose of the inspection was to determine which of the two brigades would remain on the order of battle since there was only room for one such formation.[2] The brigade chosen was the 3rd: The 1st Hussars, The Fort Garry Horse, and The Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment.

The 3rd Canadian Army Tank Brigade was raised on 1 January 1943 following a reorganization of the Canadian Armoured Corps in Britain. It adopted the designation 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade (2 CAB) after it was selected by Lieutenant-General Crerar to remain on the order of battle. In August 1943 it was selected to be part of the D-Day invasion force in support of the units of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division.[3]

The brigade's three regiments landed in Normandy on D-Day, 6 June 1944. Unlike their peers in the 4th Canadian Armoured Brigade, who were usually paired with their division's 10th Canadian Infantry Brigade, the 2nd was paired with any infantry who needed armour support.

Sherman tanks of the 10th Armoured Regiment (Fort Garry Horse) with infantry of the Royal Regiment of Canada, 2nd Canadian Division, massing in preparation for the assault on Goch, 17 February 1945.

On 31 July 1944, following a series of battles with heavy infantry losses, Canadian Lieutenant General Guy Simonds ordered the creation of an armoured carrier regiment and the modification of underused American-made M7 Priest self-propelled guns. The 1st Canadian Armoured Carrier Squadron was formed, and administered as a squadron of 25th Armoured Delivery Regiment until October 19, 1944, when the squadron was converted to a regiment.[4]

This formation rarely fought as an entity. Its primary role was infantry support and thus its regiments were usually individually tasked out to infantry units to participate in particular operations. One of the occasions when the brigade did undertake an operation on its own, Le Mesnil-Patry / Rots on 11 June 1944, ended with only a partial success and severe losses to the Canadians. 2 CAB fought in the North West Europe Campaign, longer than any other armoured formation, from D-Day to V-E Day, suffering 435 fatal casualties in total. Two of the brigade's tanks, Holy Roller of the 1st Hussars,[5] and Bomb of the Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment, fought continuously from D-Day to the end of the war, the only Canadian tanks to fight unscathed across Northwest Europe. Holy Roller remains the memorial of the Hussars in London, Ontario, and Bomb is preserved today at the William Street Armoury of the Sherbrooke Hussars in Sherbrooke, Quebec.[6]