World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseOfficially designated "the Tank Cruiser, Ram", these cruiser tanks were developed and built in Canada based on the American M3 medium tank design. The need for such a production was largely because the United Kingdom was unable to provide enough tanks for its own use, let alone the Commonwealth forces. They were built at the Canadian Tank Arsenal by the Montreal Locomotive Works, which was a subsidiary of the American Locomotive Company. The primary guns if the Ram cruiser tanks were the British 2-pounder guns. The design was finalized in Jun 1941 and production began in Nov 1941. Only three months later, battlefield experience had proved that 2-pdr guns were too weak to combat German equipment, thus the Ram II variant were quickly put together to use 6-pounder guns; Ram II variant design remained in production until Jul 1943. Although designed and built as combat vehicles, most of the Ram cruiser tanks never saw combat, and instead served in training roles in the UK only. By Jul 1943, a total of 1,948 Ram cruiser were made, including 84 artillery observation vehicles built upon the same design. After that point, most Canadian units were converted to using the American M4 Sherman tanks. Some of the Ram cruiser tanks were converted to Kangaroo armored personnel carriers.

ww2dbaseAfter the war, the Royal Netherlands Army was given all Canadian Ram cruiser tanks that were present at military dumps in Dutch territory. The tanks were deployed to the 1st and 2nd Tank Battalion as the first tank units in the history of the Dutch military. In 1947, the United Kingdom provided the Netherlands a further 44 Ram tanks, 40 of which had previously been converted to use the British 75-millimeter gun and 4 were command vehicles with fake guns. These tanks remained in use in the Netherlands until 1952. After becoming obsolete, some of them were encased in two feet of concrete to form static pillboxes on the Dutch IJssel Line.

SPECIFICATIONS

Ram II

Machinery	Continental R-975 9-cyl radial gasoline engine rated at 340hp
Suspension	Vertical Volute Spring Suspension
Armament	1x57mm Mk III QF 6-pdr gun or 1x57mm Mk V QF 6-pdr gun (92 rounds), 1x or 2x7.7mm Browning machine gun
Armor	87mm
Crew	5
Length	5.79 m
Width	2.67 m
Height	2.90 m
Weight	29.0 t
Speed	25 km/h
Range	232 km

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