Tank crews in Cdn Armoured companies

I have inquired before about a cover I have, which was addressed to a Canadian Grenadier Guardsman who apparently was killed at the time of the Battle for Falaise. He was a member of Company C, 22nd Canadian Armoured Regiment.

Now I have a new question: In a Canadian armoured company, what percentage of soldiers were tank crewmen, and what percentage were in support capacities? In other words, what was the liklihood that he was a tank crewman?

Bob Ingraham

Any indication what Battalion, company, or platoon he was with? Any way to look up records for this?

Some space filling related information here follows:

With my experience, (not Canad. or WWII), but fairly likely reasonable figures. A Tank Platoon had about 45 in it, and 20 of them were tank crewmen for the 5 tanks. so chances would be about 45%.

Each Tank Company had the 3 tank platoons, plus about 50 more in the ?headquarters / service platoon? So more like 60 of 210, about 30%.

And thus at Bn & Regt. odds get progressivly less with more mechanics and clerks and cooks and truck drivers and planners required to complete the mission. (sent to group 3/24)

The address on the envelope appears to read: 'Gdsm. R.J. Tester, 22nd C.A.B. [Canadian Armoured Brigade], C.G.G. [Canadian Grenadier Guards], No. 2 Sqdn., Can. Army Overseas.'

While the envelope has been heavily censored with smears of black ink, it is possible to make out the word 'DECEASED' beneath the only mark that might have had part of the address under it. There appear to be no other words beneath that particular mark. See a scan at <http://www.ingraham.ca/bob/testercovermedium.jpg>.

Bob Ingraham

{snip}

The only info I can find is on British Arnmoured Squadrons, but they should give a rough idea. In 1944, cruiser squadrons had:

Squadron HQ (3 officers & 22 men) - operating 3-4 tanks plus support vehicles Five (or four) Tank Troops with 1 officer and 14 (or 19) men in 3 (or 4) tanks. Admin troop with 57 men - I guess these guys did maintenance & repair and A/B echelon supply stuff.

So the squadron strength is around 162 men, of which 75 (or 80) are in front line tank troops.

Cheers

my question about Canadian armoured regiment organization. The information provided was certainly detailed enough for my purpose, an article about about the KIA cover in question and Canada's wartime Ram tank stamp.

Bob Ingraham

But I would expect that the front line tank troops would be where most of the casulties came from, right? Certainly at the division level, but even at the squadron level I would think that the front line troops would take more casulties than the rear echelon fellows.

Given that we know he was a casulty, I would put the chances that this man was a tanker at greater than 50%.

Chris Manteuffel