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17 Pounder from BC to SK Canada

eaw46

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
Hi I am looking to get a WW2 17 Pounder gun from Vancouver BC Canada to Regina SK Canada. It is aprox 22 ft long and 7 ft wide and is about 5000lbs. The barrel can be removed and it can be made to be 15 ft long. Not in a big hurry and help in loading and unloading can be there. Thanks Eddy
 

Alredneck

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TN
If I had my passport to get across the border I would be all over trying to do that haul. Beautiful country and hauling arty cant go wrong with that! Would have to stop and do some fishing though along the way!
 

Wile E. Coyote

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Where did you find one of those in Vancouver? I'm going to have to do some more digging, you prarie chickens are getting Way too much cool stuff! Good find!
There were two in B.C. that I'm aware of: the first lives in the Ashton Armouries Museum in Victoria (Vancouver Island), and the second was out in front of (beside, actually) the Cloverdale Motor Vehicle Branch near the Cloverdale Fairgrounds for the longest time before someone stole the flash hider in the dead of night and the gun itself wound up at, I think Victory Memorial Gardens in White Rock, B.C.

Ashton Armouries Museum was trying to trade off the 17 pdr for something smaller and easier to move around/tow around in parades and such (I believe they were thinking 6 pdr or 2 pdr at the time), but that was about a year or so ago and that particular end of the grapevine went silent.
 

Stan Leschert

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I'm a tanker, so I don't know field guns, but the little gun that sat in front of Legion #5 in Richmond, now lives on the front lawn of the White rock city hall. If I can remember, I'll snap a picture of it whem I'm down there on Friday. Otherwise, you'll have to wait a month, until I get back from vacation.
 

Wile E. Coyote

Active member
392
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Location
Lynden WA
I'm a tanker, so I don't know field guns, but the little gun that sat in front of Legion #5 in Richmond, now lives on the front lawn of the White rock city hall. If I can remember, I'll snap a picture of it whem I'm down there on Friday. Otherwise, you'll have to wait a month, until I get back from vacation.
Actually that's a 25 pdr on the lawn in White Rock, and it used to be one of two in the Veterans section of Victory Memorial Gardens before some 'let's modernize this place' individual thought they needed a new home. City of White Rock got the one, and the 15 Fd. Arty Museum got the other.

The Br. 5 Legion gun was a huge 90mm AA gun of WWII vintage (1943, if memory serves) which was donated to a museum as the Legion was set to be closed/demolished...ooooh...more than a few years ago now. The Legion's first choice was to make it a donation to 12 SVC Bn out in Richmond to add to their vehicle park as another gate guardian, but the army couldn't come up with the expertise needed quickly enough by the deadline to get the barrel down from its welded position pointed skyward and into something more horizontal as suitable for towing (T&E mechs and breechblock were all welded shut.) Rumour has it that the museum involved in its recovery just inflated the tires after 30-40 years on the plinth and just towed it straight down the freeway! Must've been quite the sight.

Canada used the 90mm in troops of three or four as antiaircraft defense, with a radar and command and control trailer automatically controlling them. You'd have a wide-scanning search radar and a close quarters or fighting radar, and as the target was tracked, the troop of guns would automatically elevate and traverse to track the target. Pretty cool system in its day, but outclassed by the early 1960s by surface-to-air missiles. Lots were donated to Legions and ANAF/ VFW posts. Two were recently sold off by a guy in Quebec, and another still sits in the middle of some concrete circle in front of a Legion somewhere in Alberta or Saskatchewan.

Attachments:

Pic. 1 is a 25 pdr Mk II (with flash hider) like the White Rock gun
Pic. 2 is a 90mm AA gun like the Legion gun, shown deployed (the Legion one had the wheel set with it displayed in half-assed travelling mode)
Pic. 3 is a closeup of the 90mm AA gun showing the fuzer and I think the Traverse indicator and manual Traverse station.
 

Attachments

Wile E. Coyote

Active member
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Lynden WA
Also, just for fun, here are another couple of pics - the first is of the 17 pdr gun type that the proud new owner wants hauled home, and the second is the 6 pdr (57 mm) gun that the 17 pdr nominally replaced (as the 6 pdr had replaced the 2 pdr before it.) The 17 pdr was also installed in the variant of the Sherman called the "Firefly", so there's an armored connection after all!
 

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Stan Leschert

New member
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North Vancouver, BC, Canada
I just had a pint with the past commanding officer of 6 Field Artilliery. You know that as soon as I forward this thread to him, my cell phone is going to be buzzing. Col. John Carter knows more about guns, than I ever knew about green vehicles!
 
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