Strathcona Museum offers a relic with better connection to Olds military history
The Olds Legion has moved a step closer to discarding its old Sherman tank and owning a more historically appropriate “Easy 8” model.
And in doing so the Second World War era relic will better honour the town's military past.
Since 1993 Olds' Royal Canadian Legion Branch 105 has had a modified Sherman Tank outside its headquarters, acquired from the United States for $110,000.
But the tank had no direct connection to Olds veterans who served in the military near or after the end of the Second World War, when it was used by the British King's Own Regiment. As well, the existing tank was heavily modified when later acquired by the Israeli military and used in the Golan Heights of Syria during the Six-Day War in 1967.
The new tank, if formally accepted this month by the membership of the Olds Legion, was the same type used by “B Squadron,” an Olds unit that trained with four similar tanks following the Second World War.
“It is the same kind of tank that is being offered. It seems to me on the surface a much better connection to Olds,” said Warrant Officer Ted MacLeod, curator of the Strathcona Museum, located in The Military Museums in Calgary. “It was a type that was used by the squadron in Olds.”
The official military name of the Strathcona Museum tank is M4A2E8, one of almost 40 Sherman models designed and built by the Americans during the Second World War era. But it is better known in military circles as a Sherman Easy 8. It has a 76-mm gun and weighs between 32 and 35 tonnes. It is about the same size as the current tank at the museum. MacLeod believes it was assembled sometime between 1946 and 1948.
Mark Swanson, president of the Olds Legion, believes the offer is a good deal both for the legion and the town. He said the tank is being offered free to the Legion but because it has a value of more than $5,000 the issue must be put to a vote before the members. The vote is scheduled for Oct. 11.
Swanson said he expects the vote to be a mere formality.
The old tank is expected to be offered to the Strathcona Museum.
“We will take it away from them. It has very little connection to anything. The new tank will be better than the one they now have at the legion,” said MacLeod. “If they want (the new tank), that's great. If they don't I will find another home.”
Although owned by the Strathcona Museum in Calgary the new tank is currently sitting on a pad in front of the headquarters of the Lord Strathcona's Horse armoured regiment in Edmonton.
MacLeod is hoping to have the new tank transported to the Olds Legion by Christmas.
“It is all weather dependent,” he said.
