bookThe C15TA in Canadian Service
by Roger V Lucy.
Canada's Weapons of War Series, WOW035
A5 size softback, 24 pages
ISBN: 978-1-894581-75-2
Service Publications,
Canada

Review by Peter Brown


The C15TA armoured carrier entered Canadian service by a roundabout route.

It was intended to meet a British requirement for a lightly-armoured personnel carrier as an alternative to the American M3A1 Scout Car. The initial production order was to be built for British use while the Canadians did not see any need for them. However they were taken into use, serving during the last year of WW2 and beyond with many operated by other armies post-war.

Developed from the Otter Reconnaissance Car (see WOW32) it was a lightly-armoured vehicle intended to carry a small squad of infantrymen in the assault role or as a radio-equipped command vehicle. Like the Otter it was based on a standard General Motors Canada 15cwt 4x4 light truck chassis with a more powerful engine. It had good cross-country performance and was reliable in service but even its light armour overloaded the chassis.

Attempts to produce a better command vehicle came to nothing because of the weight problem, an armoured ambulance using the same basic vehicle but with higher sides showed promise but never entered production.

The history, development, design and production of the C15TA is covered in similar format to other books in this series, a well-written text giving facts and details backed up with several period black and white photos showing the vehicle from outside and in. A useful series shows one of them in service in NW Europe with various add-ons. Also briefly covered is the CAPLAD which was intended to replace the C15TA with a more capable vehicle though it never went beyond the prototype stage.

Five-view plans across the centre pages shows a typical vehicle including markings with an additional side view of the ambulance version.


Sample Pages
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Thanks to Clive Law at Service Publications for the review book.



Page created June 17, 2012



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