Recovering D-Day Vehicle

The Canadian War Museum has acquired an integral piece of Canada’s D-Day story: an M4A2 Sherman beach armoured recovery vehicle (BARV).

Donated by The Tank Museum in the United Kingdom, the BARV hull is one of only five such vehicles known to exist and will become the sole Sherman BARV on display in North America.

“The War Museum is one of the only institutions in Canada with the expertise to fully restore these types of complex military vehicles,” says James Whitham, the museum’s director general. “We’re excited to be able to bring this into our collection and begin the painstaking restoration of this rare vehicle, which will help us tell the story of Canada’s involvement in the Normandy landings and subsequent beach operations.” 

BARVs were vital to Canadian and Allied success on June 6, 1944, during the D-Day landings at Juno Beach and elsewhere. They could operate in water up to three metres deep and helped move vehicles blocking the beaches that had either broken down or been damaged by enemy fire. Sherman BARVs were also used during the Rhine River crossing in March 1945 and remained in British military service until 1963. The precise involvement of this particular BARV on D-Day is still being researched.

The vehicle was originally recovered from a firing range on Salisbury Plain in southern England and has been preserved at The Tank Museum since 2009. Due to the extent of restoration required, it will be several years before the BARV is ready for public display.