Scan supplied by Alistair Taylor

A close-up of infantry loading onto another Kangaroo in the same column. It was awkward at best, but the relative security of riding within the Kangaroo's hull rendered the exercise well worthwhile. The alternatives were slogging through the mud or riding on the back of Shermans or Churchills, neither option particularly desireable; the former meant being wet, cold, vulnerable and slow, while the latter meant you were a juicy target for any wayward German AT gun, which tended to be attracted to tanks.

On the other hand, riding into battle in a Kangaroo provided the hitherto unknown luxury of keeping your feet dry and having a comparatively high degree of protection from anti-personnel mines, shell fragments and machinegun fire. Most Kangaroos had little to fear from antitank weapons as well, for during an mixed-unit advance of tanks and carriers, the AT defences tended to concentrate on the former, or risk being wiped out themselves.

Debussing a Kangaroo on the objective was a simple matter - get over the side as fast as possible under cover of the average carrier's two to three Browning machine guns. There are documented instances of the fire brought down by a troop of Kangaroos keeping the enemy undercover long enough for the infantry to secure the objective virtually or even completely without cost.

Even if you had the misfortune to be wounded in the action immediately following your debussing, you could depend upon your Kangaroo crew to carry you back to the RAP as soon as they were released by the local commander.

The armoured personnel carrier was a concept which saved many lives and accelerated the Allied victory immeasureably. We owe them a lot.

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