Italeri 6551 Kangaroo Armored Personnel Carrier

The Kangaroo was a Canadian tracked armored personnel carrier from the Second World War. The first prototypes of the car were built in 1943, and serial production was carried out in 1944-1945. More than 600 vehicles of this type were created in the course of production. The car was powered by a single engine Continental R-975 with 405 HP. The total length of the cart was about 5.8 meters, with a width of 2.8 meters. The armament consisted of a single 7.62 mm Browning M1919 machine gun.

A series of cars Kangaroo was developed by an officer of the Canadian army - General Guy Simonds. Vehicles of this type were created by converting the M4 Sherman and Ram ora M7 Priest self-propelled guns to the role of armored personnel carriers. The main changes concerned the disassembly of the main armament, as well as - in the case of tanks - the removal of the turrets. As a result, great armored personnel carriers, capable of carrying 8 to 10 soldiers, were created in a very simple way. What's more, they had the same armor and mobility as the tanks or self-propelled guns from which they were rebuilt, which greatly influenced the possibility of combined operations. Kangaroo wagons were baptized into combat during Operation Totalize in August 1944 in Normandy. They were used in combat both in North-Western Europe in 1944-1945, as well as in Italy in the same years. Vehicles of this type also served in the British Army.