Canadian Sherman M4A4 Rolls into Caen, France — Operation Overlord, 1944

June 24, 2025 - Reading time: 3 minutes

A Canadian Sherman M4A4 from the 27th Armoured Regiment (Sherbrooke Fusiliers) enters the city of Caen during the Allied campaign in Normandy.

Caen, July 10, 1944.
The dust of Normandy swirls once more — but this time, it’s not kicked up by the boots of an occupying army, but by Canadian steel.

Rumbling through the war-torn streets of Caen is a Sherman M4A4 tank, operated by the 27th Canadian Armoured Regiment, better known as the Sherbrooke Fusiliers. These men weren’t just part of the Allied invasion — they were on the frontline of the push through occupied France.

The M4A4 variant was powered by the Chrysler A57 Multibank engine — a beast made from five car engines fused into one. Though slightly longer than other Shermans, it gave Canadian crews a reliable, if quirky, workhorse in the brutal urban fighting of Normandy.

Operation Overlord wasn’t won in a day. And cities like Caen became brutal proving grounds. The Fusiliers fought house by house, block by block, often under heavy fire from entrenched Wehrmacht defenders. The Sherman in this image is a symbol of that grinding advance — the tip of the spear for Canadian forces in the liberation of Europe.

📷 Technical photo data:
📸 Photographer: Unknown war correspondent
📅 Date: July 10, 1944
📍 Location: Caen, Normandy, France