Falling short of their assigned objectives due to traffic congestion, road damage, and a cautious pace, the regiment formed a defensive harbour formation overnight to prepare for the next day.

In two days of intense combat, the Canadian tankers destroyed 41 enemy Panther and Panzer IV tanks.

[6] Later in July near to Bourguébus Ridge, in the Allies’ push south towards Falaise,[7] a Panzer IV fired at and hit a spare road wheel mounted on Bomb's hull.

The crews and their officers appreciated the value of external layers of track sections, road wheels and stowage boxes, even though rear echelon technical staff disapproved.

The Canadian Corps’ concentrated and unrelenting operations had depleted the enemy's ability to defend along multiple axes of attack.

Hoping to bowl the Germans backwards, phase one of Operation Tractable on the west side of the Liaze River, had infantry and attached SFR tank squadrons pressing towards the village of Clair Tizon south of Bretteville-sur-la-Laize.

Even while the Falaise Pocket was collapsing, the Britain and Canadian armoured divisions turned left to pursue German units retreating out of Normandy.

From their position on the east end of the pocket, the SFR was ordered to move quickly towards the Seine River to secure strategic routes into northern France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Command staff had recognized that the hard surface roads were undamaged and would be needed for main supply routes until other seaports could be liberated.

In early September in the Forêt de la Londe near Elbeuf, understrength Canadian infantry brigades tangled disastrously with rearguard German units with heavy losses.

The citation said "In the breakout from Cleve in late February 1945, Lt Neill was leading a B Sqn troop of four tanks and a column of Kangaroo APCs.

With darkness, smoke, mud, artillery and mortar fire, vehicle and personnel casualties, lagging infantry, and just about everything against him, Neill dashed forward with another tank to secure the objective and hold it for the trailing APCs to catch up and fully ‘consolidate without appreciable loss’.

As winter set in the regiment had periods of idleness due to bad weather, lack of replacement crews and tanks, and supply shortages.

Lt White was already an experienced armoured soldier in another regiment, having risen to Sergeant Major before taking his commission and attending Sandhurst Military College.

Six weeks after assuming command, Lt White was wounded while dismounted during the offensive to capture the Pimple on Calcar Ridge, near Deventer.

Mingo's postwar accounts of the final days described wasteful enemy counterattacks that left the fields in front of the Fusiliers’ positions covered with German dead.

[15] Finally, in the border town of Emden, Lt Mingo received news from the tank's radio, "Unload, clear guns, the war is over.

[16] The tank and crew members Rudolph, Moreault and Hall were the subject of a Canadian Army Film and Photo Unit short documentary made in 1945 entitled The Green Fields Beyond (number 2090) in 1945.

[17] Several years after the war, on-line reminisces of crew member Lt White suggested four tanks including Bomb were floated across the Rhine in March 1945.

This story is implausible because there is no mention of such an audacious raid in the regimental history published postwar, contemporary War Diaries, period documents including Corps level orders, and thoroughly researched secondary sources.

In the extreme left and right upper corners of the rear sponsons are two small storage compartments intended for extra track grousers.

The bow M1919A4 machine gun canvas dustcover's slot-style fitting is still present, although the ball mount itself has been removed and the opening plated over for display.

It has a one-piece rounded nose drawing E 4186 differential housing with the characteristic mid-production shot-defection lip for the bolt heads.

However, there are welding scars and remnant bars on the front glacis, which correspond to where extra track sections were attached in Normandy to defeat German tank and anti-tank guns projectiles.

The running gear is US-made Sherman not Canadian-made Vertical Volute Spring System (VVSS), with rear offset return rollers.

It was one of four Canadian tanks shipped from service in Northwestern Europe to preservation in Canada, along with Forceful III in Ottawa and Holy Roller in London, Ontario.

[20] The tank was on display at the Champs de Mars Park in Sherbrooke, Quebec, and later moved to the front lawns of the William Street Armoury.

Forceful III landed in Normandy six weeks after D-Day with the 21st Armoured Regiment (The Governor General's Foot Guards).

For many years Forceful III stood outside Cartier Square Drill Hall, before being moved indoors at the Canadian War Museum.

For many years, Ernest Mingo, the tank's last commander, would make an annual visit to Sherbrooke from his home in Nova Scotia to visit Bomb and comrades from the Fusiliers,[22] while Dutch families, grateful for the tank's role in liberating the Netherlands, sent an annual gift of tulip bulbs to Mingo and Walter White at his home in West Gore, Nova Scotia.