It was originally intended that some 1,200 Grizzlies be in service come early 1944 but this plan eventually came to naught when the American M4 Sherman model became an all-too available commodity for Canadian, British and Australian consumption. The Canadian War Office eventually nixed the plan for the locally-built Shermans and decided to accept the American-produced ones instead.
Montreal Locomotive Works was tapped to produce the Grizzly, with production beginning in August of 1943. Upon the decision handed down by the War Office, production instead switched over to the valuable 25-pounder SP gun. Despite the official cancellation of further Grizzlies, the first 23 completed systems were still delivered in October of 1943. This was eventually followed by another 165 production examples bringing the total to 188 units.
The Grizzly I Cruiser tank program was officially completed in January of 1944. In the post-war years, some 55 Grizzlies were shipped off to Portugal and many thereafter became collector's items. The Grizzly was also spawned into a makeshift armored personnel carrier noted with the Grizzly APC designation. Portugal also received approximately 40 of these systems and used a handful in driver training exercises. The fate of the armored personnel carriers found them sold for scrapping at the end of their useful run.
Amazingly, the Grizzly class of Sherman tanks represent some of the more numerous types of Shermans still running today.
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