Holy Roller damaged by vandals again

London’s iconic Second World War monument in Victoria Park has been vandalized again.

Illegible words have been carved into the front of the Holy Roller, the Canadian Sherman III tank that sits on a cement pad in the northside of the downtown park.

Illegible words carved into the front of the Holy Roller monument in Victoria Park. (Photo by Craig Needles, Blackburn Media)

The vandalism occurred August 24 and was reported to London police online a day later.

“The investigation is active and ongoing,” police said on Monday.

A damage estimate has not been released.

This is the second time vandals have struck since the tank, one of only two to survive the war from D-Day to VE Day, was fully restored in the spring. In June, a 44-year-old man was charged with mischief to a war memorial after an angle grinder was used to cause $6,000 damage to the tank.

The tank had been back in the green space for less than a week when that vandalism occurred. Prior to that, it spent a year undergoing a $150,000 restoration at Fanshawe College and was returned to the park with great fanfare.

The Holy Roller was part of the invasion of Nazi-occupied France by Allied forces on D-Day. It landed with London’s 1st Hussars regiment in Normandy roughly 20 minutes after the first assault troops went in. Despite its gun being damaged twice during the war, the Holy Roller survived 14 major battles and outlasted 346 other tanks.

It was returned to Canada in May 1946 and was presented to the City of London in June 1949 to commemorate the sacrifice made by members of the 1st Hussars during the Second World War. It was permanently placed in Victoria Park in May of 1956.

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