Conquering the Normandy beaches and challenging landscape behind them was such an enormous endeavor that special vehicles were needed to support the infantry to the fullest. From 1940 on, the Germans had been building the Atlantic Wall along the coast of Europe, and infantrymen alone could simply not silence the series of obstacles, minefields and pillboxes.
During the Dieppe Raid of 1942, where the Allies failed to take the port of Dieppe from the Germans, many tanks had gotten stuck on the sand and shingles on the beaches beaches. So many tanks and crewmembers had been lost, that a solution was needed before another invasion could take place.
The Allies had tasked the Royal Engineers and the 79th Armoured Division with designing vehicles that were up to the task. They delivered, and a series of remarkable creations rolled from their workshops. Named after Major General Percy Hobart, the Commander of the Division, “Hobard’s Funnies” were used extensively during Operation OVERLORD.
All in all, “Hobard’s funnies” was comprised of some 7,000 vehicles during the war. Although several models of tanks were used, the majority of “funnies” were based upon the British Churchill tank and American Sherman tank, that were chosen for their reliability and plentiful numbers.
Churchill tanks were refitted with flamethrowers that could spew liquid fire as far as 120 yards. The monsters were renamed “Crocodiles”. The great thing about the Crocodile was that it was based upon a kit that could be fitted to any Churchill MK VII tank in the field, meaning the tank was transformed into a flame thrower that could still use its main cannon.
Crocodile
A range of “funnies” was classified as AVRE, or Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers, and were used for a variety of jobs. The “Double Onion” had a frame with two explosive charges that could be placed against the sides of pillboxes, be detonated from a distance, and effectively blow holes in the thick concrete. “Petards” could launch 40 pound (18 kg) mortars and “Fascines” carried tied bundles of wood that could be used to fill trenches or small streams. The “Crab tank” was a Sherman tank that carried a large cylinder with metal chains with metal balls on the end that spun around and detonated landmines. The Allies also used Caterpillar Bulldozers that had been fitted with armor plating.
Fascine
“Bobbins” could place artificial pathways of cloth reinforced with steel bars over wet or soft ground, keeping other vehicles from getting stuck. This vehicle had been designed after it had been discovered that some beaches had patches of wet clay that could trap tanks.
Bobbin
DD (Duplex Drive) tanks, or “Donald Duck” colloquial, had a watertight canvas housing, known as a ‘flotation screen’, meaning the tanks could drive into the water and float towards the coast. Unfortunately, these tanks and their crews had only trained in calm surf. As the waves on D-Day were much wilder and higher, many of the contraptions were flooded, and the tanks sank to the bottom of the English Channel, many of them with their crew still inside. As a result of the tanks, the infantry was deprived of much needed armored support once they landed on the fire-swept beaches of Normandy.
DD tank
Although the successful invasion of the D-Day landings was ultimately up to the infantry, they could now have taken the beaches without the help of the “funnies”. In the end, the vehicles not only helped win the war, but they provided the basis for vehicles used in warfare until well after 1945.
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