Hobart’s ‘Funnies’

Hobart disagreed with the German interpretation of combined arms warfare. He believed that tanks were the supreme battlefield weapon and could operate with limited infantry support. In 1938, Hobart was sent to form and train Mobile Force (Egypt), a nascent armored brigade consisting mainly of armored cars. He transformed the unit, preparing it for rigorous desert campaigning. Mobile Force (Egypt) would eventually morph into the famous 7th Armoured Division (the “Desert Rats”).

However, Hobart’s unorthodox views and abrasive personality led to clashes with his senior commanders, and he was relieved of duty in 1940, returning to England. Becoming a corporal in the Home Guard, Hobart quickly set about organizing his local village into a mini fortress against possible German invasion.

But as Britain’s situation grew increasingly desperate, Churchill developed a tendency to back mavericks. He not only brought Hobart out of retirement, but also gave him a general’s commission. By 1942, he was commanding the newly formed 79th Armoured Division.

Early in the war, the British were obsessed with so-called infantry tanks, or I-tanks – slow-moving, well-armed tanks designed to move with the infantry and break through entrenched positions. Faster-moving cruiser tanks would then take on the mobile exploitation role, leaving the slower I-tanks behind.

The drawbacks of this idea became evident early in the North African Campaign. Faster-moving German mobile units initially caused problems for British forces. By the time Allied forces began preparing for D-Day, however, the situation had changed.

What was called for was a tank force that could adapt to specialist roles, working close in with the infantry to break German fortified positions. This was something the 79th was designed for, and at the division’s height, Hobart would have close to 2,000 vehicles under his command. Here are some of those special armored fighting vehicles.

Easily the most terrifying “funny” was the Churchill Crocodile – a tank fitted with a flamethrower. The Crocodile was essentially a conversion of the Churchill Mark VII. The bow machine gun was stripped out and replaced with a flamethrower that could hurl a jet of fire up to 130 yards. Around 800 Crocodile conversion kits were produced during the war, but not all of these were used operationally.

Lieutenant Andrew Wilson wrote an account about seeing a demonstration of the Crocodile in September 1942:

“A little burst of fire, like a struck match above the nozzle, tested the spark and the tank began to move forward. It went towards the first target, a concrete pill-box. Suddenly there was rushing in the air, a vicious hiss. From the front of the tank, a burning yellow rod shot out. Out and out it went, up and up with a noise like the slapping of a thick leather strap. The rod curved and started to drop, throwing off burning particles. It struck the concrete with a violent smack. A dozen yellow fingers leapt out from the point of impact searching for cracks and apertures. All at once the pillbox was engulfed in fire – belching, twisting red-roaring fire. And clouds of queer-smelling grey-black smoke. Then another rushing. This time the rod went clean through an embrasure, smacking, belching, roaring. The flame shot out through the back of the pillbox, fanning like a blow-torch.”

Crocodiles first saw combat on D-Day as part of the 141st Regiment, Royal Armoured Corps. Shortly afterwards, this unit was assigned to the 79th Armoured Division, as it made its push towards the British objective of Caen.

Though Crocodiles were designed to destroy bunkers, they could be used against enemy armor if the range was close enough. During the Battle for Normandy, the 1st Battalion, Hampshire Regiment was ordered to attack positions held by the Panzer Lehr Division at La Senaudiere. Three Crocodile tanks from A Squadron, 141st Royal Armoured Corps (RAC) regiment were assigned to support the Hampshires.

As the tanks moved in, they were confronted with a Panther tank in the center of the village. It immediately placed two shells into one Crocodile, immobilizing it. The other two Crocodiles came up — one fired its 75mm main gun at the German tank, but the shell simply bounced off. The second one deployed its flamethrower, instantly destroying the Panther. Other German tanks in the village then made a swift withdrawal.

Such was the growing psychological power of the Crocodile that British crews would occasionally give German infantry holed up in bunkers a “wet spray” as a ranging shot (which meant firing the petrol from the flamethrower without igniting it). This was usually enough to get the enemy to emerge with their hands up.

The Americans requested the British send Crocodiles to assist the assault on the fortified port city of Brest. In all, 15 Crocodiles (along with some support tanks) were sent in September 1944.

Fort Montbarey was an 18th century fortification located just outside Brest and its walls were 40 feet thick. It had defied traditional methods to take it. The path to the fort was lined with German gun positions, all of which were dealt with by a single crocodile expending its entire fuel supply on the afternoon of the 14th. The Germans in the fort stoutly held on until the final assault on the 16th, when multiple crocodiles flamed much of the structure. Over 60 dazed survivors emerged to be taken prisoner. American GIs were extremely impressed by the effectiveness of the Crocodile.

Some Crocodiles were used by the British Army as late as the Korean War. They likely ditched their trailers and operated as gun tanks, apparently performing very well on the rugged terrain.

In 1942, Canadian and British forces launched a raid in force on the channel port of Dieppe. It proved a disaster, with the Canadians taking well over 3,000 casualties. One of the issues was that Canadian engineers had been cut down by withering fire on the beach.

After the disaster, Lt J.J. Denovan of the Royal Canadian Engineers proposed designing a tank to carry engineers in combat, allowing them a degree of protection when placing demolition charges. The Churchill tank chassis was chosen because of its roomy interior and many escape hatches. Designated the Churchill AVRE (Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers), this new tank was to revolutionize how British and Commonwealth engineers operated in Northwest Europe.

A new main armament was fixed to the AVRE: the 290mm Petard spigot mortar — capable of firing a projectile filled with 23 lbs of plastic explosive. It was designed for short-range bunker busting, but crews quickly found it was also capable of leveling fortified buildings.

Rather worrisome for the machine gun operator, the spigot could only be reloaded from the muzzle, meaning he would have to climb outside the tank to do it, something that could prove challenging under fire. Fortunately, the impact of a single well-placed spigot round was often enough to end a firefight.

The AVRE crew carried a slew of demolition charges stored inside the tank, and the many escape hatches provided opportunities for enterprising engineers to slip out of the vehicle, place a charge, and dart back inside. Charges could then be detonated remotely from inside the relative safety of the vehicle.

Harvey Smith of the 6th Assault Regiment, Royal Engineers, remembered how “the special explosives [were] carried in the panniers of AVREs for special jobs. This is why, when an AVRE ‘brewed up’ the heavy armored side plates were completely blown off.”

The Churchill Bridgelayer was designed to keep the Allied offensive moving after D-Day by bridging anti-tank ditches and small rivers. Laying took less than 2 minutes — and once laid, the bridge could carry tanks up to 40 tons in weight. The Bridgelayer concept had been based on earlier Valentine models, but it was found that the Valentine was too small to properly perform the role. The massive Churchill, however, excelled and 99 Churchill Bridgelayers were produced during the war, with 25 being sent to the USSR under lend-lease.

Between September 1943 and December 1944, the British also built more than 600 Sherman Crabs. Most were given to the 30th Armoured Brigade of the 79th Armoured Division. Designed with a huge multi-chained flail on the front to trip and explode mines, Sherman Crab troops usually operated in teams of five. Three tanks would roll forward and flail while the other two stood by providing cover.

When flailing, the Crab could run at a speed of about 1.5 mph and had a mine detonating efficiency of 91%. As well as clearing mines, the flail also provided an excellent frontal defense against incoming projectiles.

Private Marten Eineg of the German 726th Infantry Regiment encountered a team of Crabs near Gold Beach on D-Day:

“As the mine-clearing tanks came closer, the noise was incredible, and the pounding of the chains on the earth could be felt under us. Several times, a chain came loose from the spinning drum after a mine explosion, and the chain flew up into the air a great distance, and then came falling to the ground. One of these huge chains, which was about three metres long, fell in this way onto two of our men and knocked them both unconscious where they were crouching. One of their comrades leaped up and aimed his Panzerfaust over the ridge, and the weapon fired, sending a jet of flame back behind it. I looked over the ridge, and saw the rocket head strike the revolving chains. The projectile was simply knocked up into the air and it went away across the slope.”

The Sherman DD (Duplex Drive) was designed to convert Sherman tanks into amphibious landing vehicles that could float ashore under their own power. First tested in 1941 on a Tetrarch tank, after proving they were fitted to 600 Valentines. However, by 1944, Valentines were obsolete (most were sent to Soviet Russia via lend-lease), so Hobart decided to convert the battle-tested Sherman tank. A total of 573 were built. The existence of DD tanks was a state secret and not made official until after the war.

On D-Day, the British equipped three armored regiments with DDs with mixed results. For example, the 4th/7th Dragoon Guards had to land all their DDs by ship, completely negating their intended use. The 13th/18th Hussars had better luck, with 34 DDs launched, of which three sank, and at least five were ship-landed. Nevertheless, the appearance of even some Sherman DDs on the British and Canadian beaches proved a significant advantage in those early hours of the invasion.

The irony was that, due to delays in launching, it was Churchill AVREs and Sherman Crabs that came ashore first in many British and Canadian sectors, helping to neutralize German positions.

Laurie Burn was a Sherman DD driver who successfully made it to Sword Beach on D-Day. His tank managed to get ashore seven and a half minutes late, but “as soon as we dropped the floater screen, we were swamped by the incoming high tide, which flooded the engine compartment. There was nothing left to do but evacuate — but first we fired our guns as long as we could…” Before bailing out, the crew made sure to collect all their stashed tins of cigarettes.

The Americans did employ DDs on D-Day, but many were launched too early from the ships, resulting in catastrophic DD losses and contributing to the high casualties sustained by the infantry on Omaha Beach.

After D-Day, the South Staffordshire Yeomanry (attached to 79th Armoured) used DDs in the crossing of the Scheldt in September 1944, and again in the crossing of the Rhine in March 1945.

The 79th Armoured Division was disbanded on Aug. 20, 1945 as the new British government sought to cut the army back to peacetime levels. However, Hobart kept key staff from the 79th with him when he went on to command the Specialised Armour Development Establishment (SADE), where he and ex-79th Division personnel continued to develop and refine armored warfare techniques and equipment.

Hobart would command SADE for only a year, though, retiring from the army in 1946. He died in Surrey in 1957 at age 71. His unusual doctrines and out-of-the-box thinking were not always correct, but he is responsible for molding the best two British armored divisions of World War II.