Major General Percy Hobart began his career in the Bengal Sappers and Miners and then transferred to the Royal Tank Regiment. He was, therefore, uniquely qualified to carry out his task of designing armoured vehicles to deal with the Germans’ defences. Gifted with a powerful intellect himself, he exploded with volcanic rage if people failed to grasp immediately what he was proposing. Not even senior officers escaped his fury, but he produced results. The most versatile of Hobart’s 79th Armoured Division’s vehicles was the AVRE (Assault Vehicle Royal Engineers), developed as a direct result of the experience gained during the Dieppe raid. The hull of the Churchill tank was chosen because of its roomy interior, heavy armour, and adaptability. It was fitted with a specially designed turret mounting a 290-millimetre spigot mortar named a petard. This threw an 18-kilogram (40-pound) bomb and was capable of cracking open concrete fortifications, to a maximum range of 210 metres (230 yards). In addition, standardised external fitting enabled the AVRE to be used in a variety of ways. It could carry a fascine up to 2.4 metres (8 feet) in diameter and 4.2 metres (14 feet) wide that it could drop into anti-tank ditches, forming a causeway. It could lay a small box girder bridge with a 40-ton capacity across gaps of up to 9 metres (30 feet), and could be fitted with a bobbin that unrolled a carpet of hessian and metal tubing ahead of the vehicle, creating a firm track over areas of soft going. It could place demolition charges against an obstacle or fortification, then detonate them by remote control after it had reversed away. It could push mobile bridges into position, or be fitted with a plough that brought mines to the surface. The division’s standard mine-clearing tank was the Sherman Crab. This employed a powered rotating drum that beat the ground ahead of the tank with chains, detonating any mines in its path. The Crab was capable of clearing a lane almost 3 metres (10 feet) wide at a speed of 2 kilometres (1.25 miles) per hour and could fight as a conventional gun tank when it was not flailing. The Allies required a tank to land ahead of or with the first assault wave. Following experiments, Hobart decided to adopt the DD (Duplex Drive) Sherman amphibious tank. When swimming, this was kept afloat by a collapsible canvas flotation screen and driven by twin propellers. Major General Percy Hobart Only a few millimetres of the screen appeared above the water, resembling a harmless ship’s boat. Once ashore, the screen was collapsed, the drive to the propellers disengaged, and the tank proceeded normally on its tracks. Together, the AVRE, the Crab, and the DD formed the basis of the Division’s assault teams on D Day. Following the invasion they were joined by the Churchill Crocodile flame thrower (recognisable by its armoured trailer containing the flaming fuel and propellant gas cylinders), tracked landing vehicles named Buffaloes, Canal Defence Lights (Grants fitted with a powerful armoured searchlight), and Kangaroos (turret-less tanks or self-propelled gun carriages stripped of their armament and used as armoured personnel carriers).
