Hobart's Funnies is the nickname given to a number of specialist armoured fighting vehicles derived from tanks operated during the Second World War by units of the 79th Armoured Division of the British Army or by specialists from the Royal Engineers.

They were designed in light of problems that more standard tanks experienced during the amphibious Dieppe Raid, so that the new models would be able to overcome the problems of the planned invasion of Normandy. These tanks played a major part on the Commonwealth beaches during the landings. They were forerunners of the modern combat engineering vehicle and took their nickname from the 79th Division's commander, Major-General Percy Hobart.

The vehicles converted were chiefly Churchill tanks and American-supplied M4 Sherman tanks.

History

Plans to invade continental Europe were completely revised after the failure of the raid on Dieppe in 1942. Allied units in Normandy would need to overcome terrain, obstacles and coastal fortifications if the invasion were to succeed. General Sir Alan Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff decided in 1943 to create special units and assigned responsibility to armoured warfare expert Percy Hobart for the development of vehicles and training crews to use them in action.

Many of the ideas had already been tried, tested or were in experimental development both by Britain and other nations. For example, the Scorpion flail tank, a modified Matilda tank, had already been used during the North African campaign to clear paths through German minefields. Soviet T-34 tanks had been modified with mine-rollers. Close-support tanks, bridgelayers, and fascine carriers had been developed elsewhere also. However, the Funnies were the largest and most elaborate collection of engineering vehicles available.

By early 1944, Hobart could demonstrate to Generals Eisenhower and Montgomery a brigade each of swimming Duplex Drive (DD) amphibious tanks, "Crab" mine clearers, and AVRE tanks along with a regiment of Churchill Crocodile flame-thrower tanks.

Montgomery considered that the US forces should use them. A third of the "funnies" were offered to the Americans of all the vehicles available, but take-up was minimal. Eisenhower was in favour of the DD tanks but left the decision on the others to General Bradley. The Americans were reluctant to make use of the funnies because it was thought that they would require specialised training and an additional support organisation, and those based on the Churchill tank would entail the logistical complexity of adding another tank model to their inventory.

Bradley did request 25 flail tanks and 100 Churchill Crocodiles shortly after the demonstration in February 1944, and the British War Office agreed to supply them as well as British-crewed AVREs. However, there was judged to be insufficient time to produce the vehicles and train crews for the Normandy invasion, so on the day American forces were limited to DD tanks and their own Sherman bulldozer tanks and armoured bulldozers. 42 Assault Brigade, instead of supporting the US beaches, became a reserve for the British and Canadian beaches.

Considering results of the US landing on Omaha Beach, Bradley's decision has been criticised as it was felt that use of the range of "Funnies" could have saved American lives. After D-Day, American forces did make limited use of the Sherman Crab mine-clearing tank.

  • Centaur Bulldozer: A Centaur tank with the turret removed and fitted with a simple winch-operated bulldozer blade. These were produced because of a need for a well-armoured obstacle-clearing vehicle that, unlike a conventional bulldozer, would be fast enough to keep up with tank formations. They were not used on D-Day but were issued to the 79th Armoured Division in Belgium during the latter part of 1944.
  • Canal Defence Light: A powerful carbon-arc searchlight carried on several types of tank inside a modified turret. The name of the device was deliberately inaccurate in order to help keep it secret; its true purpose was to illuminate enemy positions during a night attack, providing light and dazzling defenders. It was designed to allow light to flood out of a comparatively small slit in the armour, minimising the chance of damage by enemy fire. This was not used on D-Day, but was used during the November 1944 Operation Clipper attack on the Geilenkirchen salient to create indirect artificial daylight. The Americans tested the CDL at the secret Camp Bouse in Bouse, Arizona.

The 79th also used the LVT "Buffalo", the British name for the American LVT2 and LVT4 lightly armoured amphibious landing vehicles. The latter had a ramp to ease loading of cargo. They were used in several operations, including the crossing of the Rhine.

<gallery mode="packed">

Image:Churchill AVRE carpet-layer with bobbin, 79th Armoured Division, March-April 1944. H37411.jpg|Churchill AVRE with a "bobbin"

Image:Flamethrowers in Action, August 1944 TR2313.jpg|Churchill Crocodile in action

Image:Sherman tank using a Churchill 'Ark' armoured ramp carrier to climb over an escarpment, 79th Armoured Division, 13 February 1944. H35790.jpg|A Sherman tank uses a Churchill Ark to climb an escarpment during a training exercise

Image:The British Army in the United Kingdom 1939-45 H29043.jpg|A Churchill AVRE, carrying a fascine, crosses a ditch using an already deployed fascine, (1943)

Image:Centaur dozer.jpg|Centaur Bulldozer

Image:D-7 Armoured Bulldozer.jpg|A D7 armoured bulldozer

Image:M4a4 flail cfb borden 1.JPG|Sherman Crab – an M4 Sherman tank fitted with a Mine flail

Image:Centaur Bulldozer.jpg|Centaur Bulldozer at The Tank Museum, Bovington

Image:The British Army in the United Kingdom 1939-45 H41966.jpg|A Canal Defence Light turret fitted to an M3 Grant tank; the CDL turret is fitted with a dummy gun

Image:The British Army in North-west Europe 1944-45 BU860.jpg|A Churchill AVRE with Small Box Girder Bridge and a Churchill Crocodile flame-throwing tank in 1945

File:Porpoise sledge WW2.jpg|Ammunition-carrying Porpoise sledge

</gallery>

Many of the prototypes and their auxiliary equipment were developed by AEC.

Post–Second World War use

The Centaur bulldozer continued to be used by the British Army for some years after the Second World War and saw action during the Korean War, as did the Churchill Crocodile. Also, small numbers of Churchill AVREs and Sherman BARVs were used until the 1960s, when they were replaced with similar vehicles based on the Centurion Tank. The Royal Engineers subsequently used modified Centurion and Chieftain tanks that are designed to fulfill the same roles in battle as the Funnies. The last examples of FV4003 Centurion Mk 5 AVRE 165 saw combat in the Gulf War/Operation Granby of 1991. The most recent vehicles in this line are the Titan and Trojan variants of the Challenger 2 tank.

Other nations developed their own armoured bulldozers after the war, such as the Soviet IMR variant of the T-72 tank, the US army's Rome plow, and the Israeli Armored CAT D9. Armoured bulldozers are still in use today for counter-insurgency by the Israel Defense Forces, the Egyptian army, and the Lebanese army.

Surviving vehicles

This is an incomplete list:

thumb|Churchill ARK self-propelled ramp layer at Chatham

  • Churchill ARK: A Churchill ARK is in South Africa, owned by the School of Engineering, Kroonstad. There is another at the Royal Engineers museum in Chatham.

thumb|Churchill Crocodile at Southsea

  • Churchill AVRE: The collection at The Tank Museum, Bovington includes a working Mark III Churchill AVRE. Another example is located in a hamlet of Graye-sur-Mer in Normandy; it is unusual in having been buried on D-Day in the shell-hole it fell into and then being recovered later as a memorial. MkIV AVREs are at the Imperial War Museum Duxford, the South African Armour Museum, and the National Museum of Military History, Johannesburg. A MkVII AVRE is a Gate guardian at the Allenby Barracks, at the Bovington army camp, headquarters of the Royal Wessex Yeomanry; another is at the Royal Engineers museum at Chatham, Medway. Several more AVREs still exist as wrecks on gunnery ranges.
  • Churchill Crocodile: There is one example, without trailer, on display at the Bayeux Museum of the Battle of Normandy. A complete vehicle with trailer is held at Bovington. Mark VII Crocodiles are owned by the Muckleburgh Collection in Norfolk, the Cobbaton Combat Collection in Devon, the D-Day Story, the Wheatcroft Collection, the Kubinka Tank Museum in Russia, and the Museum of the Regiments, Calgary, Alberta. A Mark VIII is at the Royal Australian Armoured Corps Museum. Two (one in running order) are privately owned in the UK. One example at Fort Montbarey near Brest, France, where they were used in September 1944. Another example is displayed outside The D-Day Story museum in Southsea.
  • Churchill Great eastern ramp: Only one Churchill great eastern ramp is known to survive today of the ten Mk.IV Churchill tanks converted. They saw virtually no combat use, as the need never arose. Only two were delivered to the 79th Armoured Division for trials in early 1945. The surviving unit was one of two sent to Canada for post-war testing and was recovered from a scrapyard in Kemptville, Ontario, in 1972. It is now held by the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa Ontario.
  • Sherman DD: Five Sherman DDs are in museums; one is nearly intact, and four were sunken wrecks that were salvaged. See the main article for details.
  • DD Valentine: One, restored to running condition, is in private ownership in Wolverhampton, England.
  • Sherman Crab: Sherman Crabs are displayed at the CFB Borden Military Museum, Ontario, Canada; The Tank Museum, Bovington; the Yad La-Shiryon museum in Latrun; and the Overloon War Museum in the Netherlands. The Sherman serving as a war memorial on the sea dyke at Westkapelle, Netherlands, was a Crab but had its mine flail equipment removed after the war.
  • Centaur Dozer: One is part of the collection at Bovington. Another is part of a private collection in the UK.
  • Canal Defence Light: The Tank Museum, Bovington has a Matilda tank fitted with a Canal Defence Light turret. A CDL-equipped M3 Grant is displayed at Cavalry Tank Museum, Ahmednagar in India.
  • Buffalo aka Amtrac LVT4: The Tank Museum, Bovington has an example.

See also

  • Allied technological cooperation during World War II
  • BARV a Beach Armoured Recovery Vehicle developed at the same time as Hobart's Funnies by the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.
  • History of the tank
  • MD1 (military R&D organisation)
  • Rhino tank a tank fitted with prongs to breach obstacles (such as hedgerows)
  • Tanks in World War I
  • Tanks in World War II

References

Further reading

  • Bradley's biography with explanation of refusal of "funnies"
  • Royal Engineers Museum Royal Engineers and Operation Overlord
  • Royal Engineers Museum Biography of Major General Sir Percy Hobart
  • Royal Engineers Museum Royal Engineers and Second World War