Hobarts Funnies

Continuing my lockdown scale modelling project, I've switched to another peculiar interest of mine, the land ships of military combat; post 1917, the tank. Following my build of the D-day Hawker Typhoon, I thought I'd focus this build on the armour used to support our allied forces in the D-day landings. I finally decided on an epic construction of 6 models, 5 of which are a creation of one man, an engineer and expert in mechanised warfare, Percy Hobart; and the 6th is the craft which landed them all.

Major General Percy Hobart

Major General Percy Hobart had an interesting military career and was the creator of an equally interesting military division, whose impact on some of the critical campaigns in the latter years of World War 2 can not be over emphasised.

Hobart joined the army in 1904 as an officer in the Royal Engineers and having been inspired by the invention of the tank during the 1914-18 war, he volunteered to be transferred to the Royal Tank Corps in 1923. His vision for the new mechanised form of warfare did not, however, meet with the agreement of the established army leadership who, being still dominated by conservative cavalry officers, were most resistant to his ideas. In spite of this, he was promoted to Major General in 1937 and sent to form and train the "Mobile Force (Egypt)", which later became the 7th Armoured Division, famous as the "Desert Rats". 

His unconventional ideas on how armoured warfare should be conducted, however, still kept him out of favour with the top brass and so when General Sir Archibald Wavell took over command in Africa in 1940, he dismissed Hobart into retirement! Hobart returned to England, and joined the Home Guard as a Lance Corporal! Meanwhile, Churchill, unhappy with the way the desert campaign was proceeding under Wavell, demanded a different approach. Amazingly, against senior army leadership's wishes, he appointed Hobart to to train 11th Armoured Division and then he was given the opportunity to raise and train a new armoured division, the 79th Armoured Division. 

In March 1943, when the the division was on the brink of being disbanded due to lack of resources, General Sir Alan Brooke,  Chief of the Imperial General Staff, took the unprecedented decision to invite Hobart to convert his 79th Division into a unit of specialised armour. Hobart was given free rein to use his extensive engineering experience and armoured warfare expertise to address a number of military challenges. His mission was to devise solutions to overcome the inability of regular tanks and infantry to cope with fortified obstacles in an amphibious landing, as had so disastrously been demonstrated during the raid on Dieppe in August 1942. This, understandably, was all in preparation for the Allied invasion of Europe and what was to be known as Operation Overlord, the D-Day Landings. 

79th (Experimental) Armoured Division Royal Engineers

In its conversion, the division was renamed the "79th (Experimental) Armoured Division Royal Engineers"with unit insignia of a black bull's head with flaring nostrils superimposed over a yellow triangle. Under Hobart's leadership, the 79th assembled units of modified tank designs collectively nicknamed "Hobart's Funnies". These were used in the Normandy landings and were credited with helping the Allies get ashore. 

Example of how the resources were distributed in the D-Day Landings

The majority of the designs were modified forms of the Churchill and Sherman tanks as both were available in large numbers. The Churchill had good, though slow, cross-country performance, heavy armour, and a roomy interior while the Sherman's mechanical reliability was valued.

Among the many specialist vehicles and their attachments were:

Crocodile: A Churchill tank modified by the fitting of a flame-thrower in place of the hull machine gun. An armoured trailer, towed behind the tank, carried 400 gallons (1,800 litres) of fuel. The flamethrower had a range of over 120 yards (110 metres), far greater than man-portable units. Regarded as a powerful psychological weapon, this flame tank proved highly effective at clearing bunkers, trenches and other German fortifications.

AVRE (Assault Vehicle Royal Engineers): A Churchill tank adapted to attack defensive fortifications. The AVRE's main gun was replaced by a petard mortar that fired a forty-pound (18 kg) HE-filled projectile (nicknamed the "flying dustbin") 150 yards (137 m); it was capable of destroying concrete obstacles such as roadblocks and bunkers. The mortar had to be reloaded externally by opening a hatch and sliding a round into the mortar tube from the hull! 

ARK (Armoured Ramp Carrier): was a turret-less Churchill tank, carrying a bridge capable of spanning 30ft (9.14m) gap on its deck, complete with hydraulic system which would lift the bridge on a pivoting arm and lay it horizontally in front of the vehicle. It was then disconnected and the vehicle withdrawn, leaving the bridge in position for the advancing combat tanks to use. With the turret removed, the fighting compartment was largely filled with hydrolic machinery to operate the bridge arm. The bridge could support a 60 ton (60,964kg) weight. 

Crab: Once combat power rolled onto the beaches, the next challenge posed would be the tens of thousands of mines and other obstacles. Many options were considered with Hobart finally settling on a version which he had found some success in desert conditions fitted to the Matilda and Valentine tanks in Egypt. Using modified Sherman tank, the most capable modern platform, engineers equipped it with a mine flail; a rotating cylinder of weighted chains that exploded mines in the path of the tank. After being landed on the D-day beaches by an LCM (landing craft mechanical), the Sherman Crab's primary role was to clear paths and secure the exits, minesweeping and with direct fire power. While not sufficiently manoeuvrable to be employed as infantry support, it could on exceptions be used against pillboxes and strongpoints! 

DD tank (Duplex Drive): An amphibious M4A1 or M4A4 Sherman fitted with a large watertight canvas housing able to float and reach the shore after being launched from a landing craft up to several miles from the beach. They were intended to give support to the first waves of infantry that attacked the beaches. On D-day, they had mixed results due to weather, yet they were very effective when landing in numbers. 

The DD landing details were as follows: at GOLD beach the initial infantry assault went in without DD-tank support as the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards found sea conditions unfavourable for launching, thus all had to be shore landed; on JUNO Beach the 6th Canadian Armoured Regiment landed 21/29 launched, while complicated by worsening sea conditions and the later than planned arrival of armour, the 10th Canadian regiment landed all by LCTs; and on SWORD Beach the 13th/18th Royal Hussars had the most successful deployment of the day, landing 31/34 tanks launched and arriving just after the leading Crabs and AVREs to provide timely support. Meanwhile to the west at UTAH Beach 70th Tank Battalion landed 29/30 launched; at OMAHA Beach 741st Battalion landed just 2/29 launched, while 743rd Battalion shore landed all its tanks from LCTs.

The 79th's vehicles were offered to all of the forces taking part in the landings of Operation Overlord, but the Americans declined all except the amphibious Sherman DD tank. The result was that on OMAHA and UTAH Beaches the US suffered 40% casualties amongst their engineers clearing the exit lanes of obstacles and mines, and it was late in the day before these were secured to enable the  beach itself from being cleared.

There is a view that had General Omar Bradley, the American commander, made use of all Hobart's Funnies that the US army may not have got so bogged down and incurred so many losses during their landing on Omaha beach. Perhaps in recognition of this mistake, Bradley ensured that the American forces did at least make use of the Sherman Crab after D-Day.

.. and here are a few shots of the real thing..

In its 3 short years, the 79th Armoured Division had amassed almost seven thousand vehicles and realised a great number of accomplishments in the performance of its specialised mission. Although disbanded on 20 August 1945, the 79th's tactics, techniques and procedures have survived through various permutations, and its influence can still be seen in today's operations of amphibious assault, use of armour in an urban environment, strongpoint assault, obstacle breaching and river crossing operations.

Hawker Typhoon Mk1b

No. 8 in my Lockdown Scale Model Project is the Hawker Typhoon Mk.1b, affectionately known by the RAF pilots as the ‘Tiffie’.

As the RAF's first 400 mpg fighter using the new 24 cylinder Napier engine, the Typhoon was intended as a high-speed, high-altitude interceptor-fighter to replace the Hawker Hurricane and the Vickers Supermarine Spitfire. However, its comparative lack of performance at altitude, the price for speed and a rushed engine development, led to the decision in 1943 to focus Typhoon operations primarily on the ground attack role, particularly prior to and following the invasion of Normandy in June 1944.

266 Squadron Typhoon RB478 ZH-Q 

Being slightly larger than the Hurricane and Spitfire, the Typhoon possessed great structural strength and its comparatively thick wing section provided large internal capacity for fuel tanks and for the housing of its heavy 4 x 20mm cannon. Together, this made it perfect for ground attack, being able to add external carriage of 2 x 1,000lb bombs or 8 x 3-inch rockets with 60lb of warheads or even drop tanks to extend its range for those special behind the lines missions.

4 x 20mm cannon

This model is of the later Mk.1b variant in the paint scheme of Squadron Leader Ronnie Sheward of No. 266 (Rhodesia) Squadron, RAF 2nd Tactical Airforce which, together with 17 other Typhoon Squadrons, took part in the D-Day invasion. The squadron was used to attack enemy transport and troop concentrations in the period before D-Day, using 500lb bombs and after the D-Day landings to provide close support for the army, using the 'cab rank' system. This involved aircraft circling over the battlefield waiting for controllers travelling with the troops to make a call for air support.

Invasion stripes on fuselage and wings

In choosing my paint scheme for this model, I moved the clock forward a month, in that Airfix intended it to depict the the squadron flying missions in Holland and Germany between April/May 1944, meanwhile, in recognition of this weekend's D-Day anniversary, I felt the need to include invasion stripes!

Typhoon Mk.1b being refilled and rearmed

Invasion stripes were alternating black and white bands painted on the fuselages and wings of Allied aircraft to reduce the chance that they would be attacked by friendly forces during and after the Normandy Landings; a major issue experienced during the Dunkirk evacuation when British, French and Belgian forces could not tell the RAF from the Luftwaffe with obvious consequences! Three white and two black bands were wrapped around the rear of a fuselage just in front of the empennage (tail) and from front to back around the upper and lower wing surfaces. The order affected all aircraft, whose duties might entail overflying Allied anti-aircraft defences, with the exception of four-engined heavy bombers, as there was little chance of mistaken identity.

One month after D-Day, the stripes were ordered removed from planes' upper surfaces to make them more difficult to spot on the ground at forward bases in France. They were completely removed by the end of 1944 after achieving total air supremacy over France.

And the real thing ...

Picture shows 266 Squadron Typhoon RB478 ZH-Q which was S/L Ronnie Sheward's in the summer of 1945

266 Squadron group photo 1945

Squadron Leader Ronnie Sheward is sat centre, front row.

As I've exhausted my supply of aircraft, for the time being at least, next up is something which greatly supported our forces off the beaches and into Europe. Stay tuned ..

Boulton Paul Defiant Mk I

My 7th model of lockdown is the unsung and misunderstood aircraft, the Boulton Paul Defiant, inspired by last week's 80th anniversary of Dunkirk. The paint scheme of this model reflects that which adorned L7013 PS-U of No. 264 Squadron based at RAF Manston and which took part in both the the 1940 Dunkirk evacuation and Battle of Britain.

The Defiant, nicknamed "Daffy"by RAF pilots, was a single engined interceptor aircraft which very much resembled the Hawker Hurricane. It was designed to intercept bombers flying from Germany beyond the range of fighters; no one had thought at the time that Germany would have access to airfields just 30 miles across the Channel!

Powered by the Spitfire famed Rolls Royce Merlin, the Defiant's principal armament was a dorsal turret, equipped with four 0.303 in Browning machine guns. The Brownings were electrically fired and insulated cut-off points in the turret ring prevented the guns firing when they were pointing at the propeller disc or tailplane. The gunner could rotate the turret directly forward and transfer firing control of the guns to the pilot, with the guns firing along each side of the cockpit canopy; this was, however, rarely done as the turret's minimum forward elevation was 19° and the pilot did not have a gunsight!

The gunner's hatch was in the rear of the turret, which had to be rotated to the side for entry and exit. In the event of electrical failure, not uncommon in combat, the turret was locked in position and many a gunner was lost being unable to bail out! An interesting factoid regarding the gunner's parachute was that there was not enough room in the turret for the gunner to wear a seat-type or back pack parachute so they were provided with a special all-in-one garment nicknamed the "rhino suit"!

The first operational sortie of the Defiant was on 12 May1940. Two weeks later, between 26 May and 3 June 1940, No. 264 squadron's Defiants played a key role, flying from their base at RAF Manston to support the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk. Its primary mission was the destruction of enemy bombers while Hurricanes and Spitfires flew above to take on the fighters.

The Defiant was initially very successful against enemy aircraft, having its best day on 29 May, when No. 264 Squadron claimed 38 kills in two sorties, a record held to this day. However, The lack of forward-firing armament proved to be a great weakness in daylight combat and by 31 August, two months into the Battle of Britain, over half the delivered Defiants had been shot down by Luftwaffe aircraft, a rate that was deemed to be unacceptable. So from September 1940 onwards, just 4 months after it came into service, the Defiant converted to primarily a night fighter role.

The Times - 26 May 2020

Comparing the stats of the Hurricane, Spitfire and Defiant are however fascinating and a new book by author Robert Verkaik: "the untold story of the Battle of Britain", argues that standard accounts have underplayed the successes of the Defiant and disregarded leadership decisions influencing its later underperformance. Verkaik suggests with proper fighter protection, the Luftwaffe might have lost more bombers to the Defiant's unique gunnery system and more quickly than it did. I can see me adding this to my library.

By 1942 the Defiant was outdated as a fighter and was withdrawn from combat to be used for training, target towing, electronic countermeasures and air-sea rescue and my final factoid: On 11 May 1945, Martin-Baker used a Defiant to test their first ejection seat with dummy launches!

P-40 Tomahawk

My 6th model of lockdown is the P-40 Tomahawk #68 flown by Squadron Leader Arvid Olson of the American Volunteer Group (AVG), Third Pursuit Squadron, Hell's Angels.

The AVG, more famously known as "The Flying Tigers", were a secret United States military operational entity, authorized and approved by President Franklin D. Roosewelt, on 23 December 1940, to provide air support to China, who had been at war with the Japan since 1937. Yes, it’s always been going on!

This covert operation, was originally requested by General Claire Lee Chennault (a former USAAC pilot instructor and veteran of WWI) on behalf of the leader of the Chinese Government, Chaing Kai-Shek. The AVG received 100 P-40 fighter aircraft diverted from a shipment to Britain and originally destined for North Africa. Pilots, mechanics, ground crew & medical staff were all recruited from active branches of the Army, Navy and Marine Corps. Pilots were offered the sum of $600 per month to fly for China, and a bonus of $500 for every Japanese plane shot down. In today’s value, that would be equivalent to approximately $10,000 and $8,000, respectively. Not yet being at war with Japan, there of course could be no paper trail that could be traced back to the US.

The AVG set up camp in Toungoo, Burma at the British-controlled Kyedaw Airfield. The British needed the support of the AVG due to the fact that their own supplies were largely diverted to the European war theater. The Tiger Shark motif on the aircraft was inspired, as I mentioned in the Sabre backstory, by The RAF’s 112 “shark” squadron which sported the sharkmouth design on their desert prepared P40s. The unusual blue Chinese Air Force roundels adorn the wings and the tiger insignia for the Flying Tigers on the sides was created by cartoonists at Walt Disney Studios! Each pilot also had a red and white lady painted on the nose to depict their squadron “Hells Angels” call sign.
During the short seven months of combat, the AVG acquired a record of 297 Japanese aircraft destroyed. AVG losses were 4 pilots killed in air combat, 7 killed by ground fire, 3 died as a result of Japanese bombing while they were on the ground and 1 missing in action presumed dead. That reflects an AVG to Japanese kill ratio of 50 to 1, a record that has never been equaled. When Chennault reviewed official Japanese war records, after the war, he discovered that the Japanese reported the destruction of 544 AVG aircraft. However, at no time did the AVG possessed more than 100 aircraft in their unit. The AVG was disbanded on 4 July 1942, though being seen by the military brass as being a bit of a renegade outfit, few of the original Flying Tiger pilots chose to or were invited to rejoin the official services.

An interesting factoid: the star of my model, Squadron Leader of the"Hell's Angels", Arvid Olsen, was affiliated with the foundation of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, (HAMC), in Fontana, California, March 1948, although he never apparently became a member. To this day, the HAMC use a red and white colour scheme in their emblems, just as Olsen’s painted ladies back in 1941.

If you want to see the Flying Tigers in action, there’s a classic 1942 film of the same name staring John Wayne, in which real footage of the P-40s are used.