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.