The 'DD Sherman' was used to try to employ a canvas screen to waterproof the M2
Sherman in order to float to shore from transports. Unfortunately only a few
bullet holes in the screen sank them. Not very many reached the beach in fact.
Actually that's untrue. With the exception of the debacle at Omaha the DD's
functioned pretty well. At SWORD beach only one DD sank (it was hit by a
landing craft), at GOLD beach it was decided that the sea was too rough for
them to swim in from their designated launch point and they were released less
than half a mile from the shore. By the time they arrived the assault had been
made using Sherman Crab flail tanks and their original targets had already been
destroyed. The Canadian tanks on JUNO lost 8 of the 29 launched. The american
tanks succeeded at UTAH beach losing 5 out of 33 tanks (and four were lost
before they were launched when the LCT carrying them was hit). OMAHA was a
different matter and the reason for the sinking of the DD tanks destined for
that beach has been a matter of some controversy ever since but they certainy
weren't sunk by holes in their screens from small arms fire.
Another idea is, as Clark said, the Churchills. They fitted out the Curchills
with attachments such as a mat-laying roller to either provide traction or
prevent mines---I'm not sure. Another classic "attachment" was the Churchill
'Crab' which used a rotating spool of chains to explode mines without hurting
the tank much.
Actually the Churchill crab was a postwar development. The crabs in Normandy
were Shermans. With the exception of armoured bulldozers, Crabs and DD Shermans
the US army declined any other armoured engineer vehicles such as Churchill
AVREs, Carpets or ARKs probably for the very sound reason that it would have
introduced complications into the training and logistics programs of the US
army. Would armoured engineers have made a difference at OMAHA? Now that is an
interesting question.
Pete.
2009/6/6 jack <[email protected]>
what tanks were used on d-day??
--
-Mike Måne @
http://moonrcprojects.googlepages.com
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