“There are five ways of attacking with fire. The first is to burn soldiers in their camp; the second is to burn stores; the third is to burn baggage trains, the fourth is to arsenals and magazines; the fifth is to hurl dropping fire among the enemy.” - Sun Tzu's Art of War, Chapter 12.1, The Attack By Fire.
Nationality: English.
Year of Production: 1943
Number built: 800 conversion kits produced.
Weight: 38.5 tons
Length: 7.44 m
Width: 3.25 m
Height: 2.49 m
Crew: 5
Engine: 1x Bedford petrol engine, delivering 350 hp, for a speed of 24 kph.
(Specifications based on original vehicle, Churchill MkVII tank, without trailer.)
Background: In August 1942, Operation Jubilee (Operation Rutter, Battle of Dieppe, Dieppe Raid) was launched, a Allied attack on the French port town of Dieppe.
The primary aim was to hold Dieppe, to gather intelligence from prisoners, and to see the German response, as well as blow the thing to bits as they were leaving.
Unfortunately, the raid went pretty badly, to put it mildly, with over 3500 men being wounded, killed or captured, with the vast majority of that number being Canadian. German casualties were about 500 wounded or killed.
Among some of the tanks bought ashore to assist with the raid were modified Churchills, named Churchill Okes, having Ronson flamethrowers equipped. Unfortunately, they got blown to bits in the first wave.
As a result of the failed raid on Dieppe, Allied command realized they needed a range of modified armoured vehicles, given that the 58 Churchills bought along on the raid struggled with the defenses, which is a bad thing if, say, a player in the Allied forces, like France, wanted their country liberated pretty damn quickly, through, say, an invasion. And if, Europe was known as Fortress Europe at the time.
To achieve that aim, in 1943, one of the men called in to create these vehicles was Major-General Percy Hobart, and his division, the 79th Armoured. The division was renamed the 79th (Experimental) Armoured Division Royal Engineers”, and they set to work.
Even though some of the concepts had been used before, some of their other vehicles were quite amazing, if say, you had a rifle and were trying to take one on, let's see how you'd do against a couple of these, the whole list being very much longer...
The Crab flail tank (modified Sherman), aimed at making minefields fire off early, rather then, say, blowing men or normal tanks back to England, of which one assumes that the men and tanks liked not being blown to bits. It could also be used to satisfy Earth's masochistic tendencies, one assumes. And to make bad puns like 'Epic Flail.'
The Churchill Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers, which had a mortar on it. By mortar, I mean a 290 mm mortar, which considering the main gun was a 75 mm cannon, it would be a bad idea to be bonked on the head by it's 18 kg high explosive charge. And could carry bridge sections, fascines (big bundles of wood, you put them in trenches and drive over.) and other sapper related equipment.
Why should I be afraid of it? And what was it for?
“Set Europe ablaze.” - Winston Churchill, attributed, creating the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.
The Churchill Crocodile. Now, the thing about a normal tank is that it has a main cannon, for getting rid of other vehicles, like, say, another tank, and a machine gun or a few other smaller weapons, for in case infantry want to add some holes to the tank, drag you out and hurt you. Which would be bad if you're not into getting hurt.
The thing about a flame tank is that it has a flamethrower on it. Now, it's obvious that being set on fire is a bad thing. There's the saying, 'Give a man fire, keep him warm for a day, set a man on fire, keep him warm for the rest of his life.'
Now, if you're a man in the open, with a flamethrower, then you're going to take a lot of shots fairly quickly, since fire's a more terrifying weapon then a bullet is. But if you're in a heavily armoured tank, then the bullets'll be fairly ineffective.
But what if you did the stereotypical thing, and replaced the main cannon with a flamethrower?
Well, if you come across a German tank, since Italy had declared war on it's former ally and was no longer the enemy, they'd probably batten the hatches, laugh as you heat their coffee and make some fire-related quip, like “We'll see how their firepower matches against our firepower!” and blow the tank away.
And, what if you did the rational thing, replacing the machine gun, an anti-infantry weapon, with a flamethrower, which is also an anti-infantry weapon?
You end up with the Crocodile. Towing it's 6 and a half ton fuel trailer behind it, holding 1800 litres of fuel, it fires bursts of liquid flame between 110 to 135 metres away. Or fires unlit lighter fluid, lets it slosh around a bit, and then sets fire to it.
Oh, and the fire burned on water.
Despite it's short range, it forced troops to retreat and bunkers to surrender, since being burnt alive in a tiny little concrete box is a bad thing to happen.
The trailer could be dropped from inside the tank if it ran out, or was shot up, making the Crocodile a burning, flaming death tank that could take out it's peers, while using man's primal fear, fire, against him.
It stormed across the beaches of Normandy in June, 1944, with it's friends, the other Hobart's Funnies, assisting the Allied invasion of Normandy, getting the liberation of France on.
And one can only assume that France really enjoyed being liberated from the heel of the jackboot.
As for the good Major-General, his 79th being described as the decisive factor on D-Day? He went back to retirement in 1946, after being awarded the Legion of Merit, which went in well with his Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, his Distinguished Service Order, his Military Cross, and his Companion of the Order of the Bath. He died in 1957, his vehicles, in my opinion, a tribute to the ingenuity of the British engineer.
Sources used:
Timelines of World War II, 1942, 1943, 1944: Wikipedia
Churchill Crocodile: Wikipedia
Dieppe Raid: Wikipedia
Hobart's Funnies: Wikipedia
Percy Hobart: Wikipedia
Churchill Tank: Wikipedia
Sun Tzu's Art of War
Personal knowledge, or what little there is of it.
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