Talk:Rhino Tank

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[edit] Better than this

The Rhino Tanks existed in 1944, as you can read in this site: http://www.ngb.army.mil/news/todayinhistory/june.aspx

June 27 1944 Normandy, France — In the days since D-Day (June 6) the Allies have become bogged down by the Norman hedgerows that provide perfect defensive positions for the Germans. Made of stone walls overgrown by centuries of intertwined vines and trees, and rising to heights of ten feet in places, they prove almost indestructible even to tanks trying to push through. So tanks had to come to gaps in the walls, where German artillery would often be waiting to destroy them. Then Sergeant Curtis Culin, a Guard member of New Jersey's 102nd Cavalry Squadron, develops the idea of taking the iron road obstacles placed by the retreating Germans, fabricating them into a ‘plow' affixed to the front of a tank that then allows it to ‘cut' its way through the hedgerow. This allowed the tanks to break through in any unpredictable location, confounding the enemy's traps. Known as "rhino tanks" more than 300 are so equipped and help to speed up the Allied advance. Sergeant Culin was awarded the Legion of Merit Medal for his idea.

[Photo]

An M-4 Sherman tank with a "rhino plow" attached in front has just punched its way through a Norman hedgerow. Note the infantrymen riding on the back of the tank. National Archives and Records Administration

-- I'm not english, so I left to you the labor of redact a new text.

[edit] Even more

- From http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/resources/csi/doubler/doubler.asp, includes 3 cites at bottom of the page

- From http://www.matterhorntravel.com/2007/WWII/index.htm

Soldiers of the 2d Armored Division's 102d Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron invented the hedgerow device that gained the widest publicity. During a discussion between some of the 102d's officers and enlisted men, someone suggested that they get "saw teeth," put them on their tanks, and cut through the hedgerows. Many of the troops laughed at the suggestion, but Sergeant Curtis G. Culin took the idea to heart. Culin designed and supervised the construction of a hedgerow cutting device made from scrap iron pulled from a German roadblock. Testing showed that the device allowed a Sherman to cut easily through the hedgerows. Because the hedgerow cutter's blades made a tank resemble a large pachyderm with tusks, troops called the device a "rhinoceros," and Shermans equipped with Culin's invention became known as "rhino" tanks. Though the most famous of the hedgerow-reducing devices, Culin's "rhinoceros" was only one of many such contrivances invented and employed throughout First Army.32 a typical hedgerow-cutter device A close-up of a typical hedgerow-cutter device

Culin's device soon got the attention of the chain of command within 2d Armored Division and V Corps. On 14 July, General Bradley attended a demonstration of Culin's hedgerow cutter. Bradley watched as Shermans mounting the hedgerow device plowed through the hedgerows "as though they were pasteboard, throwing the bushes and brush into the air." Very impressed by the demonstration, Bradley ordered the chief of First Army's Ordnance Section to supervise the construction and installation of as many of the hedgerow cutters as possible.33

First Army Ordnance assembled welders and welding equipment within the beachhead and from the rear areas in England to assist with the project. Welding teams used scrap metal from German beach obstacles to construct most of the hedgerow cutters. In a prodigious effort between 14-25 July, the First Army Ordnance Section produced over 500 hedgerow cutters and distributed them to subordinate commands for installation. By late July, 60 percent of First Army's Shermans mounted the hedgerow-cutting devices.34