The mine clearing tanks that were based on the M4 Sherman tank
chassis, are worth some extra pages. Not an experiment was too
much to try to find the solution to come to a good mine clearing
device. The most famous of these vehicles were the ‘Crab’
flailtanks. But other models also deserve to be mentioned on
these pages. When the invasion, June 6th 1944, on the beaches of
Normandy were eminent, the urge to come up with a vehicle that
could sweep a clear path through a minefield became important.
It had to be a relative fast vehicle that had to move under
enemy fire without danger to be destroyed by the mines it was
clearing. When these vehicles were produced, they would be
deployed with the British 79th Armoured Division. An early sweep
installation on a Matilda II in Africa One of the first
solution, and in hindsight the best, was a rotating cylinder in
front of a tank with chains that were battering the ground and
hopefully were striking a mine and made it detonate. The first
of these contraptions were plac