| jgawne | 30 Oct 2009 9:20 a.m. PST |
Yes I know, every book says Cullin invented them. However from digging I have been doing it seems a number of minds were doing similar htings (like the 29th Div prongs, and the 3rd Armored 'Greencutter') I found an officer from an engineer group who explained to me they had a meeting of a group of engineers and tankers and went over all the designs, selecting the cullen rhino as the best – then went into mass production. From his unit record actually four men were decorated for the concept (the others officers), which leads me to beleive it was his idea. However- I know someplace I read that Cullen tried to tell the press that it was not his idea, but that of a lt. in his unit who had been killed. I went through records and did in fact find only one officer (a lt.) who had been killed just prior to that time. So my two part question is: 1. does anyone know where I saw this bit about him claiming it was originally the idea of a Lt. who had been killed?
2. Anyoe happen to know other units in Normandy that had their own hedge burting gizmo Before the mass adoption of thr Rhino? aside from the 29th Div. 747 Tank Bn, and 102 Cav
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| Don Hogge | 30 Oct 2009 9:44 a.m. PST |
Here is one account that may be interesting link |
| Sundance | 30 Oct 2009 10:02 a.m. PST |
Doesn't Death Traps say something about it not really being Cullen's creation? Can't remember as it's been a while. |
| KnightTemplarr | 30 Oct 2009 10:18 a.m. PST |
I believe it was in "Closing with the Enemy" they mentioned welding wide pipes on the front of Shermans. The Sherman would drive into the hedge row and back out. That would make a deep hole in the berm of the hedgerow, an engineer would toss an explosive charge into the hole and instant opening. |
| Top Gun Ace | 30 Oct 2009 10:34 a.m. PST |
I believe KnightTemplarr is correct. The original plan was to just punch holes in the berms, and then blow them up. They then discovered they could actually just power through many of them, and got to carry around a bit of extra camo on the front of the hull as well. Sorry, I don't know any more about who the inventor was. |
 Mserafin  | 30 Oct 2009 10:42 a.m. PST |
"The original plan was to just punch holes in the berms, and then blow them up." Yep, this was referred to as the "blow and go" method. |
| jgawne | 30 Oct 2009 10:57 a.m. PST |
That was the 29th division's technique, developed by theoir 121st engineers. |
| Fred Ehlers | 30 Oct 2009 11:28 a.m. PST |
Here is a link to the 3rd Armored Div. book Spearhead in the West.
link
Unfortunatley, there are few of the pictures from the book. My dad was in the 3rd in the 23rd Armored Engineers, so I have a copy of the book. There is a picture of the 3rds version. I will scan it in and post it, but it may take a while. I will also find a tape I have of him talking about his experiences in the war, It was done in 1997 the day he died. I believe he talked about the cutters, but I could be wrong. STT |
| Fred Ehlers | 30 Oct 2009 1:26 p.m. PST |
Here are the photos from the Spearhead in the West book. Hmmmm Can I put photos in a comment? Anyone know how to do that? STT |
| Marc33594 | 30 Oct 2009 1:40 p.m. PST |
Steven Zaloga's new book "Armored Thunderbolt: The U.S. Army Sherman in World War II" has an outstanding section on attempts to break through the bocage. The link Knabe posted contains much of that information previously provided by Mr Zaloga. There are some new items, such as the 703rd Tank Battalion assigned to the 4th Infantry Division borrowing some of the ideas such as the "salad forks". Some great photos illustrate some of the devices and tactics such as use of the tank dozer. |
| plasticviking2 | 30 Oct 2009 5:54 p.m. PST |
Cullin#s cutter was invented by him after various forks, prongs and rams were developed by each unit to solve the hedgebank problem. What Cullin did was to make the fitting better and to a design every workshop could put on a tank. Bradley was impressed by his design and ordered its implementation. Cullin did not start the trend for hedgecutters but he invented a better mousetrap. A lt Green invented the first ram/cutter from railtrack. Cullins was from girder.Read Busting the Bocage,1988 by Miechael Doubler, where Zaloga got his stuff from. |
| GuyG13 | 31 Oct 2009 3:25 a.m. PST |
Not so much about the inventing of the cutters but manufacture. My first ever assignemnt as a 2LT was to the 66th Maintenance battalion in Germany. In WW2 they were an Army level BN assigned to 3rd Army. While they were sitting in Normandy waiting to get activated, they were assigned the duty of cutting up German beach obstacles and installing them on tanks. They were given a Distinguished Unit Citation for doing some incredible amount of tanks in a short time. |
