"US Army Engineers with Sherman Tanks" Topic

How often did it occur where an engineer unit would have Shermans equipped with bulldozer blades?

What about a mine flail with a rocket launcher on top of the tank?

Thanks!

Did the US even use flail tanks? I know they were widely used by the British – mainly 79th Armoured Div.

Do you mean the multi-barrelled Calliope launcher? Can't see that you would want to mix that with a flail tank.

Most engineer vehicles were pretty much single function – and most of the engineer tanks were British, and could on occasion be attached to US formations to help with siege style operations.

Shermans had flails, can't comment on the availability though! I've also never heard of caliope being mixed with anything else if that helps.

I think the usa had 4 crab flails.
the us engineers had a turretless Sherman with a dozer blade as well.

I've just had a 'failure to record an internet link' moment.

Going from memory there were two US Tank Bns that had previously been selected for MX (mine exploder) duty. 738th and 739th were possibly the units involved. Between them they adopted a varied amount of kit, including flail equipped Shermans. There was a long report on the web somewhere detailing their equipment, and of course I can't now find it. They were though part of the Armored and not Engineer arm.

Gary

Well, I have this and I am unsure on what to do with him. My first thoughts were Engineers.

It's not a flail or a dozer that's the mine exploder commonly known as the "Aunt Jemima". It wasn't used by the engineers. The Rocket launcher tanks would not have had the mine exploders fitted and vice versa. There were US Shermans with flails used in the Pacific.

Not the page I was thinking of, but some good info here –

link

Gary

link

I found this:

I looked through 1000s of photos and never saw a US tank with a flail only the rollers, and I never saw a mix of rockets and any anti mine device. only one photo of a dozer and rockets.

The bottom photo in the post above is of the second pilot armored engineer vehicle. It mounts T40 rocket launcher (note this is not the T34 calliope device). Only 2 vehicles were ready to be shipped by VE Day. American flail tanks were built by the Seabees in the Pacific, a photo can be seen in Hunnicutt's book "Sherman", p463. 6 flail tanks based on the M4A3E8 were deployed during the Korean War.

GHQ 1/285 model. Came with a sale lot of minis from an eBay purchase.

Thanks for all the input, especially the links and pictures.

the sand coloured Sherman is a postwar recovery vehicle (m74) and not an engineer one.

Indeed the Americans did use flail tanks. Concord's Armor at War Series #7052: US Armored Funnies: US Specialized Vehicles in the ETO in World War II by Steven Zaloga has an entire section on mine clearing tanks to include flails. Just some extracts:
Page 4 of the commentary: "Lacking any practical means of mine clearing, the US Army turned to the British for equipment to use during the D-Day landings in Normandy. A February 1944 request included 25 Crab Flail tanks…" and further on "In addition to the US built T1E1 and T1E3 mine exploders, the first supply of British Crabs was obtained, based on the February 1944 request. A total of 9 Crabs, 12 T1E1 and 27 T1E3 were used to equip companies of the 702nd and 744th Tank Battalions in July 1944 for Operation Cobra, the Normandy breakout operation in July. In addition, the 2nd Armored Division borrowed 3 Crabs from the British though they ended up serving with the 747th Tank Battalion."

On page 51 a caption with a Crab flail reads; "A small number of Crab flail tanks were obtained from British sources and served with the 739th Tank Battalion (SMX). The Crabs were used in February and March in attempts to clear minefields on the approaches to the Roer and Rhine rivers and this one was seen near Vicht on the Roer river approaches on 21 February 1945."

There are also several pictures of British Crabs supporting various US units.

As to dozer equipped Shermans they were very popular. Instead of being assigned specifically to Engineer units they were assigned directly to Tank Battalions. The goal was to have each Tank Battalion equipped with a total of 6 dozer tanks but supply couldn't keep up with demand so this was never fully realized.

The British 79th Armoured Division supplied an awful lot of armoured engineering support to US formations during the Rhineland battles.