British Sherman Flail tanks, 1944

Photograph by Major Wilfred Herbert James Sale, MC, 3rd/4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), World War Two, North West Europe, 1944.

The Sherman flail tank, designed by Major-General Percy Hobart, was fitted with a 10-foot long spinning cylinder to which three-foot-long heavy chains were attached. As the tank crept forward, the chains were whipped around and slammed into the ground at a depth of several inches, detonating buried mines.

From an album of 211 photographs compiled by Major W H J Sale, MC, 3rd/4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters).