A Sherman flail tank at Geilenkirchen, 1944

Photograph, World War Two, North West Europe (1944-1945), 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.