Another tank from the Hobart’s Funnies series is the Sherman mine flail tank named Crab. A Sherman M4A4 with a 75 mm gun was equipped with a rotating cylinder in front of the tank, it had about 25 chains attached with weighted ends. The rotating chains struck the ground in front of the tank and detonated the mines, clearing a path through a minefield. These flail tanks were deployed on all Allied fronts, from the beaches of Normandie to Westkapelle in the Netherlands during the liberation of Zeeland. The flail cleared a path 3 meters wide. At the rear of the Sherman M4 were buckets with white chalk attached, marking the cleared path on the ground.
The Sherman Crab in the pictures was left behind on the battlefield after it was taken out by a Panzerfaust near Broekhuizen in the south-west Netherlands. It was part of the 22nd Battalion Westminster Dragoons. It has serial number 5657 and was built by Chrystler in October 1942.
