Given the heightened interest in the specialised armour of the 79th Armoured Division, often referred to as ‘Hobart’s funnies’, around the time of Operation OVERLORD, I thought I’d share one of the non-Vickers items in the collection. It doesn’t fit anywhere else on the website, so it warrants its own blog post.
This is the British Army’s manual on ‘The Characteristics and Tactical Employment of Specialised Armour’ that includes all of the technical and tactical aspects of the different equipment that was used.
It appears to have been a provisional manual produced in 1945 but then amendment in 1947 with handwritten updates.
The contents covers all of the variants employed.
- Tank Flamethrowers
- Flails
- Assault Vehicles Royal Engineers (AVRE’s) (characteristics and organisation only)
- Specialised Armour in the Assault
- DD Tanks
- Landing Vehicles Tracked (LVTs)
It’s 166 pages of really in-depth information on all aspects of their use and isn’t something that is readily available elsewhere.
I hope it’s of interest to others; the specialised armour has held my interest since I was at school and wrote about it for my GCSE English Coursework – I didn’t do as well as I should have done as I got more interested in the subject than I did in the writing.
Those who want to download and read it, I’ve produced a low-resolution PDF that’s available here or by clicking on the image below. It’s still 18MB so a large file but definitely worth the download time.
If you would like the high-resolution version (62MB) without water-mark then please click on the shop link below.
The Vickers MG Collection & Research Association is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee and registered in England. All net monies received contribute to the running of the Association.
