Flail tanks

Anyone know if or why Germany never developed one?

 

Perhaps because by the time they appeared in greater numbers on the allied side it was the Germans sitting behind minefields being assaulted, those on the defensive don't have quite the need for crossing minefields, but get progressively better at laying/covering those fields. As the Axis certainly did, and had to.

There's a few interesting Minenraumers that were developed but off the top of my head they're all roller or crushing types, maybe a few ploughs (?) but that approach never seems to have gone far in the period.

It's something of a dream of mine to see a restored Sherman Flail on the go, I chatted to one bloke last year that's got most of one (possibly East of England Tank museum, or maybe the DD Valentine chap... can't remember). He said he'd like to run it on Chesil beach one day.
(For those not familiar with Chesil, it's very long and covered in pebbles)

Cheers,
Adam.

 

whats a flail tank ? I don't understand the english word.

From the explanation off Von Poop I would say a tank to clean up mines.

Am I correct?

 

Yes, a mine sweeper. I saw a picture recently of a Sherman with 2 "crusher wheels" taller than the tank itself. Egads.

 

Isn't this a german minesweeper? but thats the only one I know off.



Minenräumwagen B1 SdKfz 300


Armament: - Crew: - Armor (max.): - Speed (max.): ??? Dimensions: ??? Weight: 1.5 ton

 

By the look of it, I think it'sa mine-laying vehicle.

 

A Sherman flail in action....

 

Oddly, that remote control B2 above had a concrete superstructure, as did the next variant of it (below).


A few more German motorised Mine-clearers:


Borgward 'ENTE':


minenraumpanzerIII:


There was a proposed minenraumer mounted on the Panther chassis, and of course, our old friend, the Alkett Schwere Minenraumer:


& as Framer mentioned it, the T1/Aunt Jemima series, which I've only just noticed appears to have been named after a US baking companies public face:


Cheers,
Adam.

 

Thanks Adam, so they did experiment with flails......albeit some weird looking machines.
Scanned this from a book, it's not the best picture.

 

I'm not sure I've seen any German flails, they all seem to be disposable roller or ground pressure systems I'll check some books just in case.

 

I think you misunderstood,Adam. "Flail" is just the term/word I used.

 

I found 1 thing, it's not a flail, but another roller gizmo.
282/283 The Minenraumpanzer Raumer was a prototype mine-clearing vehicle. It was a giant articulated armored vehicle with heavy solid wheels, intended to detonate mines by its great weight. The front section was 2.6 metres wide, the rear section 3.27 metres wide, the height was 3.93 meters and overall length 15.63 metres. The wheels were 2.7 metres in diameter and the rims were 53 cm wide.
The vehicle was not put into production. I have 1 picture of a U.S. soldier standing next to it...he is a little over 1/2 the vehicles height.
Another in a long list of development wonders, without production.

 

My pic has "4" wheels, and the wheels look pretty solid (instead of the individual "footies" in that picture).
The pairs are different widths apart to clear a bigger path, and it looks like it (depending on engine, could go 3 times faster than the other thing).
If I had a scanner I'd post the "blue-print" drawing, and the picture.
Von Senger und Etterlin

 

That looks like the 5th pic Adam had.

 

That's a German mine clearer. It's in Kubinka Museum outside of Moscow Russia in the town of Kubinka. It's on the base so you have to get special authorization to see the place. It costs about 300 dollars and takes about 3 days to get the authorization. Only cheap cameras inside also. If at all.

 

Why did I just make that post? Kind of obvious.