flail tank

[′flāl ‚taŋk]

(ordnance)

A specially constructed tank equipped with a flailing device, consisting of chain flails attached to a roller powered by the tank engine, employed to detonate antitank mines.

References in periodicals archive ?

David Fletcher's SHERMAN CRAB FLAIL TANK (9781846030840, $15.95) follows the design and history of the Sherman tank, considering its development and deployment.

Osprey Publishing

Flanked by Canadians,he was in a flail tank crew ordered to clear land mines on Juno Beach, near Caen.

D-DAY, JUNE 6,1944: A THANK YOU FOR BRAVERY AND SACRIFICE: `Dead and wounded soldiers all over ...' HEROES OF NORMANDY TELL OF THAT EXPERIENCE 60 YEARS AFTER THEIR HEROIC ACTIONS

"I had lost my mess tin in the chaos and a corporal from the engineers, who was operating a flail tank, said to me 'Here you are, mate, use mine.

D-Day 1944 2004: Dad says he did nothing special in the war but in Normandy I realised he was seen as a hero

Alfred Reading wrote in about flail tanks used in the Second World War (Letters, PE July).

Hazards in the road ahead

Infantry and armour moved forward behind Flail tanks which cleared paths through minefields while AVREs were brought up to pound the concrete casements with petards.

Clearing the Channel ports: for four long years, the people of Dover had been shelled by the great German batteries at Calais and Cap Gris Nez. In the autumn of 1944, as 1st Canadian Army moved up the Channel coast, relief was in sight