Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research 99/397

MINE CLEARANCE AT EL ALAMEIN , 1942

205

thereby clearing a path the width of the flail vehicle. A test rig was built on a truck and demonstrated in Pretoria, South Africa, where a short film was produced. General Auchinleck after seeing the film, thought it was a brilliant idea and sent Sergeant du Toit to England to pursue his invention in secrecy, with the intention of mounting it on a tank chassis for combat use. Before du Toit had left for England, he had sketched out his idea for Captain Norman Berry, the South African Chief Mechanical Engineer for the 8th Army, who soon became tired of waiting for results from England and, on his own initiative, went ahead with some free-lance experiments while the army was still entrenched along the Gazala Line in the spring of 1942. Later, during the summer, Lieutenant-Colonel Mill Colman, a member of the South African Engineer Corps, developed what he thought was a novel idea for mine clearing. The idea had come to him when he noted a tracked vehicle driving by with a length of wire entangled in its track sprockets and with each revolution of the sprocket, the wire hit the ground with great force. Based on this, he thought that it might be possible to build a thrashing device that could detonate mines. Major L.A. Girling, Commander of the 21st South African Corps Field Park Company, was tasked with constructing the first experimental unit, called a ‘mine destroying device’. Berry, hearing of the latest rebirth of the flail idea, told Major Girling of similar previous efforts and described how du Toit, who had been commissioned and promoted to major, had been sent to England by Auchinleck to work on a similar idea in conditions of tight secrecy. 30 Berry gladly unearthed the remains of his earlier experiment and handed the contraption over to Girling’s team of engineers, consisting of himself, Captain G.J. Barry, Lieutenant Hofmann and Lieutenant C.D.B. Cramb. Within twenty-four hours work had commenced on a prototype flail tank and by 6th August 1942 it was completed. The first flail prototype was a Matilda tank fitted with a rotor, mounted on two arms, roughly 6 feet (1.8 m) in front of the tank. The rotor carried 24 flails and was driven at 100 rpm by a 105 horsepower (78 kW) Ford V8 engine. This second engine was fitted in an armoured sponson mounted on the right side of the tank, large enough to accommodate a crewman who operated the device. After the tests, Girling’s team continued to refine their design, such that on 12th September, it was demonstrated to the 8th Army’s Corps Commanders and their Chief Engineers, who having witnessed the demonstration were impressed with its capabilities, considering the short amount of time invested in the project. Brigadier Ray remarked that, in appearance, the prototype resembled a scorpion and the name stuck. General Montgomery, felt the name very appropriate and quoted ‘My Father has chastised you with whips, but I shall chastise you with scorpions’. 31 The next day Brigadier Kisch ordered the fabrication of twenty-four

30 So secret, in fact, that the Allied command in the Middle East had completely forgotten about the matter. 31 Kings 1, Chapter 12, Verse 14.