WW II tracked something shown at Normandy on TV

From: Ron (rojoha@attbi.com)
Date: Mon Sep 02 2002 - 07:21:39 PDT


On Sunday night during the 3rd hour of the History Channel's (in the US)
presentation of "World War II in Color: Britain at War" the program covered
the Normandy landings. Among the equipment shown on the beaches was what
appeared to be a large tracked boat with a very large (HUGE) winch on the
back. I would guess this was a bulldozer of some type with a hull built
around it. It looks like it is mired in the sand with a Commonwealth troop
sitting (resting) on a projection on the front. They are wearing a Canadian
(?) or Scottish looking beret or tam (?), color looks green or blue. Shot is
a 3/4 left rear view and due to the left track being dug into the sand, it
presents a very good, clear view of the entire top. Using a standing
soldier in front for scale I would estimate that if the vehicle was sitting
up right, the top deck of it would be 8 to 9 feet from the ground.

    Has a large white star under the cockpit(?) and in front of that is
what my daughter (13 years old) says looks like a West German flag, namely a
three colored panel with black stripe on top and a gold stripe below that
with an orange or red stripe below that.
    No dozer blade visible. Would this be some kind of recovery vehicle for
foundered equipt? A special purpose piece of equipt that I can't imagine a
use for off the beach since it has no visible weapons and would be taller
than most tanks and trucks.

    Any ideas of what it's designation was, or which country fielded it or
where more info could be found about it?

    Ronzo



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