Flail Good Points and Bad Points
While I agree that flails are not used by the military, the old maxim of speed is the key. Flails are a slow process and the enmey will be watching! At the end of WW2 the simple counter for the Sherman Crab was thus: Bury one large aerial bomb/sea mine add one anti-tank mine as a fuse:
Flail ground, Flail detonates mine, mine detonates big bomb, big bomb destroys Flail tank!
Mine ploughs simply push the offending item out of the way for disposal at a later date, of course you can always use explosive hose! Lots of fun but not in built up areas!
The Aardvark is still in use and is a very good system it will clear many double impulse mines, the Chuchill Toad now resident in the Littlefield Collection was the post war design to counter bigger mines but it never really was a success.
However all said and done the flail is an effective system, and was a veritable war winner, the main problem was the sheer lack of them.
If you want to know more about the Flail there is an Osprey title about the 'Sheman Crab' but is really a short history of the Flail.
I hope this helps anyone researching Sapper equipment.
Brian
ex-Sapper
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