Hobart's Hedge Trimmer - A Failed Funny. Finished Pics Pg. 11

[Rick Lowe]

 

[zenrat]

Thanks all.

[kerick]

Crazy good!
The poor little carrier looks like it's about to collapse just parked there!

[PR19_Kit]

It probably is! 

[buzzbomb]

Yep.. fits the brief.. both the GB and the backstory   

[zenrat]

I'm pleased with this one.
It might have been almost feasible with a quad 50 but a) I didn't have one and ii) that wouldn't have been a bad idea.
I put a light coat of satin clear over it today.  That's homogenised the finish and i'm calling it done and ready to weather.  Which will be light.
I also painted the figure - khaki battle dress and a black beret.  He'll need more work.
And I need to finish writing the back story.  So many failure modes to consider and include.
 

[zenrat]

...and...

...relax.

I've been working on this to the exclusion over the last two evenings.  I finished it Thursday night, thought i'd post it Friday (plenty of time...) only to find the forum down from tea to bed times.
But here it all is in its glory.  Enjoy.

Multiple Gun Carrier "Hedge Trimmer".  79th Armoured Division.  Germany 1945.

Multiple Gun Carrier "Hedge Trimmer" - 4 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

Once the location of Operation Overlord was determined by Allied planners, some assumed that the Wehrmacht occupying troops would behave in their usual way and pull back to defensive positions away from the coast and out of range of Allied naval gunnery before counter attacking.
Other, more astute planners knew however that, as Churchill famously said "assumption is the mother of all f**k up"¹ and that should Hilter order Rommel stand his ground² then Allied troops would have to fight their way through Normandy's bocage³ country.
The bocage was significant during the Battle of Normandy as it made progress against the German defenders difficult.  Plots of land were divided by ancient rows of dirt alongside drainage ditches.  Thick vegetation on these dirt mounds could create barriers up to 16 feet high.  A typical square mile on the battlefield might contain hundreds of irregular hedged enclosures.  As advancing Allied troops pushed through a hedgerow into a field, and then advanced across that field they would be subject to fire from Germans sheltered by the hedgerows on the opposite side of the field as well as to mortar fire from the field beyond that.  It was obvious that what was needed was a specialist armoured vehicle carrying rapid firing guns which could clear the opposite hedges of enemies enabling a rapid advance to the next hedgerow.

Multiple Gun Carrier "Hedge Trimmer" - 11 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

The engineers of the 79th Armoured Division⁴ originally proposed modifying⁵ the M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage (MGMC) "Meat Chopper" for this role but while the four .50 M2 Browning machine guns in their M45 Quadmount provided a sufficient weight of fire, the cross country performance of the half track chassis was thought to be lacking and a fully tracked chassis was preferred (ironic really in view of later results).  Hobart's design team selected the Universal Carrier as the chassis and the M45 Quadmount as the weapon.  A prototype was rapidly produced with a standard M45 mounted above the carriers engine which proved relatively successful in its initial trials.  However, sufficient numbers of Quadmounts could not be provided as they were all earmarked for M16 MGMCs.  An alternative gun was sought.

Multiple Gun Carrier "Hedge Trimmer" - 6 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

The 20mm Oerlikon cannon and the QF 2 Pounder "Pom Pom" on twin mounts were considered but rejected as supplies of both were jealously guarded by the Navy.  There was also brief flirtation with mounting an eight Pom Pom Mk VIII "Chicago Piano" naval mount onto a Churchill chassis⁶ which got as far as design drawings before sanity prevailed.
Hobart was considering a makeshift six or eight .303 Browning mount cobbled together from Hurricane wing components when he was tipped off that a number of 20mm Flakvierling 38s had been found at the back of a hanger at a former German airfield in North Africa.  Additionally, large amounts of ammunition for these guns had been captured in Sicily and Italy.  To cap it all, the whole lot was already being shipped back to Britain.
There were objections to using captured enemy weapons but Hobart over-rode these by pointing out that there was a very limited requirement for these vehicles as they would not be needed once Allied forces broke out of the bocage country into the rest of Normandy and Brittany.  In fact, they had been specifically designed so that if the gun mount was cut off then they could be returned to the pool of Universal Carriers forthwith.

Multiple Gun Carrier "Hedge Trimmer" - 14 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

The captured German guns were named Cannon Rapidfire 20mm Quadmount Mk 1 in British service.  RF 20mm Quad for short.
Thirty Multiple Gun Carriers (MGC) were built by the workshops of the 79th Armoured Division.  Inverted U shaped frames were welded into the vehicles superstructure on top of which a cut down 20mm Flakvierling 38 mount was bolted.  Additional plate extended the Carriers armour upwards at the front and sides to protect the loaders.  The guns themselves were not modified and retained their gunshield.  Stowage for standard Wehrmacht Flak 38 ammunition boxes was added inside the Carrier.  The front suspension units were reversed as it had been discovered that this modification  provided a revised suspension geometry when heavily loaded (gun plus ammo plus crew plus kit took gross weight significantly over the usual maximum) which reduced the likelihood of the Carriers track warping steering throwing a track.  Heavy duty springs were fitted all round.  Otherwise the Carriers were unmodified.
The crew of four consisted of a Commander/Gunner, Driver, and two Loaders.

Multiple Gun Carrier "Hedge Trimmer" - 8 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

The first Hedge Trimmers (as they  had been nicknamed by their crews) were landed on D-Day + 4 and went sent straight into action supporting troops pushing West into the Cotentin Peninsula.
It immediately became apparent that the MGCs had a weight problem.  The gun, it's mounting frame, and it's ammo added an additional 1 ton to the mass of the vehicle which as track width remained the same had increased ground pressure by approx 1/3.  This resulted, particularly in the flooded Douve river valley, in them getting bogged in even moderately soft ground.  Even when they managed to stay mobile they struggled if the going was heavy as the Ford flathead V8 engine wasn't up to coping with the increased demands place upon it.  It was not unusual for Hedge trimmers to be towed into action.
The location of the additional weight was also an issue.  Most of it was high up which led to stability issues resulting in vehicles being more prone to tipping when traversing a slope or on unstable ground.
Once they had been dragged into action though the Hedge Trimmers performed reasonably well.  The high mounted guns proving to be advantageous in some situations when firing over banks or through vegetation.  Their 20 round magazines kept the loaders busy as the combined rate of fire of 800 rounds per minute resulted in a double magazine change being required every six seconds.
Their high profile did make them an obvious target and their inability to move out of danger meant more than a few were abandoned as soon as they came under fire.

Multiple Gun Carrier "Hedge Trimmer" - 21 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

Once the Allied forces moved past the bocage country the Hedge Trimmers were withdrawn to the rear where they had the RF 20mm Quad, the gun mount, and the mounting frames removed.  The resulting vehicles were put back into action as Carriers, identifiable by their higher armour behind the drivers compartment, reversed front suspension units, and rougher ride due to retaining the heavy duty springs.
The vehicle pictured is from the last production batch which arrived in France too late to see active service in the bocage.  It was unique in retaining it's guns to the end of the war.  It saw service as part of 79th Armoured's rear echelon workshop's anti aircraft defences.  It is credited with shooting down three enemy Jabos and a Noorduyn Norseman.  The officer is Captain Lucifer Gabriel, General Hobart's Press Liaison Officer.

The Model
1/35 Tamiya Universal Carrier.
1/35 Tamiya 20mm Flakvierling 38
Resicast Resin tracks and drive sprockets.

1.  Winston Churchill made his "just you f**kin try it you muppets" speech to parliament on 4th June 1940 following the evacuation of the remains of the British Expeditionary Force and the French Army from the beaches of Dunkirk.

2.  Not actually Rommel himself.  Rommels troops.  Rommel was safely ensconced in a chateau many miles back from the fighting.

3.  Bocage is a terrain of mixed woodland and pasture characteristic of parts of northern France, southern England, Ireland, the Netherlands, northern Spain and northern Germany, in regions where pastoral farming is the dominant land use.
In English, bocage refers to a terrain of mixed woodland and pasture, with fields and winding country lanes sunken between narrow low ridges and banks surmounted by tall thick hedgerows that break the wind but also limit visibility. It is the sort of landscape found in many parts of southern England, for example the Devon hedge and Cornish hedge. However the term is more often found in technical than general usage in England. In France the term is in more general use, especially in Normandy, with a similar meaning. Bocage landscape in France is largely confined to Normandy, Brittany, Burgundy and parts of the Loire valley.


4.  The 79th Armoured Division was a specialist armoured division of the British Army created during the Second World War. The division was created as part of the preparations for the Normandy invasion on 6 June 1944, D-Day.
Major-General Percy Hobart commanded the division and was in charge of the development of armoured vehicles that were solutions to problems of the amphibious landing on the defended French coastline; these unusual-looking tanks it developed and operated were known as "Hobart's Funnies". They included tanks that floated, could clear mines, destroy defences, carry and lay bridges, and roadways.

5.  Modifications proposed for the Meat Chopper mainly consisted of installing an armoured gun shield on the Quadmount.

6.  Go on Phill, you know you want to...

[Weaver]

Excellent - well done! 

I had a similarly exciting time this evening, wondering if the forum would come back up in time.

[Wardukw]

Fantastic Fred   
Bloody great fun in the firing and wouldn't hesitate to give it a go 😀 👍

[zenrat]

Thanks guys.

[NARSES2]

Brilliant mate 

[Robomog]

Great model and backstory,  can't help thinking that if it was fired sideways, it would end up on its side     


Mog
>^-.-^<

[Rheged]

Brilliant mate 

Agreed!

[PR19_Kit]

Great model and backstory,  can't help thinking that if it was fired sideways, it would end up on its side     

What Mog said, but it looks terrific anyway. 

And the backstory is an absolute gem! 

[zenrat]

Thanks folks.