Arty, More interesting and useful information. Thank you. I do not think the photo shows Roly Poly material. It is its close relative the chespale over coir over Sommerfeld as used by the Beach Groups. After the initial landings and before more permanent hards were constructed the Beach Group laid this combination at the top of the beach so that LCTs could beach at high tide and discharge vehicles. I don't think any Roly Poly material survived to have its photo taken even if it did deploy correctly. BUT I am on a steep learning curve as far as Roly Poly is concerned and all things are possible. Mike
Regarding Centaur pushers - would they have had enough room to manoeuvre in an LCT 5 to get from the firing platform into a position where the could give a straight push? I suspect not and that might explain why they weren't used.
Idler, So few LCT(A) actually arrived on time that it is difficult to find out if they had Roly Poly and/or used them. I know that the Flails and AVREs had to line up carefully in order to exit their craft but I don't know about LCT5s. Elusive things Roly Poly. The picture that Simon refers to is certainly captioned as showing a Roly Poly but I am fairly sure it is a Bobbin with steel shuttering. Anderson's book gives a lot of detail about most aspects of the AVREs activities and is certainly a valuable reference but he probably did not find much about the actual Roly Poly. Possibly the photo is miscaptioned in the Tank Museum archive. As an aside I have come across many books by people who really know what they are talking about but the photos and captions do not reflect that knowledge. Perhaps they are added by the editor or publisher. Mike
Mike, By George you're right. I should have looked closer! It is indeed chespaling in the pic. Regards Arty
Hi, Three photos showing the mat in use on the 6th June. This one was pushed ashore by hand. Regards Danny
I'm not quite awake yet, but what's a Churchill gun tank doing there? It's not one of the even-more-elusive-than-a-Roly-Poly Crocs, is it?
Hi Idler, You are correct. It is the Crocodile “Sinner”, T 173267/H, of 141 Regiment RAC, The Buffs. The photos were taken in the Ver sur Mer area, Hable de Heurtot (907870) to Montfleury Station(927867). Between H + 90 minutes to H + 13 hours. Regards Danny
Here's the testimony of Major Roy Snodgrass of 394th Battery of 120th LAA Regiment, who was the OC of LCT-2538 on Gold landing area:
