Pearson Mine Plough

This is a tank mounted ploughing device mounted on the front of the vehicle and used to clear a path through a minefield by digging up the buried ordinance and pushing it to one side or turning it over.

The French were the first to experiment with the idea at the end of WW1 by mounting a plough on their Renault FT tank but the British didn’t start working with the concept until 1937 when a workable design was mounted on a ‘Matilda’ Mk1 tank but was never used.

The first recorded use of a mine plough was by the British 79^th. Armoured Division, on Sword beach, during the D-Day landings. The ‘Bullshorn’ plough was fitted to a Churchill Tank as one of ‘Hobarts Funnies’ and was one of several designs trialled by the British Army. In one form or another the mine plough is still in use to this day.