D-Day 80 The Last Veterans: Dennis Lanham
Dennis Lanham, Aged: 100, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
Interviewed 9 August 2023
Died 1 May 2024
A vehicle mechanic who worked on projects such as rainproofing vehicles, Mr Lanham became involved with the "Hobart’s Funnies’" developed by Major General Sir Percy Hobart.
These were fighting vehicles adapted ingeniously to perform tasks on and after D-Day in support of ground troops. One day he was sent to a briefing in a marquee.
He said: "This man Sir Percy Hobart hammered the government to make this big flame thrower. We were assembled and told careless talk costs lives. What we take in we do not repeat.
"The fear of God was put into you. No two ways about it- you would be shot if you broke the Official Secrets Act.
"Inside the marquee was a Mark 4 Churchill tank. Nothing to do with flamethrowers. Not even mentioned. It wasn’t until we got to Suffolk that we heard there was a prototype being tested in Scotland.
"And to keep it secret all the bits and pieces were made in Canada with the exception of one piece.
"They got the hull of the Churchill to be drilled and tapped and screws put in so you could do an IKEA basically. You get so many boxes plus a long length of steel drain piping with a big bend in it and some U shaped pieces.
"Then you took all the set screws out of these drilled places and you added on the flamethrower to a Mark 4 Churchill tank."
Based at Gosport Mr Lanham was sent to a workshop in Normandy on 16 June to begin the transformations.
The adapted tanks were given the name Crocodile. The flamethrowers put on them had a range of about 120 metres and replaced the tank’s front mounted machine gun.
Mr Langham said: "The whole of France and the whole of the Eastern border of France was almost one big pillbox. Millions of tonnes of concrete. A pillbox doesn’t go into a room. There are passages. There are three angles to go round. A Crocodile if aimed at the entrance of the door will bounce at a ninety degree angle from that wall to that wall to that wall and when you see all this flame coming to you you either put your hands up or you burn to death."
The Crocodiles were also known as ‘’Flamers.’’
"On D-Day we had five flamers," Mr Lanham said.
"And at the end of the war we had 230 flamers. That’s the number we put our packs on.
"There have been times when I have worried. Because flame and to burn someone to death … but everybody had done it bar us.
"You are not allowed to use them now, Geneva Convention. As regards the effect of them they had a tremendous effect.
"No at times in case I was talking to someone who says ‘Mustn't do that, mustn't fight wars’. Quite a few people still around like that. I have got over that. I feel proud of being a soldier. I am proud of wearing my medals.
"And I’m proud of being a Crocodile man."
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