AFV Club 1/35 Churchill Mk.IV AVRE with Resicast SBG Assult Bridge

Churchill Mk.IV AVRE with SBG Assult Bridge

The Churchill AVRE series of vehicles was the brainchild of Major General Sir Percy Hobart following the disastrous Dieppe (Operation Jubilee) raid in August 1942 which saw the Churchill tanks of the Canadian Calgary Regiment decimated on the beaches due to the lack of adequate engineer support.

The result of this and Hobart's ingenuity was the creation of a series of specialised AVRE vehicles based on the Churchill Mk.III and Mk.IV chassis with the main gun replaced with a 290mm Petard spigot mortar affectionately know as the "flying dustbin" due to its appearance. The 40lb projectile contained a 26lb demolition charge with an effective range of 80 yards.

The Small Box Girder (SBG) bridge was a small assault bridge that could be used to span gaps of up to 30 feet. It was carried on a Churchill Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers (AVRE) and could be deployed without engineers having to expose themselves to enemy fire.

The SBG bridge was used during the Normandy invasion of World War II.