Churchill Crocodile: The WW2 Flamethrower Tank
A wartime analysis of 31 Churchill Crocodile actions recorded barely 150 enemy soldiers killed by flame. Around 5,000 chose to surrender rather than face it.
The Churchill Crocodile was a British flamethrower tank, a modified Churchill Mk VII that towed an armoured trailer carrying 400 gallons of fuel and could project flame over 120 yards. It retained its 75mm turret gun, making it a dual-purpose weapon feared above all others by German troops. This is how it worked, what it did in Normandy, and where to see one today.
What Was the Churchill Crocodile?
The Crocodile began life as a Churchill Mk VII, the most heavily armoured British tank of the war. The Churchill was an infantry tank: slow, thickly protected, and built to crawl forward with the infantry onto defended positions rather than race across open country. With frontal armour thicker than a German Tiger's, it was the natural platform for a weapon that had to close to within a hundred yards of an enemy bunker and survive the approach.
The conversion itself was surprisingly restrained. The Besa machine gun in the hull was removed and a flame projector fitted in its place, fed through armoured piping from a 6.5-ton armoured trailer towed behind the tank. Everything else stayed. The 75mm gun in the turret was untouched, so a Crocodile could fight as an ordinary gun tank until the moment flame was called for, and from the front it looked like any other Churchill until the trailer came into view.
Just as clever was how it was built. The Crocodile was produced as a conversion kit rather than a new vehicle, so workshops could adapt standard Mk VIIs in the field without interrupting tank production. Around 800 were converted.
The Crocodile belonged to "Hobart's Funnies", the specialised assault vehicles of Major General Percy Hobart's 79th Armoured Division, designed to crack the Atlantic Wall alongside swimming DD Shermans, mine-flailing Crabs and the bunker-busting AVRE. In Normandy, the Crocodiles were crewed by the 141st Regiment Royal Armoured Corps, known as The Buffs, whose war we will follow through the rest of this article.
How Did the Churchill Crocodile's Flamethrower Work?
Everything that made the Crocodile work rode behind it. The armoured trailer weighed 6.5 tons and carried 400 imperial gallons (1,800 litres) of thickened fuel, along with cylinders of compressed gas to propel it. An armoured link joined the trailer to the tank, feeding fuel under the hull to the projector at the front.
When the gunner fired, gas pressure forced fuel through the projector and past an ignition system, throwing a rod of burning liquid to an effective range of roughly 100 to 130 metres depending on conditions, with enough in the trailer for around 80 one-second bursts. The fuel was the truly horrifying part. Thickened so that it clung and kept burning, it could be splashed through the firing slit of a bunker, bounced over obstacles into trenches, and would even burn on water. A crew could also fire unlit fuel onto a position, then ignite it all with a single burning burst.
The retained 75mm gun made the Crocodile more than a one-trick weapon. A standard attack was conventional first: high-explosive shells and machine-gun fire to keep the defenders' heads down while the tank ground its way inside flame range, and only then the flame itself. Man-pack flamethrowers forced a soldier to walk that distance; the Crocodile crossed it behind the thickest armour in the British Army.
The trailer was the weak point. It was armoured, but a direct hit could knock out the flame system, and German gunners learnt to aim for it. If it was hit, or empty, the crew could jettison it from inside the tank and carry on as an ordinary Churchill.
Much of what we know about how the system performed in action comes from a wartime operational analysis of the Crocodile, digitised in our archive.
The Churchill Crocodile on D-Day
Were flamethrowers used on D-Day? Yes. Crocodiles went ashore with the assault waves on Gold Beach on the morning of 6 June 1944, crewed by C Squadron of the 141st Regiment Royal Armoured Corps. Their first day tells the story of the whole landing in miniature: part triumph, part catastrophe.
13 Troop, under Lieutenant Sherman, landed at La Rivière at H+45, three quarters of an hour behind the first infantry. One tank was lost, but the remaining two pushed inland with the 7th Green Howards, supported them through La Rivière itself, and went on to attack the La Marefontaine gun battery at Point 44.
15 Troop's day was a disaster. Landing at Le Hamel at H+35 under Lieutenant Davis, the troop lost all three of its Crocodiles to the sea and the beach obstacles: one sunk, one beached, one immobilised with a broken track. Some of the most specialised armour in the entire invasion had been wiped out by the landing itself, without firing a single shot. One of the three was recovered from the beach the following day.
The Crocodile's first flame came on 7 June. Near their overnight position, 13 Troop found a German battery concealed in woods and fired the weapon in anger for the first time. Around 150 Germans surrendered. A day after the sea had claimed half the squadron's tanks, the Crocodile had proved its point without needing to kill anyone.
The Crocodile in the Normandy Campaign
The Crocodile had been designed for the Atlantic Wall: concrete, wire and fixed guns. What Normandy actually gave it was the bocage, a maze of sunken lanes and dense hedgerows where every field boundary could hide a machine gun. So the Crocodile became a close-support weapon, burning out hedgerow lines, farm complexes and dug-in infantry ahead of the advancing battalions.
The 141st RAC's June reads like a tour of the campaign's hardest fighting. On 11 June, two tanks supported the Hampshires clearing woods near St Paul-du-Vernay, then attacked La Belle Epine that night, fighting from 2210 until past midnight. On 14 June, 15 Troop, rebuilt after its D-Day losses, attacked La Senaudière and ran into German armour, destroying a Panther for the regiment's first tank kill of the campaign; Trooper Harris was killed in the same action. On 26 June, A Squadron fought two actions at once: three troops advancing on Cheux with the 7th Royal Tank Regiment against Panthers, where Sergeant Wheatcroft's tank was holed three times, while two more troops flamed the fortified village of Saint Mauvieu in support of the 6th Royal Scots Fusiliers. The next day, Lieutenant Brooke of B Squadron and his gunner were killed at Château Le Landel by a 75mm anti-tank gun firing from 20 yards. That last detail is worth sitting with: flame tactics meant getting close, and getting close cost lives.
How effective was it? By the end of July the 141st RAC alone had counted 43 actions in Normandy. A wartime analysis in our archive examined 31 Crocodile actions in detail, from Normandy in June 1944 to the Dutch border in the autumn, and recorded barely 150 enemy killed by flame against around 5,000 who surrendered. Those two numbers, side by side, explain the weapon better than any specification: its real ammunition was not the fuel in the trailer but the fear it carried ahead of it.
For the full day-by-day chronicle of the regiment that crewed these tanks, see our article on the 141st RAC in Normandy, June 1944. For the contemporary assessment, read the wartime report on flamethrower use from D-Day to D+55, digitised in our archive.
Why German Troops Feared the Crocodile
Every weapon on a battlefield can kill. What set the Crocodile apart was how. There was no cover from it: the burning fuel flowed into trenches, through firing slits and around corners, and it clung to whatever it touched. Soldiers who would hold their nerve under shellfire broke when the first ranging burst landed short of their position. Many of the thousands who surrendered to Crocodiles did so before the flame ever touched them.
The fear cut both ways. Crocodile crews believed that capture meant execution, and accounts from the campaign report German troops shooting captured flame-tank crews rather than taking them prisoner. Hard documentation is thin, and the claim is best treated as reported rather than proven, but the crews took the risk seriously.
The Germans also developed practical answers. Anti-tank gunners learnt to open fire early, before the tank could grind inside flame range, and to aim for the trailer, the one part of the system that could be knocked out without penetrating the Churchill's armour.
Was the terror deliberate policy or a by-product? The wartime reports read as if the surrenders were a welcome discovery rather than a stated aim, but this is exactly the question the primary sources in our archive let you weigh for yourself.
Where to See a Churchill Crocodile Today
A surprising number of Crocodiles survive, and one of the best sits a short walk from the centre of Bayeux.
In Normandy
The Museum of the Battle of Normandy in Bayeux displays a Churchill Crocodile, making it the easiest surviving example to see on a D-Day trip. The Bayeux tank is shown without its fuel trailer, so it looks much like any other Churchill; to see the complete system, tank and trailer together, you need Bovington (below). If you are following the Gold Beach story, it pairs naturally with a visit to La Rivière and Le Hamel, where the 141st RAC's tanks first came ashore.
When I visited, what struck me most was how ordinary the Crocodile looks up close. Photographs flatten it into a monster; in person it is a squat, workmanlike machine, and it takes a moment to connect the object in front of you with a weapon that persuaded thousands of men to surrender. Stand at the front and look for the flame projector in the hull, where the machine gun would normally sit. It is easy to miss, which was rather the point. Then walk round to the back: the trailer is missing from the display, but the coupler that attached it is still there, the one giveaway of what this Churchill really was.
For more ideas for your itinerary, see our guide to the museums of Normandy.
Elsewhere in France
Fort Montbarey in Brest holds a Crocodile presented to France by Queen Elizabeth II. It is a long way from the D-Day beaches, but a reminder that these tanks fought on far beyond Normandy.
In the UK
- The Tank Museum, Bovington (Dorset): the definitive Churchill collection, and the place to see a Crocodile complete with its armoured fuel trailer
- The D-Day Story, Portsmouth (Southsea): a Crocodile displayed aboard LCT 7074, the last surviving D-Day landing craft
- Eden Camp (North Yorkshire): home to a Crocodile restoration project
- Muckleburgh Collection (Norfolk)
Further afield
Examples are also preserved at the American Heritage Museum in Massachusetts and The Military Museums in Calgary, Canada.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the Churchill Crocodile used for?
The Crocodile was designed to burn out fortified positions: bunkers, pillboxes and entrenched defenders that conventional gunfire could not dislodge. Working ahead of the infantry, it would suppress a position with its 75mm gun, close to flame range and burn the defenders out. In Normandy it was also turned against hedgerows, farms and fortified villages.
Were flamethrowers used on D-Day?
Yes. Churchill Crocodile flamethrower tanks first saw action on D-Day, 6 June 1944, when C Squadron of the 141st Regiment Royal Armoured Corps landed on Gold Beach at La Rivière and Le Hamel. However, 15 Troop lost all three of their Crocodiles on the beach before firing a single shot. The first flame attack came on 7 June.
How much fuel did the Churchill Crocodile carry?
The armoured trailer carried 400 imperial gallons (about 1,800 litres) of thickened fuel, propelled by compressed gas. That was enough for roughly 80 one-second bursts of flame. Once the trailer was empty, or if it was hit, the crew could jettison it and fight on as a conventional gun tank.
How many Churchill Crocodile tanks were built?
Around 800 were produced. The Crocodile was built as a conversion kit fitted to the Churchill Mk VII rather than as a new vehicle, which meant workshops could convert standard tanks without slowing tank production.
What was the difference between a Crocodile and a standard Churchill?
A standard Churchill Mk VII carried a Besa machine gun in the hull. The Crocodile replaced it with a flame projector and towed a 6.5-ton armoured fuel trailer. The turret and its 75mm gun were unchanged, so the Crocodile could still fight as a normal gun tank.
What happened to captured Churchill Crocodile crews?
Accounts from the campaign report that captured Crocodile crews were sometimes shot rather than taken prisoner, such was the fear and hatred the weapon inspired. Firm documentation is limited, so the claim should be treated as reported rather than proven, but the crews themselves believed the risk was real.
Was the Churchill Crocodile one of Hobart's Funnies?
Yes. The Crocodile was one of Hobart's Funnies, the specialised assault vehicles fielded by Major General Percy Hobart's 79th Armoured Division, alongside swimming DD Shermans, mine-clearing Crab flails and the bunker-busting AVRE. The 141st RAC, who crewed the Crocodiles in Normandy, served under the division.
Judged by the usual arithmetic of war, the Churchill Crocodile barely registers: the wartime analysis of its actions counted only around 150 men killed by flame. Judged by what it made men do, it stands almost alone. Around 5,000 soldiers surrendered rather than face it, and entire positions gave up at the sight of a ranging burst. Few weapons of the war did so much while firing so little.
The men who crewed it have their own story, told day by day in our chronicle of the 141st RAC in Normandy. And the next time you are in Bayeux, go and stand next to the real thing. It is smaller than the fear suggests.
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Phil – creator of Normandy War Guide
I started the site more than a decade ago after my first trip to Normandy and have
been hooked ever since. I visit a few times each year to explore new sites and
update the guide. Over the years I've also transcribed thousands of WWII war
diaries and scanned original maps to keep this history accessible for everyone.