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His assistant, a young Royal Engineer named Corporal Bill Jenkins, fished him out. "It's a coffin, sir," Jenkins said, shivering.

Straussler lit his pipe with a shaking hand. He gave the signal.

It worked.

The War Office was skeptical. "Swimming tanks?" a general scoffed. "Next you'll want flying horses."

For twenty minutes, it churned across the lake. Straussler didn't smile. He just watched, counting the seconds. On the far side, the tank crawled up the muddy bank, lowered its screen, and fired its main gun into an empty field—a triumphant, barking shout. dd tank origin

But Captain John J. "Jock" McNeil of the 79th Armoured Division saw the potential. He was one of the few men who understood that breaking the Atlantic Wall would require bizarre, unnatural machines. He gave Straussler an ultimatum: one working prototype in thirty days.

The problem was beaches. Any invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe would require landing tanks directly onto shore. But landing craft couldn't get close enough without being blown out of the water. Tanks launched too far out simply sank like stones. His assistant, a young Royal Engineer named Corporal

He went back to the drawing board. He replaced the rubber tubes with a system of thirty-six hollow steel pillars. He used stronger, waterproofed canvas treated with wax and linseed oil. The drive mechanism was refined: the tank's own sprockets would turn a pair of propellers mounted at the rear, disconnected from the tracks.

The first test was a disaster. The canvas ripped. The tank took on water. It sank to the bottom of the Hamble River like a dead beetle. He gave the signal