Wire catcher
{{Short description|Protective device for personnel in military vehicles}}
File:Jeep willys.jpg with wire catcher]]
A wire catcher (also known as Wire Cutter or Wire Anti-Decapitation Device) is a device used to protect military personnel in open vehicles against taut-wire traps.
Design
A wire catcher consists of a strip of angle iron bolted upright to the forward bumper of a jeep.{{Cite journal |author= |date=December 1944 |title=New Jobs for the Army Jeep |journal=Popular Science |volume=145| issue = 6 |pages=105}}{{cite book|author=Kappelman, Glenn L. |title=Through My Sights: A Gunner's View of WWII | publisher=Sunflower Publishing |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-9704764-1-8}}{{Cite book |title=Battle Bridges |last=Wong |first=John B. |publisher=Trafford Publishing |year=2004 |pages=470}} "It extends above the heads of those riding in the jeep, and is notched a few inches from the top so that any wire extending across the road will be caught and snipped."
History
The first land vehicle wire cutter to be demonstrated was attached to a Killen-Strait tractor for the British in 1915. Two scissor-like Royal Navy torpedo net cutters were fitted to the front of the tractor at the end of two protruding shaped metal rods. The tractor was driven into a field of tensioned barbed wire that had been strung up at precisely the cutter's height. It was not effective with wire at different heights and was not put into service.{{Cite web |url=http://www.tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww1/UK/killen-strait-armoured-tractor |title=Killen-Strait Armoured Tractor |last=Moore |first=Craig |date=March 25, 2017 |website=Tank Encyclopedia}} Heavy tanks were used simply to crush barbed wire obstacles instead.
During World War II, the Germans employed taut-wire traps strung across roadways designed to harm enemy soldiers riding in open vehicles such as jeeps and motorcycles.{{Cite book |title=From the Eagle's Nest: Growing Up in Goldthwaite |last=Helms |first=Glenda Geeslin |year=2015}} Wire catchers were installed on jeeps as field modifications.
Wire catchers were used up through the Vietnam War.{{Cite book |title=Vietnam: Stories from a War |last=Smith |first=Chuck |publisher=Lulu Press |year=2018}}
Gallery
File:Ford GPW (1942) owned by Paul Bater pic1.JPG|1942 Ford GPW with wire catcher
File:Ford GPW (1944) owned by Andrew Meardon pic1.JPG|1944 Ford GPW with wire catcher
File:Véhicules militaires 6 juin 2009 lison 02.jpg|Willys Jeep with wire catcher
File:1945 Willys jeep with trailer 1.JPG|1945 Willys MB Jeep with wire catcher
File:PikiWiki Israel 8985 jeep willis from the independence war.jpg|Willys MB Jeep from the Samson's Foxes unit in the independence war (1948) with wire catcher
See also
- Rhino tank (with Culin hedgerow cutter)
- Wire strike protection system
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- Mick Bowley, THE JEEP WIRE CUTTER The Newsletter of World War 2 Jeeps, NSW, October 2006 – Volume No.93, page 18 [http://202.63.50.228/WWIIJEEPSNSW/newsletters/news93_oct06.pdf online-pdf]{{dead link|date=August 2021}}
External links
{{Commons category|Wire Cutter}}
- [http://www.42fordgpw.com/wire-anti-decapitation-device/ 'Wire Anti-Decapitation Device''] from 42fordgpw.com