Devastating… it wasn’t a shell which explodes and splinters come off, this was solely a 40 lb mortar bomb filled with plastic HE, the blast, the detonation was terrific, really terrific. That was what it was designed for to blast apart pillboxes… to open up a pillbox. The blast, the detonation was dreadful.
Sergeant John Solomon, a tank driver with 222nd Assault Squadron, Royal Engineers, 79th Armoured Division, describes the effects of a 40lb Petard bomb fired from a Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers or AVRE.
An AVRE’s petard mortar with 290mm bomb (source)
The AVRE was based on the Churchill tank but instead of a main gun like a 75mm or a 6pdr it has a 290mm petard spigot mortar, similar to that of the PIAT, which fired a large petard bomb, often nicknamed a ‘flying dustbin’ by troops because of its shape.
Source
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