Marcel Mitzakis’ Giant Tank-Mounted Lamp Blinded German Troops

By Robert Beckhusen,War Is Boring

In March 1945, the rapidly advancing U.S. Army’s 9th Armored Division — to its surprise — found itself at Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine at Remagan; one of the two surviving bridges into the heart of Germany. The bridge was a considerable prize and its capture would shorten the war. The Germans, desperate to stop the offensive, threw everything that had at the bridge in repeated attempts to destroy it.

German troops rigged the Ludendorff Bridge with explosives, which only partially detonated — failing to bring down the structure. Ground attacks, artillery and a 24-inch super-heavy Karl-Gerät mortar also failed. U.S. troops even captured a barge full of German soldiers carrying explosives as they floated down the river toward the bridge.

Finally, and incorrectly believing the bridge had been destroyed, German commando Otto Skorzeny ordered Waffen SS frogmen to float down the river using oil drums, with their objective to blow up a nearby pontoon bridge. Along the way, beams from extremely bright Canal Defense Lights attached to American M3 Grant tanks illuminated the group — exposing them to U.S. fire which killed two frogmen. U.S. troops captured three others.

It was the first time the Canal Defense Light saw combat. The term “Canal Defense Light” itself was an odd one for giant lamp attached to a battle tank, but that was deliberate — an anodyne-sounding codename to confuse spies. First developed by Greek inventor Marcel Mitzakis, the British War Office took interest, ordering 300 lights for trials beginning in 1940.

The actual devices themselves used a series of mirrors to reflect a powerful arc-light beam through narrow slit — making them challenging to disable with fire.

Above — an M3 Grant tank with a Canal Defense Light.

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