M4 Sherman tanks and men of the US 1st Marine Division on the beach of Cape Gloucester, New Britain, Bismarck Archipelago, 15 Dec 1943

Sherman tanks of the US 1st Marine Division

M3 light tanks of US 9th Marine Defense Battalion near the base of Bibilo Hill, Munda, New Georgia, Aug 1943

M3 light tanks of US 9th Marine Defense Battalion

Experiments involved welding pipes or steel teeth onto the front of the Sherman tank. Lt. Charles Green, a tanker in the 29th-Division, devised a bumper that was made from salvaged railroad tracks that Rommel had used as beach obstacles. It was incredibly strong and permitted the Shermans to bull their way through the thickest hedgerows. In the 2nd Armored Division Sgt. Curtis Culin, a cab driver from Chicago, designed and supervised the construction of a hedgerow-cuffing device made from scrap iron pulled from a German roadblock. The blades gave the tank a resemblance to a rhinoceros, so Shermans equipped with Culin's invention were known as rhino tanks.