Can You Make a Sherman Tank Float?
From Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford by Pushkin Industries
May 29, 2026 · 40 min · Season 7 · Episode 22
About this episode
The episode explores the innovative idea of making Sherman tanks swim for the D-Day invasion at Omaha Beach.
It’s D-Day and the Allies are about to invade Nazi-occupied France. For the landings to succeed, American soldiers on Omaha Beach will have to break through some formidable coastal defences - Hitler’s Atlantic Wall. Sherman tanks will come in very handy - and the Allies have come up with a novel solution for getting them to the beach. These tanks will swim. Everyone from Winston Churchill down thought swimming tanks were a great idea… but were they? For a full list of sources, see the show notes at timharford.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
People in this episode
Host: Tim Harford
Topics covered
- D-Day
- military history
- World War II
- tanks
- invasion strategies
- Allied forces
Keywords
- D-Day
- Sherman tanks
- Omaha Beach
- Atlantic Wall
- military strategy
- World War II
- invasion
Mentioned in this episode
Products: Sherman tanks
Books & works: Hitler’s Atlantic Wall
Places: Nazi-occupied France, Omaha Beach
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