Churchill Crocodile The Churchill Crocodile was a British flame - throwing tank of late Second World War . A variant of the Tank , Infantry , Mk VI ( A22 ) Churchill Mark VII , although the Churchill Mark IV was initially chosen to be the base vehicle . It was introduced as one of the specialised armoured vehicles developed under Major - General Percy Hobart and known as one of " Hobart ' s Funnies " . It was produced from October 1943 , just in time for the Normandy invasion 13th Troop C squadron 141 RAC " The Buffs " saw action on the first day . Eight hundred were produced by conversion of existing tanks . The conversion kit consisted of the trailer , an armoured pipe fitted along the underside of the tank , and the projector , which replaced the hull mounted Besa machine gun . The Crocodile was therefore still able to function as a gun tank with its turret mounted Ordnance QF 75 mm gun . Four hundred gallons of fuel and the compressed nitrogen propellant , enough for eighty one - second bursts , were stored in a 6½ ton detachable armoured trailer towed by the Crocodile . The thrower had a range of up to 120 yards ( some sources quote 150 yards ) . The pressure required had to be primed on the trailer by the crew as close to use as feasible , because pressure could not be maintained for very long . Design and development . From early in the war , there had been experiments with mounting flamethrowers on British vehicles ; leading to vehicles such as the Cockatrice , Basilisk and the Wasp ( the latter being a flamethrower on a Universal Carrier ) . The Churchill Oke , a flamethrower carrying Churchill Mark II developed by a Royal Tank Regiment officer , was tested operationally on the Dieppe Raid . Parallel development work was carried out by the Petroleum Warfare Department , AEC and the Ministry of Supply ( MoS ) on Valentine tanks . The Department of Tank Design preferred the Churchill , which was the Infantry tank successor to the Valentine , as a basis for further work . General Percy Hobart saw the Crocodile demonstrated in 1943 and pressured the MoS to produce a development plan and the Chief of the General Staff added the flamethrowers to the 79th Division plan . In the final design the flamethrower equipment was produced as a kit that REME workshops could fit in the field , converting any available Mk VII . Of the 800 kits produced , 250 were held in reserve for possible operations against the Japanese . The remainder was sufficient for producing three regiments of tanks as well as training and replacements for battlefield casualties . The of fuel was used at 4 gallons per second ; refuelling took at least 90 minutes and pressurization around 15 minutes . The fuel burned on water and could be used to set fire to woods and houses . The flamethrower could project a " wet " burst of unlit fuel which would splash around corners in trenches or strongpoints and then ignite this with a second burst . The trailer , connected to the tank by a three way armoured coupling , could be jettisoned from within the tank if necessary . Service . Used by units of the 79th Armoured Division in concert with the Churchill AVRE , and other Funnies , the Crocodile was an effective assault weapon whose threat could induce enemy troops to retreat or surrender . The Crocodile was a specialised weapon , best used against suitable targets and it was limited by the short range of its flamethrower . On the other hand , it was used so successfully against bunkers that many bunkers surrendered after the first ranging shots . Aspects of the mechanism were considered by the British to be so secret that disabled units , if they could not be recovered , were rapidly destroyed by any means , even air strike , if necessary . British Crocodiles supported the U . S . Army in the Normandy bocage and , later , during Operation Clipper , the Anglo - American assault on Geilenkirchen . The units that used the Crocodile were in Europe , the 31st Armoured Brigade : In Italy the 25th Armoured Assault Brigade operated Crocodiles . Surviving Vehicles . Mark VII Crocodiles are owned by the Muckleburgh Collection in Norfolk , the Cobbaton Combat Collection in Devon , the D - Day museum in Portsmouth , the Wheatcroft Collection , the Kubinka Tank Museum in Russia and the Museum of the Regiments , Calgary , Alberta . A Mark VIII is at the Royal Australian Armoured Corps Museum . Two ( one in running order ) are privately owned in the UK . One example , without trailer , on display at the Bayeux Museum of the Battle of Normandy and a trailer is held at the Bovington Tank Museum .