1st Assault Brigade Royal Engineers The 1st Assault Brigade Royal Engineers was a specialisied armoured formation of the British Army active in World War II . It was formed in mid - 1943 and its structure was three Assault Regiments of the Royal Engineers . It was assigned to the 79th Armoured Division in preparation for the Normandy invasion of 6 June 1944 . The unit comprised armoured vehicles modified for specialist roles ( also known as Hobart ' s Funnies ) , intended to assist with the landing phase of the operation . History . By the end of October 1943 , various engineer units had been renamed and transferred into the Brigade . This brigade comprised 3 Assault Regiments , each with 4 Assault Squadrons , plus an Assault Park Squadron . This structure remained unchanged up to the Normandy landings in June 1944 . The basic vehicle of the assault unit was the Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers ( AVREs ) . This was a Churchill tank with its turret modified or removed and to which were attached certain special equipments . The Brigade was employed during the assault landings in Normandy , Operation Overlord and further used during the battle for the Roer Triangle ( Operation Blackcock ) , the Rhine crossings ( " Operation Plunder " ) and the Elbe crossing . D Day , Operation Overlord . Each of the three Infantry Divisions involved in the first assault on the British and Canadian front - Gold Beach , Juno Beach and Sword Beach - included two Assault Squadrons from 5 Assault Regiment and 6 Assault Regiment , Royal Engineers . The objective of each pair of Assault Squadrons was to clear lanes across the beaches and to establish up to eight exits from the beaches onto the first inland road , suitable for tracked vehicles . Which involved removing beach obstacles which were exposed at low tide so that they were not a hazard as the tide rose . Disarming and removing mines and other explosive charges from these obstacles . Breaching the sea wall , where one existed , and creating and maintaining ramps and firm access routes through the soft sand above the high water line . Removing knocked - out vehicles which were obstructing these exits . All this had to be done under fire from buildings on the seafront , and under mortar and artillery fire from further inland . Each Assault Squadron was equipped with a number of Armoured Vehicles Royal Engineers ( AVRE s ) - which were Churchill tank s , modified in various ways to suit the needs of Assault Engineers . In addition , the assault teams included a number of Sherman ' Crabs ' from 30th Armoured Brigade , these were Sherman tanks , with a full - width , heavy duty , rotary chain flail mounted in front which destroyed any mines in its path , thus clearing the lanes up the beach . The AVREs then turned their attention to the first line of land defences , using their spigot mortars , and with self - propelled guns providing artillery support . More Sappers landed to continue the clearance of the beaches . All the time , infantry were moving through into the growing bridgehead . Several exits were open within an hour of first landings , allowing the Armoured Brigades to start moving inland . The Assault Regiments suffered their share of casualties . In some sectors , up to 50 % of the flail tanks , AVREs and armoured bulldozers had been knocked out , with high casualties among the crews . But many of the objectives for D - Day had been achieved which may not have been the case without 1st Assault Brigade R . E . . After Normandy the Brigade was used in Operation Blackcock , Operation Infatuate and Operation Plunder . Assault Engineers after the War . After the end of the Second World War , 79th Armoured Division was disbanded . The remaining Assault Engineer Regiment was disbanded in July 1957 and briefly reformed as 32nd Armoured Engineer Regiment , in 1964 before a further reorganisation in 1969 reduced the Armoured Engineers to one squadron . In 1980 , 32 Armoured Engineer Regiment was again reformed and was the largest tank regiment in the British Army . The Regiment was the only unit equipped with specialist Sapper tanks and heir to the traditions of past assault and armoured engineers . The regimental crest includeded the bull ' s head device of 79th Armoured Division . 32 Armoured Engineer Regiment had three squadrons each of 4 troops , a total of 72 tanks . Each troop had 3 AVRE s and 3 AVLB s ( bridge layers ) . The AVRE has a wide range of capabilities including launching fascines ( large pipe bundles ) into anti tank ditches , laying trackway , clearing mines , dozing and destroying enemy strong points . The bridge layer can lay a scissor bridge over a gap up to 23m wide or a fixed bridge over smaller gaps up to 12m . The complete launching sequence takes less than five minutes . Larger gaps can be crossed using bridges in combination . As of 2008 Engineer Regiments attached to Armoured or Mechanised Brigades in the British Army , have Armoured Engineer Squadrons included within their organisation .