A Thorny Issue
In June of 1944, after American soldiers landed on the beaches of Normandy on D‐Day and moved about 10 miles inland, they approached the Normandy countryside the French refer to as the Bocage. This part of France consisted of plots of land that farmers separated with hedgerows rather than fences. The hedgerows were made of two to three feet of packed soil at their base and topped off with several feet of brush and vines.
When the Sherman tanks attempted to go over the top of the hedgerows, the front of the tank popped up, exposing its thin underbelly to Nazi anti‐tank fire. As it turns out, Allied military planners had spent so much time planning for the D‐Day landings that they hadn’t fully considered the problems troops might encounter in the hedgerow country. The Sherman tanks’ vulnerability caught everyone by surprise.
At first, the Americans tried blasting the hedgerows open so the Sherman tanks could then progress through the holes created by the explosions. Unfortunately, the explosions only served to give the Nazis advance warning of where the tanks were going. Nearly a month after D‐Day, the Allies were falling behind schedule primarily because of the problems created by the hedgerows and the Nazi defense.
An Unexpected Solution
One day, in a discussion between officers and enlisted men, the idea arose of mounting saw teeth on the front of the Sherman tank. Many of those present laughed at the suggestion. One soldier, however, took the idea seriously. Sergeant Curtis G. Culin, a cab driver from Chicago, immediately designed and built a hedgerow-cutting device made from pieces of steel rail that the Nazis had strewn across the beaches to slow down an amphibious attack. When tested, the new device easily sliced through the hedgerows.
It wasn’t long before the Sherman tanks mounted with Culin’s device were branded “Rhinos” by the soldiers because they made a Sherman tank look like a rhinoceros. Within days of testing the Rhinos, the idea was presented to General Omar Bradley, head of the First Army. In short order, he attended a demonstration of the Rhino tank and immediately ordered 500 of Culin’s devices. Within two weeks, 60% percent of the First Army’s Sherman tanks were modified into Rhinos. With the Rhinos, the First Army was able to proceed through the hedgerow country in time to crush the Nazi army.
Now It’s Up to You
Curtis Culin’s innovation might not have occurred had it not been for a chain of command consisting of Generals Bradley, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and George C. Marshall, each of whom gave soldiers under his command the freedom to share and test ideas.
As a leader, one of the most powerful things you can do is demonstrate that you are willing to listen. Encourage your team to take the initiative to identify problems and give them the freedom to use innovative thinking to find solutions.
By doing so, you just might unleash the type of innovative thinking that allowed a Chicago cab driver to play a crucial role in one of history’s greatest moments.
