This vehicle is currently on display at the Museum

Midway through World War 2, with a growing experience of amphibious warfare (landing armies ashore from assault landing craft) the major operation in planning was Operation Overlord. This was to launch the allied invasion of continental Europe and liberate it from German occupation.

The practice of the waterproofing vehicles had contributed to the success of earlier amphibious operations. When landing across open beaches it is necessary to keep the flow of traffic moving to allow speedy disembarkment from landing craft and the crafts swift removal from the area of operation. This enables the fighting units to become operational on land quickly and maintain the momentum of the assault.

Tracked tractors had been used on the beaches to tow away any broken down vehicles, but where vehicles failed to get ashore (drowned) they became a hazard to incoming landing craft. A deep wading recovery vehicle was needed to remove such obstructions. One solution was to fit high sided armoured and watertight bodies to the tracked tractors, but these vehicles were very slow. A more logical scheme was to produce a special version of the ARV. After testing, the Sherman M4A2 was found to be most suitable, as its welded hull was easier to make watertight. Another reason for the choice of the Sherman M4A2 was that its diesel engines were less affected by the sudden cooling of the vehicle being plunged into deep water.

The REME Experimental Beach Recovery Section, working with the ME Directorate of the War Office, developed the design. The design attached a boat shaped superstructure to the top of a turretless Sherman, enabling it to wade in over nine feet of water. It was not practical to fit a winch in view of the difficulty in sealing the winch cable aperture, so the ARV operated in deep water with one member of the crew equipped for shallow water diving. Drowned vehicles were hooked up and towed ashore.

By D Day in June 1944 about sixty Sherman M4 A2s had been converted to BARVs. The Ministry of Supply could not give the project full backing due to heavy commitments elsewhere. Therefore, several REME tradesmen were lent to the civilian contractors to speed up construction of the BARV.

The Sherman BARVs together with wading tractors and normal wheeled recovery vehicles equipped REME beach recovery sections, which were among the first troops to land on D Day. The BARVs were invaluable and found an additional role in pushing stranded landing craft back into deep water.

The Sherman BARV continued in use for training purposes long after World War 2 until replaced in the 1960s by a Centurion BARV some of which remain in service in 1996.

This vehicle arrived in the New Exhibition Hall on 5 May 1999.