Canal Defence Light (CDL) was a British "secret weapon" of the Second World War. Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ...
It was based upon the use of a powerful carbon-arc searchlight to dazzle and confuse enemy troops. A demonstration had shown that the use of a vehicle mounted searchlight both disoriented the units facing it and masked activities behind the searchlight. Edisons classical searchlight cart. ...
The searchlight was mounted in an armoured turret fitted to a tank. Initially the Matilda tank was used replacing its normal turret with a cylindrical one containing the searchlight (the light emitting through a vertical slit) and a machine gun. This was later replaced by the US M3 Grant which was superior in several ways; it was a larger roomier tank, better able to keep up with tanks such as the Sherman and it had a hull mounted gun which was unaffected by the replacement of its normal turret with the searchlight turret. The A12 Infantry Tank II Matilda (sometimes referred to as Senior Matilda or Matilda II) was a British tank of World War II. In a somewhat unorthodox move, it shared the same name as the A11 Infantry Tank I. The name Matilda itself comes from a cartoon duck. ... The M3 Medium Tank was an American tank used during World War II. In Britain the tank was called Lee and its modified version, with a new turret, was called Grant. As a rush job intended to be brought from design to production in a short period, the M3 was...
The light could be varied in two ways to further enhance any effect.
Addition of blue or amber filter would make the light source seem further away or closer respectively.
the operation of a shutter would create a flickering effect.
The project was shrouded in secrecy. It was tested during Exercise Primrose in 1943 at Kilbride Bay with the result that it was determined to be "too uncertain to be depended upon as the main feature of an invasion".
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