“Czech hedgehogs” consisted of three metal girders or sections of rail welded together at the middle.

     Originally designed as antitank obstacles, large numbers of them were placed on the beaches, often set into concrete bases to make them more stable in the sand.

    They were intended either to block the advance of the landing barges or to hole the hulls of these light craft.

     Recovered and dismantled by American engineers after the landings, some of the metal girders were used to make the “hedgecutters” fitted to the fronts of tanks to help them rip a path through the impenetrable hedgerows of Normandy’s bocage countryside.