Up-armouring a Sherman tank using telephone directories???

[Flying10uk]

Hopefully I am not the only U.K. member to have watched last night's episode of "Combat Dealers" on the Quest channel. Basically Bruce, the dealer, purchased a Canadian built Sherman tank already restored and in good overall condition. He then invited a WW2 British Veteran tank driver over to his workshop to have a look at it and advise on how the appearance of the vehicle could be enhanced and be made more original looking. He advised on replacing some of the sand bags strapped to the front of the Sherman and replacing them with a couple of short lengths of track to provide additional protection to the front of the hull.

Fair enough so far but here comes the weird bit. He then went on to say that they used phone books/directories to provide added protection in the event of hitting a mine. He didn't go into details of how they were used. I can only assume that he meant that they laid them out on the floor of the tank, on the inside, side by side. I realise that this sounds like a very strange idea and I'm struggling to get my head around the notion of a Sherman Tank with the floor "tiled" with telephone directories. However the Veteran recounted this as a statement of fact, perfectly seriously and the 2 workshop engineers appeared to take what he said perfectly seriously.

Has anyone else heard anything similar, along these lines, please?

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