Sgt Curtis Grubb Culin III was a World War II soldier credited with the invention of a hedge-breaching device fitted to Allied armored vehicles during the Battle of Normandy. As they moved inland after the D-Day landings, the Allies found their tanks were unable to operate easily or safely in the Normandy bocage countryside. Instead of breaking through the thick, high hedges the tanks rode over them, which exposed their thinly armored undersides to attack while their own guns could not be brought to bear.
The Curtis G. Culin III memorial in his hometown of Cranford, New Jersey
"Rhino tank" was the American nickname for Allied tanks fitted with "tusks", or bocage cutting devices, during World War II. The British designation for the modifications was Prongs.
An M4A1 (76) W-based United States Rhino tank crashes through a hedgerow.
An example of bocage landscape
A M5 Stuart light tank, fitted with a Culin-style "cutter".
An American M4 Sherman tank with hedgerow breaching modifications