Wire catcher

A wire catcher (also known as Wire Cutter or Wire Anti-Decapitation Device) is a device used to protect military personnel in open vehicles against taut-wire traps.

1945 Willys Jeep with wire catcher

Design

A wire catcher consists of a strip of angle iron bolted upright to the forward bumper of a jeep.^[1][2][3] "It extends above the heads of those riding in the jeep, and is notched a few inches from the top so that any wire extending across the road will be caught and snipped."^[1]

History

The first land vehicle wire cutter to be demonstrated was attached to a Killen-Strait tractor for the British in 1915. Two scissor-like Royal Navy torpedo net cutters were fitted to the front of the tractor at the end of two protruding shaped metal rods. The tractor was driven into a field of tensioned barbed wire that had been strung up at precisely the cutter's height. It was not effective with wire at different heights and was not put into service.^[4] Heavy tanks were used simply to crush barbed wire obstacles instead.

During World War II, the Germans employed taut-wire traps strung across roadways designed to harm enemy soldiers riding in open vehicles such as jeeps and motorcycles.^[5] Wire catchers were installed on jeeps as field modifications.^[2][5]

Wire catchers were used up through the Vietnam War.^[6]

Gallery

• 
  1942 Ford GPW with wire catcher
• 
  1944 Ford GPW with wire catcher
• 
  Willys Jeep with wire catcher
• 
  1945 Willys MB Jeep with wire catcher
• 
  Willys MB Jeep from the Samson's Foxes unit in the independence war (1948) with wire catcher

See also

• Rhino tank (with Culin hedgerow cutter)
• Wire strike protection system