Canal Defence Light
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Canal Defence Light (CDL) was a British "secret weapon" of the Second World War.
It was based upon the use of a powerful carbon-arc searchlight to dazzle and confuse enemy troops. A demosntration had shown that the use of a vehicle mounted searchlight both disorientated the units facing it and masked activities behind the searchlight.
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 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.
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