Captain Donovan RCE and the AVRE

[sapper740]

Originally posted by Steve Guthrie
Hi there

Checking some facts for a friend.

Does anyone know where I can find information about the above mentioned officer, who is credited with inventing the Armoured Vehicle, Royal Engineers based on his experience at Dieppe?

The important question is whether or not Captain Donovan applied for one of those post-war British awards given to inventors of successful military hardware. Strassler got one for developing the DD Sherman.

Any thoughts?

Steve

I've read very little about Capt. Donovan...this is an area I need to do more research on. One website I read intimated that he only aided in the design of AVREs, and was not the actual inventor. Another website suggests that he invented the Petard mortar.
Here's a quote from the MG website WWW.mgcars.org/uk

"Our job in life was to produce as many and as quickly as possible Churchill Tanks converted to A.V.R.E. (Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers), a special purpose job for mine detection, road block destruction and fitted with a special mortar known as the Petard Gun. A Captain J. Donovan, a Canadian, was responsible for this weapon of terrific destruction and he was a frequent visitor in the early stages of our production. Life soon became extremely hectic and production of 30 tanks a week was attained, and maintained until we outstripped Vauxhall and Broome and Wade's production of basic vehicles. An extremely tight target of 208 vehicles by the end of March was set by the Ministry and we hit the target to the day!


One day when I have time I'm going to research Capt. Donovan in depth.