When a Farmer Put a Naval Cannon on His Tractor — Germans Called It the “Devil Tractor”

Discover the astonishing true story of how an improvised American weapon shattered German armored confidence in Normandy when a simple farm tractor became one of the most feared tank killers of World War II. In the summer of 1944, as German Panzer divisions pushed through the hedgerows of France, their crews encountered something that defied every rule of warfare they understood: slow-moving John Deere tractors mounting five-inch naval cannons, weapons originally designed to hunt submarines in the Atlantic. Nicknamed the “Devil Tractor” by terrified German soldiers, the M12 Gun Motor Carriage embodied America’s unmatched talent for improvisation, turning surplus naval guns and civilian agricultural machinery into devastating battlefield solutions. This in-depth documentary reveals how these unlikely machines, built in mere hours from existing industrial resources, could obliterate Panthers and Tigers with single shots, tearing turrets from hulls and annihilating elite German units that never saw them as a threat until it was too late. Drawing on combat reports, eyewitness accounts, and postwar German intelligence assessments, the video explores how Devil Tractors exploited surprise, psychology, and overwhelming firepower to dominate hedgerow ambushes, urban combat, and even the Battle of the Bulge. More than just a strange footnote, this story exposes a deeper truth about the war: that American victory was driven not only by numbers, but by creative thinking, industrial flexibility, and the ruthless ability to turn anything—even a farmer’s tractor—into a weapon that could change the course of history.