Mirage Hobby 1/72 Medium Tank M3 'General Grant CDL' Canal Defence Light Tank Germany, Rheinland, March 1945 (729001)

The Canal Defence Light was one of the Second World War's most closely guarded secrets — a powerful carbon arc searchlight mounted in a modified tank turret, designed to dazzle and blind enemy forces during night attacks while silhouetting them against the darkness for following infantry and armour. Fitted to M3 General Grant hulls, CDL tanks were prepared in large numbers but used in combat only once, during the Rhine crossings of March 1945, where they illuminated the river for the assault boats. The secrecy surrounding the CDL was so extreme that crews themselves were often told little about the weapon's purpose, and the programme remained classified for years after the war. Mirage Hobby's 1/72 kit captures this extraordinary and obscure variant in its operational Rhineland setting.

The tank that fought with light — the CDL's single night of combat on the Rhine.