Very good! A fine comment from someone who obviously knows. But read the text for even better names!

Anyway, this is the censored part of the image, and this machine is nothing less than a N.L.E. Trenching Machine, Mark I. It certainly is obscure, so I can call curtain on this one. T.A., the floor is yours [img]smile.gif[/img]


I'll withold the source identity for I may want to use it again in the future

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N.L.E. Trenching Machine, Mark I, U.K.

Unique, and certainly one of the most interesting devices of the Second World War, the N.L.E. Trenching Machine was overtaken by events so that no opportunity ever occurred for its employment in the role for which it was intended.

Originating in the fertile brain of Mr. Winston Churchill (in 1939, as in 1914, First Lord of the Admiralty) as a means of cutting through enemy defence lines, instructions were given in November to the Director of Naval Construction for experiments to be carried out. A machine which could cut a trench across no-man's-land in the space of one night, through which infantry and tanks could follow, was required. Drawings were made and a scale model was built by the Bassett- Lowke model railway firm. This model was demonstrated by Mr. Churchill during December and January to Cabinet ministers and senior British and French Army officers to some effect, for in February 1940 the Cabinet approved the construction of 240 full-size machines, known under the code name of 'White Rabbit No.6', later changed to 'Cultivator'. The Depart- ment of Naval Land Equipment was formed to control the project and over- all responsibility for production was given to Ruston-Bucyrus Ltd., Lincoln, a firm with long experience in the manufacture of civilian earth-moving equipment.

There were many difficulties in the production of such a large and unconventional machine (the prototype, when completed, weighed some 130 tons and was 77 ft 6 in. long), not the least of which was the discovery, in April 1940, that the projected Rolls-Royce engines could not be used, since all Rolls-Royce engine production capacity was required for the Royal Air Force. Then, in May, the German campaign in France so altered the situation that the bulk of the scheme was cancelled. However, work on a limited scale was allowed to proceed on the grounds that there might, in the future, be some special tactical use for the machines or that they might, in an invasion emergency, be useful for the rapid digging of defensive ditches in the United Kingdom.

The first prototype, known officially as N.L.E. Trenching Machine Mark I, was completed by July 1941: it carried the name 'Nellie I' on its side. In overall appearance, the N.L.E. Trenching Machine resembled a lengthened British First World War tank (some of Sir William Tritton's early drawings had, in fact, been referred to for various parts of the design) but without the sponsons and with a large V-shaped plough blade covering the front section, which was hinged. This front section contained a cutting cylinder, equipped with hardened steel blades.

When starting to cut a trench, the cutting cylinder was lowered and cut into the ground as the machine moved forward (at a speed of 1/2 m.p.h.) and gradually downwards into the depression that had been made. A point was soon reached where the tip of the plough blade entered into the earth ahead of the cutting cylinder and as the machine got deeper the plough took the first cut and eased the work of the cutting blades. The soil removed was ejected either side of the machine by conveyor belts. The maximum depth that could be cut in loam was 5 ft. but the soil deposited on the parapets added about another 3 ft above the surface. An armoured cab was provided for the driver, but armour was not used elsewhere, since when dug in the machine had provided its own protection.

Nellie I was powered by two Davey-Paxman diesel engines, one to propel the machine and the other to drive the cutters.

In the end, only six N.L.E. Trenching Machines, including the prototype, were completed and were kept in store until after the Siegfried Line was breached in the Summer of 1945 by less unconventional means.

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