the internet was created by Al Gore...what do you expect? I sense a conspiracy... [img]graemlins/no.gif[/img] [img]tongue.gif[/img]

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You are about to embark on the great crusade towards which we have striven these many months - Eisenhower

Conspiracy? No, that isn't a conspiracy, it's an earth moving machine

www.geocities.com/za_rodina/mistery2censored.jpg

Of course it's censored, I had to remove the legend, or else it would be too easy!

Remember to type the URL yourselves manually

Cheers,

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Ah, now it works. Thanks for letting us know about the manual thing. As for the picture, I have no idea.

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You are about to embark on the great crusade towards which we have striven these many months - Eisenhower

At last! I managed to around Geocities, and now my pics are visible [img]smile.gif[/img]

So here is the subject of the quiz. Six specimens were built of this "thing". What is it?

Cheers,

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some kind of canal widener?

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Der große Stoß Büstenhalter auf Ihrem Kopf!!

I have given up. I have no clue where to search for this, it could be from any nation involved. Maybe a hint?

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If someone tries to remove the speck in your right eye, will you turn to him the other also?

All right, I'll relent a bit. This is an image censored by yours truly. In the original photo, which I've seen and from wich the drwing was made, to the right there is a gentleman looking intently. He wears a bowler hat, a cane and is smoking a thick cigar.

The date is 1940, and the things were only scrapped after the Siegfried Line was breached.

Filmography (!)
The nickname of this hardware was a wordplay with its real name and a 1940 film with Judy Garland. Also, in one James Bond film there is a piece of equipment by the same nickname, totally unrelated. Why, I have no idea.

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Well, from your clues it is obviously British in orgin. It is clearly a trenching machine that would produce an anti-tank ditch sized trench after several passes (I couldn't imagine that something of that era could produce enough horsepower and torque to do it in one). These things are clear from the blade design and the spreaders (conveyor belts) right behind the blade to move the dirt out of the trench as it rides up on the blade.
Knowing the Brits it was probably called a Juggernaught or a mole or some similar name.

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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Thanks for that, Za - most interesting ! I'd seen a picture of this machine somewhere in the dim distant past but couldn't remember where.

Another great invention for winning..the previous war !

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

There's lots of outlandish stuff, some good, some laughable, some simply tragic. Please correct me where wrong, but I have it from memory that for a while Lord Louis Mountbatten was involved in commando operations, and he also had something to do in unconventional devices. Some worked, like the Funnies, others didn't, like the Great Panjamdrum.

I saw a film of this once, it couldn't be serious! A big fireworks wheel, meant to be fired from the water's edge, rolling up beach and carrying a demolition charge when (if) it reached an obstacle. This one certainly did not work [img]smile.gif[/img]

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What was the first (British) ship to carry and use helicopters at sea in WW II?

Was the first ship-based helicopter the Whirlwind HAS.7?

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You are about to embark on the great crusade towards which we have striven these many months - Eisenhower

No. The first ship based helicopter was the Sikorsky YR-4B. That doesn't answer the question though: What was the first ship on which they were used at sea?

First helicopter take-off and landing aboard a ship underway at sea: LT Stewart R. Graham, on board the SS Daghestan, North Atlantic, 16 January 1944.

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You are about to embark on the great crusade towards which we have striven these many months - Eisenhower

If that is correct, I would like to move on. This landmine was a terror in Normandy, especially on D-day. When detonated, it did something peculiar (not giving away too much ) and launched about 350 small steel balls over an area of 164 yards. Give me the German (full) name for this mine as well as the Allied nickname. This is probably too easy... [img]tongue.gif[/img]

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You are about to embark on the great crusade towards which we have striven these many months - Eisenhower

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You are about to embark on the great crusade towards which we have striven these many months - Eisenhower

Well, that is correct (I even have some photos of this event).
As to your question, the Schü-mine or, S-mine 35 or 44 depending on the exact model. Both were refered to by the Allies as "Bouncing Bettys." The similar Schü-mine 42 was also sometimes lumped into this category although it wasn't a rebound type anti-personnel mine because it looked similar to the other models.

I knew it was too easy...go ahead, T.A.

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You are about to embark on the great crusade towards which we have striven these many months - Eisenhower

In the closing stages of WW II, the British built 2 gunboats(designed by Captian W J "Bill" Holt RCNC) for use on the river Chindwin in Burma out of four started. Who were these two boats named after / for?

Well, I see that generated alot of interest. Anyway, the answer is the Una and Pamla named after Lord Louis Mountbatten's daughters.

Here is a somewhat easier one. The US DD's carried aircraft in WW II what were their names and hull numbers?