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US Soldiers Advance through the streets of Weisweiler Germany 1944
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US Soldiers Advance through the streets of Weisweiler Germany 1944
Seeing pictures like this make you realise the amazing job that West Germany made of rebuilding their towns and cities, Post War.
Those tubes are they Bangalores as 4 of the G I's them are carrying them.
Shows me that every inch of ground was contested very bitterly by the retreating army.
do not think they are Bangalore TorpedosQuote:
Originally Posted by CINDERS
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The Bangalore Torpedo is an explosive device consisting of any desired number of slim cylindrical explosive charges in metal containers (i.e. tubes) .
Any number of these containers may be attached to each other endwise .
The Bangalore Torpedo is generally used against barbed wire entanglements and various other relatively light obstructions, but also against anti-personnel mines and similar small obstacles,
and can be turned into boobytraps .
When exploding, the Bangalore Torpedo clears a path 10 to 15 feet wide thru barbed wire . In minefield breaching, it will explode all anti- personnel mines and most of the anti-tank mines, but
in a narrow footpath only !
It is therefore better to use it only in an emergency, as many of the anti-tank mines at the sides of the cleared path may be shocked into a sensitive state, which makes extreme care necessary
in any further mine clearing …
The weapon consists of a group of 10 loading assemblies, i.e. steel tubes filled with high-explosive which are either used singly, or in series with nose sleeves (forward end) and connecting
sleeves (for attachment end-to-end) . It will, besides being used for blasting various types of field obstructions, also be used in bundles as substitute explosive charges in Demolition Snakes,
M2 and M3 series .
The nose sleeve has a rounded point (indeed, it looks like a bullet-shaped object) at one end, for ease in pushing the tube (or more tubes) thru obstacles (sand, shingle, grass, debris), and a
single clip, which holds the nose sleeve in place at the forward end of the tube .
The connecting sleeve is a short cylindrical coupling device, into which the ends of 2 tubes can fit and be held by the three spring clips .
A single loading assembly (or tube) may be used or any number of loading assemblies may be used as required . In assembling 2 or more tubes, a nose sleeve is always pressed onto one
forward end of one tube, then the rear end of the same tube is connected to the forward end of a second tube by a connecting sleeve, and so on until the required number of tubes are properly
connected .
Detonation of a charge in a tube or all charges in a series of loading assemblies may be accomplished by a firing device with blasting cap screwed into the cap well of the tail end of a tube or the
tail end of the last tube in a series .
Please note that the cap well at the end of the tube should be protected with tape or a wooden plug, while the sleeve is being pushed into place .
Detonation may also be achieved by an electric blasting cap with the leads connected to a source of electric current, or by a non-electric blasting cap attached to a safety fuse or a time blasting
fuse and fuse lighter, or by wrapping a minimum of 4 turns of detonating cord around the tube itself in the one-tube assembly, or around any tube in a multiple-tube assembly, and detonating
the cord with a delay-detonator or with an appropriately arranged blasting cap primed by a safety fuse and fuse lighter .
The M1A1 Bangalore Torpedo is packed in a single rectangular wooden box, which contains 10 x 5-foot steel loading assemblies or tubes, 10 x connecting sleeves, and 1 x nose sleeve .
The watertight sleeves are 5 feet in length and 2 1/8 inches in diameter, they are grooved and capped at each end .
Each end of sleeve loading assembly contains a threaded cap well to accomodate any issue firing device with a blasting cap crimped thereto .
The tubes receive an olive drab coating while markings are yellow .
Weight of 1 section is approximately 13 pounds . 4 inches of length at both ends of each sleeve contains TNT booster .
The explosive contains approximately 9 lb Amatol 80/20 and TNT booster (a later postwar version i.e. Torpedo, Bangalore, M1A2 contains 9 lb composition B and composition A-3 booster).
The wooden box (final packing) has following dimensions: 64 1/8 x 13 3/8 x 7 1/8-in, its total weight is 176 lb .
Tube Length: 5' Tube Diameter: 2 1/8" Tube Wall: 24 gauge
Weight: 13 lbs. (9 pounds of explosives)
Explosive Type: TNT
Connecting Sleeve: 5"
Nose Sleeve: 3 3/4"
Remark : a Bangalore Torpedo or Torpedo section may be improvised by using a 2-in diameter metal pipe with a 24-gage wall thickness and approximately 2 pounds of explosive per foot of
length .
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They're shovels, round point, long handle... Look closely...Quote:
Originally Posted by CINDERS
Now that you say that BAR you can just make out the 3rd mans one blends in with the rear wall and the 4th mans just catch the edge.
I'm trying to remember which book it was, either Company Commander by Macdonald or Band of Brothers by Ambrose where the author relates the discomfort felt by the Americans when they realized that while they loved their British hosts, found the French fascinating and the people of the Netherlands adorable, they felt that the German civilians were most like them. Why? The day after an assault the whole village would be out in the streets cleaning up the rubble together. Within a few days the streets would be cleared. They were fastidiously clean.
Bob
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Remembering Germany's "Rubble Women"
Remembering Germany′s ″Rubble Women″ | Germany | DW.COM | 08.05.2005
Notice how they've "cleaned up" the whole bricks for presumably possible reuse by cleaning off the remnants of old mortar, then neatly the've stacked them. I've seen this quite a few times in old photographs, the cleaning up/stacking of salvaged bricks from bombed out, German buildings. Does anyone know if these salvaged bricks were actually reused and can you still see tell tail signs in walls of buildings today?
As a reward after hostilities ceased some bomber crews took their ground crews for a quick hop over the channel to have a first hand look at the Reich's demise apparently allot of them were quite shocked at the devastation wrought on the cities by Bomber Command and the USAF.
I know there was operation point blank but not having read the 3 volumes on the strategic bombing of germany yet even though they are 2' away from me I am unsure if the USAF targeted civilian populations rather bombed industrial targets of which a few gave them some very bloody noses and unacceptable aircrew/planes lost from those missions.
Unfortunately, these things happen in war, Cinders, it's a nasty dirty business, as my father found out being on the receiving end of German bombs. My father suffered permanent hearing loss and recurring nightmares, lasting more than 30 years due to being bombed and witnessing other things during WW2. The Germans and Japanese started it and we gave them back a taste of their own medicine. We, the U.K. and U.S., made a better job of doing to the Germans and Japanese what they had previously done to us.
I grew up in Heidelberg, Germany in the late 1950's and early 1960's. While Heidelberg was spared from the allied bombing campaign. Nearby Mannheim was not. I still remember sections of Mannheim still flatten from the allied bombing. Most of the younger generations have no idea of what the results of total war.
--fjruple
"Give me ten years and you wont recognize your cities."
Bob
I don't think even our current politicians have any idea of the human costs involved in total war, for all sides involved.Quote:
Originally Posted by fjruple
On a vacation in Germany we were astonished at how clean the country was... woods along the road had no fallen trees or debris, were like parks; truck driver pulled over to clean up the pieces of his recap tire that came apart; truck driving slowly along the side of the road with a brush affair washing the mile posts front and back. On the way home from JFK airport the filth was overwhelming after Germany... made you ashamed that visitors see this.
Our roads around here the highways that is are littered with the crud the lazy smucks throw out their windows. Sometimes I ponder that these generations take for granted the horrors & privations some of the worlds generations have given in blood so the latest ones can complain when the power goes out and they cannot log into facebook or twitter........
A book, match and a candle for me thank you sir and I will be quite alright until the power comes back on.