Sd.Kfz. 300 & Other Remote Control Vehicles.

Great image of all the wrecked Goliaths.

 

I wonder if they have been washing their socks in it ?

 

Nice photo, but I wonder how that Goliath got down to the beach.

 

Nice photo, but I wonder how that Goliath got down to the beach.

There's a photo doing the rounds whith about five on the beach being examined by US Engineers....I suspect the Americans took them there to be shipped to the UK for further examination.

A

 

Just read an oblique reference to Adolphe Kegresse (he of halftrack and Autoserve transmission fame) working on 'guided bombs' in 1939. - A quick Google refers to captured examples of what he was doing feeding into Goliath development. unsure of the slim references I've found there (all seem to use the same wording, so presumably single-source), does anyone have anything more concrete on Kegresse's 'Guided bomb' work?
I'd be fascinated to see if a picture survived, or to confirm that the French were the originators of Radio/wire-controlled small tracked explosive devices.

This from The Freeper Foxhole:


~A

I posted a piccie on this thread of a French example (post #21) Vehicle Pommellet or spookily, the VP series. Jedsite seems to be down at the moment though. Googling 'Vehicle Pommellet' found this Did you know that these kind of radioguided or filoguided vehicles transporting a destruction charge was also developped by the French army before the Germans had their Goliath, Springer or Borgward B.IV dedicated to that function ?
In 1940 the Germans used a few Panzer I Ladungsträger.

In 1937-1940 the French army developped :
- the "véhicule P (P for Pommellet, the captain who invented it)" : constructed by Lorraine, 2000 ordered but only 11 constructed before the armistice
- the "engin K" (K for Alphonse Kégresse, the constructor) : 12000 vehicles ordered (6000 in April 1940, 6000 in May 1940), precursor of the Goliath
- In April 1940, 300 FT-17 tanks are also destined to be transformed in guided tanks (guided from a ground post or from a R-35 command tank, like later the Borgward and the Stug(Fkl) for example)

Regards,

David

David Lehmann
Forum Staff

Posts: 2413
Joined: 01 Apr 2002, 11:50
Location: France


here.

 

Is this the first?

an E.E. Wickersham land torpedo of c.1917. Possibly battery powered?

 

I locate an article about the technical specifications about an exposition in the Militärhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr - Startseite about minitank "Goliath".





Exponat des Monats April 2009: Im Häuserkampf gefürchtet – Der Sprengladungsträger „Goliath“ im Zweiten Weltkrieg



Jan.

 

Do you wish take a look for the remote control of a "Goliath"?

Take a view on this thread: Slightly Off Topic...Not Radio, but Electronic Item Wanted - Wehrmacht-Awards.com Militaria Forums and enjoy, is an very interesting task of investigation.






Jan.

 

I believe the later variants were driven to the location required and then the driver retired and used radio control from a safe distance!

Otherwise it would have been a suicidal to drive it into a minefield.

Regards
Tom

Anyone of this thread could post any information or photos of these devices?


Thanks in advance.



Jan.

 

Wow. Excellent. All this time I thought they were very rare.

I think my earliest museum memory is seeing the one in the West Point museum when I was very young.

 

there was an experimental small remote control tank that was packed full of explosives and sent a tanks call the Goliath look it up on google images. (Sd.Kfz. 302/303a/303b)