Conger Carrier restoration, Overloon The Netherlands

[eddy8men]

the theory was quite sound and we perfected it after the war and came up with the giant viper, which is a 275yd rocket propelled hose fitted with plastic explosive, if I remember right they were deployed and used in the gulf war.
the trouble with the conger if I read it right was the hose was fired and once in position was then filled with nitro glycerine which is not squaddie proof and not a great thing to be doing whilst under mortar and machine gun fire. there was also an incident where 41 men were killed whilst loading the congers ready for a mission at a farm in Holland after that they were declared unfit for use !

[Lauren Child]

Originally Posted by eddy8men

the theory was quite sound and we perfected it after the war and came up with the giant viper, which is a 275yd rocket propelled hose fitted with plastic explosive, if I remember right they were deployed and used in the gulf war.
the trouble with the conger if I read it right was the hose was fired and once in position was then filled with nitro glycerine which is not squaddie proof and not a great thing to be doing whilst under mortar and machine gun fire. there was also an incident where 41 men were killed whilst loading the congers ready for a mission at a farm in Holland after that they were declared unfit for use !

Here's a video of it working.

http://youtu.be/zHszRV5-bd4

[eddy8men]

sorry guys but I was wrong about the towing frame, a fella on another forum pointed out it's true purpose which is to tow the jcb 410 rough terrain forklift behind a wagon (usually a Bedford TM) it's definitely not for towing a conger carrier

[Alex van de Wetering]

Rick,

Sorry for not getting back to you earlier. Pity that it's JCB, but it does confirm my presumption. I mentioned that the open ends of the "A" were spot-on, but later I realised the Conger ones are straight and the JCB ones are slightly angled....so the ends are also different.

The original towing frames used for the Conger, were also the ones used to tow the "gutted carriers"...stripped carriers to carry material. There is a series of pictures of two of them during the liberation of Culemborg, towed behind Churchills. Rick....you can modify the JCB frame and throw a canvas cover over a stripped carrier, tow it behind your AVRE....and.....

Alex

[Alex van de Wetering]

Oeps....it was Coevorden not Culemborg, my bad.

source: http://www.herdenking.nl/nieuw/index...en/bouwedeboer

Note that the carrier in the pic still has the rear armor......it was not removed (well at least not on this one) as often seen on drawings and scale models.

Alex

[eddy8men]

lol back to plan A

thanks for the info on the stripped carriers, I hadn't heard of that before (seems like a waste of a good carrier) the good news is I don't need to modify my carrier to represent a conger I can just tow it behind the avre as a trailer. all I have to do now is restore the avre

all the best

rick

[David Dunlop]

With a little work, Rick, it would make a great portable beer cooler at events.

David

[gordon]

Originally Posted by eddy8men

lol back to plan A

thanks for the info on the stripped carriers, I hadn't heard of that before (seems like a waste of a good carrier) the good news is I don't need to modify my carrier to represent a conger I can just tow it behind the avre as a trailer. all I have to do now is restore the avre

all the best

rick

Seems like a plan;

cheap, no nitroglycerine involved, and you don't have to tinker with those dreadful flathead Ford V8's