Conger Carrier restoration, Overloon The Netherlands

[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

[eddy8men]

now that is a worthy reason to tow a carrier

[Alex van de Wetering]

By the way....Rick, thanks for making the reference to the Giant Viper and Lauren, thanks for posting the youtube link. That video shows in a few seconds, something that otherwise takes minutes to explain!

The Conger did indeed use "Explosive 822", which was basically Nitro Glycerine. The large tank was filled with jerrycans by hand! and the hose, once deployed, was filled under pressure with the aid of two air cylinders.

It's still not sure what happened at IJzendijke exactly. One of the possibilities is that a truck drove over a mine, when others were refuelling the Conger. But, the fact is that the blast was unbelievable and 37 British and Canadians were killed.
Some of them were buried at the Adegem War Cemetery, others at the Bergen op Zoom war cemetery. Attached pictures are of the monument on the outskirts of IJzendijke where the disaster took place.

Alex

[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

[eddy8men]

lol the flatheads not the problem. the state of the avre is what scares me