Re: 10 Best Never-Used Weapon Systems


"Juergen Nieveler" <juergen.nieveler.nospam@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Xns9A86E97DF8F42juergennieveler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
John D Salt <jdsalt_AT_gotadsl.co.uk> wrote:

Speaking of tanks - what was the name of that giant british
trench-digging abomination? The tank that dug its own trench so that
only the turret would project over the earth?

Not the De Mole trenching machine?

Can't find any decent reference online, but ISTR that Winston Churchill
tried to push after WW1 for the UK to buy a tank construction that dug
a trench while moving forward inside said trench - basically, a "land
submarine".


During early 1940 actually, code named NLE , usually referred to as Nellie

The machine was to be 77' long, 6' 6" wide, 8' high and made in two
sections.
The main section, driven on caterpillar tracks, looked like a greatly
elongated
tank and weighed 100 tons. The front section, weighing another 30 tons,
was capable of digging a trench 5' deep and 7' 6" wide. It comprised a
plough
which cut the top 2' 6" of the trench, and 'pick and shovel' cutting
cylinders
which excavated the bottom 2' 6". The spoil was carried away by conveyors
to the top of each side of the trench to create 3' parapets.

Nellie could move at just over half a mile an hour, removing some 8,000
tons of spoil in the process. When she reached the enemy's front line
she would stop and act as a ramp for following tracked vehicles
to climb up out of the trench onto open ground.


Keith


.

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