1106th Engineer Combat Group launches the "V13" secret weapon into Aachen

The battle for Aachen was intense. The 1106th Engineers were given a section of the line to hold as infantry were pulled away to deal with a counter-attack by the 1st SS Panzer Corps. Being engineers, they felt the need to "blow shi, er stuff, up" instead of acting as mere riflemen. They launched three trolley cars loaded with captured German 75 and 88mm shells down a steep hill into the heart of the city. It is not known if the trolley cars did any real damage, but a good time was had by all involved.

 

I hope they put a timer in there...if not, and the trolley didn't explode, they gave the Germans some much-needed ammo!

On another note, does anyone else find it odd that the tracks crossing through the front lines were (presumably) still intact?

 

These were the city trolley tracks, not railroad tracks. The cars were of course fused to explode some time after "launch." The engineers were actually holding a line along the southern edge of the city. Aachen (when this occurred) was completely surrounded, but the 1st SS Panzer Corps (with assorted polyglot attachments) launched a spoiling attack from the east trying to link up with the elements in the city. Much of the infantry and armor was called away to deal with that, while second line units like these combat engineers maintained the siege.

 

Those guys look like they're laughing and it does sound like fun. Way better than me puttin' firecrackers on my models when I was a kid!!

 

You did that too? After all these decades, I find out it wasn't such an original idea after all.

 

Kids like you grow up to be combat engineers...

 

Or was a son of a combat engineer.

 

I think we all did, though I suppose modern parents now think it's somehow wrong to allow their children to play unsupervised with explosive devices...

I recall cutting the white tips off of those big kitchen matches to use as "powder" in home made cannons. We had those little cast iron civil war cannons and you could pack the barrel with match tips and using a piece of gravel wrapped in tinfoil as a ball you could hold a match under the rear of the cannon until it fired and knocked down your little green army men.

Heck, I still play with cannons! For some reason, the forum doesn't allow me to embed a video today, but here's a link to me shooting a Kodiak bear with a cannon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NimgHIhX_Fc&list=UUa8Ddxj_xCNEUuv89huzj9Q&index=1&feature=plcp

 

Meanwhile, back at the topic...