Conger Carrier restoration, Overloon The Netherlands

[Alex van de Wetering]

Hi Rick,

Thanks for bringing this old thread back to the surface after so many years; I can't believe it has been almost 6 years! I can get you in touch with the museum if you like, or contact them on your behalf.

I also saw the thread on HMVF with the mistery A-frame and I have to be honest...it does look somewhat different when compared to the drawings of the provisional working instructions of the Conger. The open ends of the "A" look exactly the same, but the towing end looks different; the drawing shows a triangular shaped plate wth a hole, in stead of a fancy towing hook like in your pictures. The length adjustment has also got me puzzled; it isn't covered in the drawing, nor is it mentioned in the instructions itself. The pictures I have aren't very conclusive on this subject.
These are my observations, but as mentioned the info I got from Nigel Watson are maked "provisional", so the drawings might have differed from the real setup! I hope Nigel doesn't mind me displaying a small piece of one of the drawing (?). I think it's also displayed in the second volume of the universal carriers books.

regards,

Alex

p.s. Overloon also has an AVRE with 95mm Close Support, Cromwell and a number of carriers! Well worth a visit

[eddy8men]

hi alex

I must admit it was only an educated guess as to it's true purpose and I did wonder why it had adjustable legs but it is too small to tow a tank and looks to have been build for a specific task so it's quite possible it's for the conger, I will measure the centres between the pin attachments in each position and if one is the same as the conger then we might be on the right track.

rick

[David Dunlop]

Interesting thread. Still trying to wrap my head around the whole concept. First thought this vehicle was similar in concept to the WASP: an autonomous special weapons carrier, but now suspect it was basically a tracked engineless weapons trailer, towed by another tracked armoured vehicle.

The other part I am having trouble with is the rocket launcher. It looks like it is a fixed position launcher with no, or limited, elevation. Also, the related appearance that the rockets themselves were loaded with either propellant or explosives just prior to use. Seems this would raise serious questions about the consistency of the loads under combat conditions. I would think it would be all too easy to either overload or under load either fuel or explosive. Variations in fuel load would seriously affect range/accuracy. A similar situation loading explosives would affect the effectiveness of the weapon if it hit it's target.

Probably more terrifying to the user than the recipients.


David

[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