Conger Carrier restoration, Overloon The Netherlands

[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

[Alex van de Wetering]

I hadn't heard of that before (seems like a waste of a good carrier)

Rick; I guess they just used carriers that were somehow lost in battle and quickly converted for another role.

The Overloon Conger started life as a Mortar carrier as mentioned in this thread. There was some evidence of fire damage; we presume this could be wartime damage and could be the reason the carrier came available to be converted to a Conger by Chubb in Wolverhampton.
After the IJzendijke disaster, some of the Congers (at least one ) were reused as trailers or "gutted carriers", after all of the Conger stuff was removed. There is a picture of one of them being towed by a Churchill Croc. This picture clearly shows it's an ex-Conger as the extra armor panels on the sides of the former drivers compartment were retained, allthough the rear armor plate was removed to create enough room for equipment.
To me it seems the two in Coevorden are not ex-Congers, because the extra armor is missing. Of course this could have been removed, but.....this was welded in place and I don't think there is any need to remove this for the role of trailer.

Rick, an AVRE towing a gutted carrier loaded with a fascine would look awesome! You know.....everyone has a Cromwell, but nobody has this combo

Alex

[eddy8men]

thanks for the info alex, I have found a few more pics of congers and one of the scene of the explosion (although it doesn't show the avre's that were wrecked or any other vehicles to prove this actually was the ijzendijke blast).
it's hard to imagine the forces needed to destroy a tank by blast alone. I have been on many ranges and seen many tanks still in one piece after years of direct shelling, so to destroy a tank by just being close by shows the force that was unleashed !

alex I would love to tow the carrier behind the avre but I just don't know if I will ever be able to restore it to running condition. I suppose I could fit the tracks and pull it behind the Cromwell.

untitled.png con avre.png ChurchillAVRE027a.jpg

[Lauren Child]

I've been reading The Story of the 79th Armoured Division and A.R.E. The Story of the 1st Assault Brigade Royal Engineers, who ran the AVRE's within the 79th Armoured Division. Both really interesting books.

There's a note in A.R.E. as follows regarding Conger :
"It was filled under pressure with a ton of liquid explosive known as 822C and detonated. This explosive was dangerous, and a serious accident to 284 squadron, when several tons of it exploded in the Squadron concentration area, made the Conger very unpopular. During the journey across France a jerrican full of 822C was stolen by a French civilian, in the mistaken belief that it was petrol. So far no reports have been received on its success as a motor fuel."

[eddy8men]

worlds fastest citreon

[Tim Bell]

Noticed this in the UK National Archive while looking for other bits...

WO 195/7838
Description: Land Mines Sub-Committee: effect on "probability dip" of altering nature and weight of conger filling

HO 196/26
Description: The effect of depth of burial Tellermine 42 upon the probability of its detonation by the 2" Conger. Author: D.C. Brettel and Dr. F.N. David



What's in it... that's another matter... generally a case of luck to find something in the file which noone's noticed because the subject appears too boring!

This company could grab the document if you wanted it - www.arcre.com - I've used them for stuff, they're reliable.

Tim