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Only Sensible Use Of A Goliath ?


Inhapi

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I think the Tank museum used theirs (Might even be the same one) as a donations box. I thought that was pretty clever.

 

The thinking is going in the same but reverse direction, these soldiers are having pay-day, maybe it was the same Goliath that turned to the other side of the give and take divide ? :-)

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Wikipedia mentions that the electric motors used by the Goliath were expensive (3000 Reichsmarks).

It makes me grateful to live in an age where I can yank a much better one out of a $40 shopvac.

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Wikipedia mentions that the electric motors used by the Goliath were expensive (3000 Reichsmarks).

 

It makes me grateful to live in an age where I can yank a much better one out of a $40 shopvac.

 

 

A BBC documentary (I watched it on youtube a while back) said the original version was battery powered, with later versions having a motorbike engine. This raised the weight of the Goliath but as a benefit of the upgrade, it could also carry a heavier charge. I'd be interested to know if there was more than one version of these "vehicles"? I do believe IWM Duxford had one in their collection when I visited a few years back.

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Wikipedia mentions that the electric motors used by the Goliath were expensive (3000 Reichsmarks).

 

It makes me grateful to live in an age where I can yank a much better one out of a $40 shopvac.

 

 

A BBC documentary (I watched it on youtube a while back) said the original version was battery powered, with later versions having a motorbike engine. This raised the weight of the Goliath but as a benefit of the upgrade, it could also carry a heavier charge. I'd be interested to know if there was more than one version of these "vehicles"? I do believe IWM Duxford had one in their collection when I visited a few years back.

 

 

It would be striking for IWM Duxford to not have a Goliath, according to Harold Jones statistics of Goliaths in military museums.

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I ran into a surprisingly in depth discussion of these vehicles in Sturmgeschütz: Panzer, Panzerjäger, Waffen-SS and Luftwaffe Units 1943–45 by Thomas Anderson, since Stugs were used as the control vehicles; it's mostly about the "improved" BIV (as shown in Markus's pics), but I'd imagine all the comments apply to the Goliath as well and the "Landungsträger (demolition charge carrier)" did sound like a waste of time and effort. Here are some pull quotes:

  • Technical failures with the radio-control equipment was a constant problem, and heavy mud restricted the type’s mobility.
  • The deployment at Kursk was to show the limitations of the B IV. The terrain, rutted by heavy artillery bombardment and intersected by trench systems, prevented the vehicles getting to their targets.
  • The Borgward B IV Landungsträger was designed as a purely offensive weapon and was almost impossible to use for a defensive operation.
  • despite having a very limited field of application still had to be transported to a target, squandering precious fuel and personnel resources.

Even the theoretical performance had serious limitations (from Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front 1943-1945: Red Steamroller by Robert Forczyk):

  • The Germans estimated that at least four BIVs were needed to clear a 100-metre deep lane through a minefield and that this would take two hours to complete. However, a critical flaw was that the Panzerkompanie (Fkl) had no means of marking cleared lanes
  • By the time of Kursk, the Soviets learned that a minefield covered by fire from concealed anti-tank guns was the best answer to the Tiger or Panther, yet the Germans never really improved their mine-clearing skills.
Edited by CaptLuke
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Wikipedia mentions that the electric motors used by the Goliath were expensive (3000 Reichsmarks).

 

It makes me grateful to live in an age where I can yank a much better one out of a $40 shopvac.

 

 

A BBC documentary (I watched it on youtube a while back) said the original version was battery powered, with later versions having a motorbike engine. This raised the weight of the Goliath but as a benefit of the upgrade, it could also carry a heavier charge. I'd be interested to know if there was more than one version of these "vehicles"? I do believe IWM Duxford had one in their collection when I visited a few years back.

 

 

It would be striking for IWM Duxford to not have a Goliath, according to Harold Jones statistics of Goliaths in military museums.

 

 

"Panzer DNA" lists the total price of a Goliath as being that 3,000 DM or about half the cost of a 2cm Flak 38 or four times an 8cm mortar.

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Did they use them there? Ive never read of it.

 

 

According to von dem Bach himself the number of guns used in the bombardment was as follows:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_the_Warsaw_Uprising

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Did they use them there? Ive never read of it.

I didn't know. I thought that be the kind of combat where they'd be of use.

 

von dem Bach? I had though he wad in charge of suppressing the Jewish 43 uprising, not the Polish 44.

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