Technology, Gadgets, and the Rube Goldberg Legacy

Noted British weapons expert, the late Ian Hogg, once wrote that war tends to “concentrate minds wonderfully.” War, or the threat of imminent war, has produced technological leaps that are legion.
Along with such significant WWII innovations and inventions as the atomic bomb, Sir Robert Watson-Watt’s radar, the B-29 inter-continental bomber, and innumerable others, there are many more, some reminiscent of Rube Goldberg contraptions, that didn’t make the grade.
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This one has a rather comical side to it.
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The Great Panjandrum.
Nevil Shute was involved from 1940 onwards in the British Navy's Department of Miscellaneous Weapons Development (DMWD). A full and interesting account of the work of DMWD is given in Gerald Pawle's book "The Secret War." Here’s just one of the projects with which Shute was closely involved.

During preparations for D-Day, one perceived problem was how to breach the "Atlantic Wall," a concrete wall 10 feet high and 7 feet thick which had been built at the head of beaches along the coast of <st1:country-region><st1 ="">France</st1></st1:country-region>. Breaches in the wall would be necessary for tanks, vehicles and troops to move inland. To breach the wall it was estimated that a ton of explosive would need to be detonated against the wall. The problem was how to get the charge in place without risking lives on defended beaches. Shute was pondering this problem in 1943 when a colleague suggested a novel design. This comprised two large wheels some 10 feet in diameter with a drum of explosive held between them. Around the metal rims of the wheels slow burning cordite charges would be placed to drive the wheels in the manner of two large Catherine wheels. Shute christened the device "Panjandrum" and it was intended to be launched from a landing craft, reach speeds of up to sixty miles per hour, crash into the wall and explode.

Prototypes were made and tried out on a beach in North Devon and Shute was in charge of the trials. The first trials were disappointing. Panjandrum travelled only a few hundred yards up the beach. The cordite charges were increased from 10 to 20 pounds but the problem was with the steering of Panjandrum. It had a nasty tendency to veer erratically out of control - soft sand might slow down one wheel relative to the other causing it to swerve. Remote steering by wires was tried and Pawle's book contains a photograph of Shute at the controls. Again Panjandrum behaved unpredictably. It was just not possible to control it. On one occasion the Navy top brass arrived for a trial but this time it went wildly off course and made straight for the cine cameraman who was filming it! He hastily abandoned the filming and fled for his life. Panjandrum capsized and expired. In the tests the weight of the explosive charge was simulated by sand so there was no danger of an explosion, only of being pursued by a very large, out of control, Catherine wheel weighing over a ton.
Panjandrum never got beyond the experimental stage. It was abandoned after its unsuccessful trials. The D-Day invasions took place on beaches that had no sea wall, or adjacent to harbors.
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The first image is a photo of the device undergoing beach trials. The second is a diagram.


JT

 

Reminds me of a couple of other books that I've read - "Churchill's Secret weapons: The Story of Hobart's Funnies" by Delaforce and "SOE:The Scientific Secrets" by Boyce & Everett

 

The excellent Col. Dick Strawbridge built a Panjandrum as part of his 'crafty tricks of war' television series, a highly entertaining ramble through the SOE agents catalogue where one learnt such important details as how important aniseed balls and condoms were to early Limpet mines.


I remember watching that - it was absolutly brilliant, and his sidekick (whose name I forget) was a dab hand at building stuff. I also remember the poor dummy used in the experiments, especially when they built the man-carrying kite.

When I grow up, I want a 'tach like that!

 

I remember seeing long long ago some footage with the Panjandrum, it was spectacular! A complete fiasco, it would go no place useful, but certainly spectacular! It went on a few yards belching fire, then headed madly towards somebody or something it did not like, flopped on it's side, all the time spewing flame.

I had no idea Nevil Shute was involved. I once read some speculation that these lousy weapons were made ans tested on purpose on visible places so some German submarine might see them and report what clowns those crazy Brits were, therefore distracting them while the serious weapons like the Funnies etc were done elsewhere. Mind, this is only speculation, but the film was real

 

The excellent Col. Dick Strawbridge built a Panjandrum as part of his 'crafty tricks of war' television series, a highly entertaining ramble through the SOE agents catalogue where one learnt such important details as how important aniseed balls and condoms were to early Limpet mines.
The serious side to these mad inventions is that they illustrate just how urgent things were to the people of the time. Nowhere outside of a desperate war would most of them have left the drawing board.
Exploding rat anybody?
Camel-turd tire-burster?
Desperate times, desperate measures VP, made you look at a camel excrement in a different way. The vehicle avoids and runs into something a bit stronger if you get my drift. There's the psychological aspect of course!!!

 

Didn't one of those things appear in Dad's Army once?