Engineer Special Brigade

[Walt's Daughter]

Here's another good article - D-Day, the Normandy Invasion: Combat Demolition Units

 

Took part and am printing it here:

 

METHODS -- Charges used, placement of charges, results.

 

Explosive Methods.

OBSTACLE

CHARGE

RESULTS

 

Element "C" 18 2-lb Hagensen packs, placed to cut face from rear-frame, & to flatten rear-frame as well. Extra charges used when possible. Obstacle cleared.

Ramps One 2-lb Hagensen pack at. base of each leg, unless timbers over 18-20 inches diam., or wood very green. If so, 2 packs. Also one 2-lb. pack underside of apex of legs. Legs cut off at bases, blown apart at top. Obstacle cleared.

Piling Single Hagensen pack at base, as with ramp timbers; if extra thick, or green, 2 packs (4 lbs.) Obstacle cleared.

Steel hedgehogs 3 Tetrytol blocks; 2 on one side of central gusset plate, 1 on the other side. (Not necessarily placed for shearing effect.) Obstacle cleared, but much shrapnel projected.

Steel hedgehogs 2 Hagensen packs; 1 each side of gusset. Obstacle not always cleared. Sometimes members merely bent, leaving hazard to light craft.

Concrete tetrahedra (members wired or pinned together at the joints) 1 Hagensen pack at apex each triangle. Obstacle demolished.

Concrete posts (reinforced) 2 Hagensen packs at base. Obstacle demolished.

Concrete posts (reinforced) 1 Hagensen pack at base. Concrete cleared but reinf. bars left. obstacle could be pushed over by hand afterwards.

Tellermines - 35, 42, 43 1 Hagensen pack, or 1 Tetrytol Block, or 1½-lb. block TNT Tellermine countermined.

Tellermines - 35, 42, 43 1 Number Eight Cap placed in detonator Tellermine detonated.

 

 

Non-Explosive Methods.

All the above obstacles were successfully removed with caterpillars, dozers, tank dozers, or tanks, if the had been removed first. Tellermines can be removed by hand after unscrewing detonator, if it is desired to avoid the shrapnel caused by blowing them.

 

Hedgehogs were eliminated by undoing bolts from central gusset plates, allowing obstacle to collapse.

 

Fixed Flamethrowers.

From Lt. Smith's description, these were the same as those seen by the writer at Grandcamp, a specimen of which was recovered for forwarding to the U.S.A. These flamethrowers are a simple tank, filled with a petroleum creosote mixture, which is ejected through a goose-neck nozzle by gas pressure from a burning pyrotechnic cartridge. The mixture is ignited by another similar cartridge wired and fired electrically in parallel with the first one. The flame lasts about l ½ minutes and has a range of 50-75 feet depending on the wind. It has a general terror value, and a specific value against vehicles or concentrations of men approaching the seawall within its range.