Where and when is it?

Off-Topic Quiz Room
#481

Thank you for the kind words, my dear Mr. Uyraell!

Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to “nail” it the first time and I required quite a few edits to my post until I got all the information right, since the Internet is somewhat of an “information stew”.

Indeed, an interest in the guiding system (I wonder if it truly was that for the Henschel Hs 293 or if they found one equipped for the Fritz X…) mounted in the He 117 A7 would explain why the rumor -albeit wrong- was so persistent. Sadly misinformation is a common trend nowadays - one author makes a mistake and all other authors take the information “as it is” without bothering to double check it against an original source.

Also, please excuse the tardiness of this post, but allow me to present you with the next enigma:

When and there happened this rather unsettling scene? Ideally I would want exact date and location, but country, month and year are alright as well.

I hope you’ll have fun digging up the information (I know I always do :D).

Cheers!
Wingsofwrath

#482

Hi wingsofwrath,
nice puzzle… It doesn’t seem very easy, but let me try to say something… The tank seems a French AMR 33. :confused:
As a random guess, i’ll say France, september 1940. :frowning:

#483

I’ll research the pic you posted a little later, Wingsofwrath my friend, but at the moment one other item of information regarding the guidance system is worthy of note.

Although there were three major guidance systems carried at various times by various models of the He.177 Series aircraft, that which was employed in the A7 aircraft was remarkable for its’ versatility. Viz: one panel on the control panel was devoted entirely to the type of ordinance to be released, be it guided bomb, or rocket propelled: complete with settings for established parameters such as release weight, flight-time, flight path, and time to impact. Next to that panel was the control panel for the television guidance controls. All rather crude by today’s standards, or indeed even the standards of the 1960’s, but advanced for the time, and almost unparalleled outside the USA or UK.

Later, that same equipment was used by the Americans in slightly modified form for conducting experiments with the Fi.76, more often known as the V1 or buzzbomb or doodlebug. Later still, and the Americans begin to develop Regulus, which was a modified (launched from a surfaced submarine, much as the Germans had intended) V1, and used that same guidance system in their initial prototype tests. It is around 1965 before the last traces of that system disappear from use, by which time the lineal descendant is in operation, as Wall-Eye and Pave-Paws-I tele-guided bombs/missiles, as runway denial weapons. “Teleguided” means television and radio simultaneously, in this context. In Europe, the French “Durandal” missile is similar to Pave-Paws-I.

As for my kind words to you: You Earned them, sir! Most soundly!.
Congratulations. :slight_smile:

Kind and Respectful Regards Wingsofwrath my friend, Uyraell.

#484

I’m sorry Mr. skorzeny57, but you’ve named the wrong country and date. The tank is indeed an AMC 35 though.

Thank you for this very interesting foray into the workings of teleguided bombs, my dear Mr. Uyraell!

As a weird coincidence, right now I was in the midst of studying three related subjects:

First, the Norden/Spery bombsights used by the USAF in WW2 - while nowhere near as complex as the German technology, they were impressive machines in their own right, successfully computing, via entirely mechanical and optical means, a bewildering array of different factors, such as bomb weight, aircraft airspeed velocity, bomb drift, plane drift, etc. to place the bomb load withing few hundred yards of the intended target from four miles up in the air…

Second, I recently stumbled upon a secret Romanian report on the SSM-N-8 Regulus missile from November 1959. It gets many things wrong, but includes a blurry, heavily retouched photograph of an actual launch from a “type G submarine” (most likely USS Grayback, since USS Growler was still under sea trials at the time) taken via a soviet submarine’s periscope. It’s impressive because the USS Grayback had been commissioned in February of that same year, and the test had taken place in July… Of course, there is a slight possibility the picture was taken during a Regulus launch from the USS Tunny, on year earlier and is just mislabeled in the report, but who knows…

Third: the Nord Aviation SS.11 (or AGM-22, as it was known in US service), a first generation MCLOS (Manual Command to Line of Sight) wire-guided anti-tank missile that had the operator track a target with an aiming reticle then manually keep the a flare on the missile centered in the cross-hairs via a joystick… All while the target tank and the attacking helicopter are each moving, the last possibly under fire from AA guns… It’s amazing anybody managed to hit anything with that kind of equipment - it’s certainly a lot less sophisticated than what the Germans had been using during the latter part of WW2.

Incidentally, I didn’t even know the Matra Durandal (US BLU-107) was tele-guided, I always assumed it was free-fall…

Please excuse my off topic ramblings.

Take care, my friend!
Wingsofwrath

#485

Hi wingsofwrath,
it seems that i did wrong all along the line. Wrong country, wrong date, even wrong tank… Do you have some other clue?
Best regards.

#486

Actually, Skorzeny57, you were on the right track, since you got both the tank and the year right, it was just the month and the country that were wrong…

From this point onward, it should be relatively easy.

Cheers!
Wingsofwrath

#487

Hi wingsofwrath,
it’s still me… Here’s another attempt. May it be Norway (Operation Wilfred),during april-may 1940?

Thanks. All the best to you.
skorzeny 57.

#488

Hi wingsofwrath,
i’m scared that brummbar has spoilt our (mine) plains… He has just posted this image in the pictures section… Anyway my previous answer is wrong… The caption says Western Belgium, may 1940. I hope the best for the next time…
Best regards.
skorzeny57

#489

Durandal has most often been used in the freefall mode, and most often as unguided. Oddly, there were questions regarding the reliability of the teleguidance system, hence Durandal tended to be released in freefall mode, with teleguidance inactive.

Thus was the impression created that it was an unguided freefall weapon.

If memory is correct, something like well over 85% of Durandal releases to target have been in freefall mode. That figure from somewhere in the early 1990’s, courtesy of USAF report on the use of Durandal by the IDF-AF, allegedly during the 6-Day War in 1973.

Perhaps we should start a guided weapons thread? I could add bits and pieces regarding various systems in use.

As to Regulus, my father visited a USN submarine that called in to my city in 1965, Regulus-equipped.
I may be wrong, but memory says that vessel was USS Grayback, which was retired from Regulus duty about two years later, and converted for “underwater research”, ie, spying on Soviet signals via underwater telephone cables and radio Signals Intelligence.
Unusually, for the USN, while the submarine was in port, the crew gave a deployment demonstration of Regulus on the afterdeck (behind the conning tower) of the Grayback. My father still has the photographs.

Warm and Kind Regards Wingsofwrath my friend, Uyraell.

#490

Skorzeny57, the picture was indeed snapped by a German photographer on the outskirts of Antwerp, on the 19th of May 1940.

Sorry it got spoiled, but we’ll try again:

Where and when did this happen? The year is not important, but I want the exact location.

Happy hunting!

A thread on weapon guidance systems would be very interesting my dear Mr. Uyraell, unfortunately I am not too knowledgeable on the matter, since I’ve only begun studying the subject.

The submarine your father saw is most likely USS Halibut (SSGN-587), rather than USS Grayback, since the latter carried her two Regulus missiles in a hangar forward of the sail and the latter had her launch installation aft, as you described. Moreover, Halibut was indeed converted for Special Operation Missions, serving betwen 1965 and 1976, including taking part in the recovery of K-129, while USS Grayback had been decommissioned as a SSG in 1964 and spent the next three years in dry dock, being adapted as an amphibious transport submarine for carrying SEAL strike teams into Vietnam. She was latter stricken off the navy list and sunk as a target in 1986.

Best regards,
Wingsofwrath

#491

I’ll rely upon the caption to the photo for details of the exact location.

#492

Hi wingsofwrath,
here i have an answer to the puzzle you posted. I hope for the best… It may be a British armoured train, rollin on the Kentish coast of England, on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, from Hythe via New Romney and Greatstone, to Dungeness.
It probably was part of operation Sealion in 1940. :wink:

Cheers!

#493

Mr. Skorzeny57, you are of course, correct, but I’ll have to give this one to Rising Sun, since he got there first. Your turn!

Take care,
Wingsofwrath

#494

wingsofwrath,

Thanks.

Next puzzle.

#495

Hi Rising Sun*,
i think we need some more (little) clues… :frowning: The only things that i probably identified are the Dutch Flag and the U.K. flag (?)… :confused:
Thank.

#496

There’s a Japanese head in the photo, although it’s not readily visible. And it’s not attached to its owner.

#497

Will Dutch East Indies, 1945 be sufficient ?
I’ve difficullty making out the detail in the photo, but is the head behind the leg of the second seated chap from the left ?

#498

No.

Right year, but need more detail on location.

What happened here isn’t common to the NEI, in several respects. For a start, the NEI were more civilised, even though they were under Dutch control. :wink: :smiley:

Not sure. The caption says the head is to the right of the flagpoles. Presumably the right as viewed. I can’t pick it up, unless it’s the thing with the white towel over its head somewhat to the right. The head’s significance is not that it’s there, but that it’s somewhere where it would be taken by the locals.

The ceremony is being held to open an airstrip, part of which is in the foreground.

The soldiers are Australian commandos, commanded by British major who went a bit native and troppo and maybe a bit doolally in the process. Not the process of commanding Australians, which is often a bit beyond the average Pommy :wink: :smiley: (and sometimes Australian) major, but being stuck in the jungle with natives who had no use for kyaks.

Now, Cuts, me old mate, have you just been parachuted back to civilisation for a bit or are you here to stay? You’ve been missed. Not universally, but the Falklands threads are pretty much dead anyway.

#499

Hi Rising Sun*,
i can’t see any beheaded man, but i have a personal theory about that… The guy without head, probably was an Italian that lost it for a local chick… The wet white sheet over him it was just an attempt to cool down his irrepressible spirits… :oops:

About the puzzle, i found something about the positions in the eastern Dutch East Indies, liberated by Australian, Dutch Forces and Acehnese (?) rebels. Since Hollandia was liberated on April 22, 1944 and Mototai on September 15, 1944, i think the picture may be shot in Tarakan on April 30 1945 or in Halmahera (North Sumatra) on June 1945. :confused:

Best regards.

#500

skorzeny 57

Sorry, but you’re not even warm.

It’s a commando force behind Japanese lines, not a liberating force.

As well as being behind enemy lines, they were also in headhunter country. But the headhunters turned out to be pro-Allies.