Death-trombone of Marseilles – fact or fiction?

[MaxHeadroom]

Hello again!

Rumours in the www are telling of an unknown german Wunderwaffe, called "The death-trombone of Marseilles".
This modern version of the "trumpets of Jericho" should have been placed in the hills above Marseilles short before the capitulation of the german troops ocupying the city until 28th of August 1944, to destroy the city and kill the aliied soldiers and the civillians after liberation by ultra-long sonic waves.
Smaller prototypes assembled and tested in the Reich must have been producing very good and very promising results, so a 1:1-scale version have been built and sent to the south of France.
Because of it's size and weight, the Nazis used a Panzer as a traktor. There were no offroad-ability, so they were forced to use ordinary roads.

I don't know anything about the Panzer and also nothing about a probably escort group, for example an anti-aircraft-unit with it's equipement, etc.
That's the reason, I simply use a disarmed StuG III (Sd.Kfz. 142) with it's 300 HP Maybach-engine as the traktor and create the sonic weapon and it's trailer by the poor informations I have and some fantasy. I will add a second trailer with a heavy-duty generator-unit and a petrol-tank, because electrical power is necessary to run the speaker.

Scale is 1:76, but I will use some parts from the modeltrain-scale H0 = 1:87. All things completely leftover from my youth.
All in all, my trombone-project is a recycling-projekt.
Next time -part 2 of my introduction- some first pics for you will come.

This thread will be shown here, at "whatifmodellers.com" and later, in the german version, at "dmmb.info" to make as many of my pals as possible smile. So, please: no jealousy!
Wish you fun!

Norbert

Btw.: merry christmas backwards and a happy new year!

[jcf]

Played by Nyarlathotep. 

[MaxHeadroom]

..., or was it Dr. Strangelove, jcf?

This http://radioreinhard.de/Kuriositaeten/Posaune-von-Marseille.html was my (german) source.
Now, I have thought over and have made a scetch, how I imagine such a sound-canon-unit:


Norbert

[Dr. YoKai]

 Looks a promising project - I love Death Rays of all stripes.

[raafif]

I think this is what you're after - a Death-Trombone if I ever saw one



Good idea on using the dis-armed Stug - they were often used as tractors or mounts for other weapons after 45.

[MaxHeadroom]

Thanks a lot for the pic, raafif, but this is what I'm definately NOT after!
What you see on the pic are japanese pre-war detection and ranging anti aircraft tubes/ears, just like the german "Ringrichtungshörer" (just google for; a parabolic "ear" with headphones for the operator) or the british ancestors of the chain-home radar system; this concrete-built sound-detectors you still can see at some places near the channel-coast.

To disarm the StuG is logical, I think:
1) you don't need an armed tractor because you "shoot" from distance with the sonic gun and not with the StuG.
2) an independent AA-unit as supporters is much more necessary in late summer '44, than a lonely 5 cm or 7.5 cm gun of a Sturmgeschütz.
3) disarming the StuG means more horsepower for the payload on the trailers.
4) the only armed tractor, I can accept as a logical solution could have been the Flakpanzer IV "Wirbelwind" (whirlwind) or its "brothers" "Möbelwagen" (furniture-truck), "Ostwind" (eastern wind) and "Kugelblitz" (ball lightning), but the Wirbelwind with its quad-AA-machinegun would be the best choice, I think. Hmmm..., I don't have a model of a Wirbelwind to use it.

Do you have some examples for after-war/civil-use use of Panzer, raafif? Probably some links (with pics)?

Norbert

[GTX_Admin]

I just found this image.  No details yet though.

[MaxHeadroom]

Hmmm..., I was curious and wanted to be sure, so I've taken my caliper to check my StuG.
The scale is 1:76!!!
So, I have to keep this in mind to align the whole project.

Btw.: nice pic, GTX-Admin, but this horn atop of the panzer in your pic looks like a cute, small children's plasic trumpet...

Norbert

[raafif]

To disarm the StuG is logical, I think:
Do you have some examples for after-war/civil-use use of Panzer, raafif? Probably some links (with pics)?
Norbert

quite a few countries used the Stug after  '45 - but no civil use as far as I can find (unlike UK, Canada & Australia who stripped tanks down for farm use)

During the war, Stugs without the gun were used as ammo-carriers & command vehicles for the radio-controled Goliath & B-IV anti-mine vehicles
Also used among the de-miner vehicles in Denmark in 1945/46.
http://www.missing-lynx.com/library/german/denmine/denmine.htm



Below are a post-WW2 Finnish Stug ammo-carrier or command vehicle & a Spanish experiment mounting a 381mm rocket.

[MaxHeadroom]

Thx, raafif, for the interesting pics!
I remember disarmed Pz. III and Pz. IV as ammo-carrier for the super heavy german railway-mortars and -cannons.

Norbert

[MaxHeadroom]

Wish you all a happy 2015!

Here are some vehicles from my scrapyard, I will use as the bases for the trombone-train:

The cabin on the back of the UNIMOG will changed a bit to be the cover for the generator.

And this I've made of the frame of the flatbed-US-truck with the soft-top:

This will be the trailer for the generator and the Diesel/Water tank.
On the right you see the upper frame for the trailer's top structure.
The wheels are from a russian/sovjet BTR 152.

Norbert

[Brian da Basher]

The vehicles look great and the weathering is most convincing!

Brian da Basher

[MaxHeadroom]

Brian! Seems you need new glasses! (Or are you kidding and I'm much too stupid to realise?)
These were sins from my youth! I was 9, 10 or 12 y.o. and was needing some "somethings" for -what now is called- tabletop (or carpet) war-gaming.
I'd recycled some damaged H0/1:87/1:90 (Austrian) Roskopf-models (now under the Wiking-label: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiking_Modellbau) and used some newly bought models, soldier-figures by Airfix and selfmade armed buildings (Roskopf was sold under "Roco" and "RMM").
The most impressive (and expensive) model from this era is a "Leopard I"-based "Biber" bridge-layer!

Norbert

[MaxHeadroom]

About the generator's trailer.

Here a better view of the lower frame:

I'd added a pressure-tank for the air-brakes (red) but I have to add the plug for the trombone-trailer's towbar and some wires/cables and hoses before painting.

The reversed platform and it's frame:

I'd tried to make the view of wodden planks and added a close to reality built frame. The platform is 2.5 meters to 5 meters because...

...around the mobile power plant:...

(Sorry for the lack of total optical sharpness.)
... I need a walkway for the engineer(s)!
Aside the cover/hut the walkway is 50 cm and at the rear end 1 m.
What to do:
-adding one or two exhaust-pipes with silencers,
-applying some hoses, tubes, cables and things like that,
-maybe implant 1 or 2 meshed holes for cooling-fans into the cover's roof (or anything else),
-mounting a ladder to climb on the platform from the rear,
...
-and painting, of course!

Norbert

[MaxHeadroom]

Now some words to the trombone-trailer.

I've taken the gun-truck (reply-post 10, pic 1) and stripped it to the frame. The rear part with the fenders for the twin axles was cutted off, got a towbar and became the front-end:

The red barrel is the pressure tank for the air-brakes and the white one is the tank for the hydraulic-oil.

Next step was to make the rest of the frame a bit longer, adding a kind of "step" and building the frame for the platform, where the solenoid of the speaker with it's cover will find it's place later:

Lenght of the trailer (without the tow-bar) will be scaled 8.5 meters, width: 2.5 meters.

Here a view of the trailer with the platform:

You see, it's movable.
The platform will be made of welded steel-plates, 'cause of the high load/weight of the solenoid.
That's also, why I have twin-axles with in total 8 wheels.
The rear end only needs a single axle, because the speaker's funnel is not really very heavy.

Hope, you like!

Norbert

[Buzzbomb]

Nice scratch work.. and in yellow

[MaxHeadroom]

Thx..., original parts of the basic models and yellow, grey, brown and darkgreen plastic-sheet, but only until the final airbrushing!

Norbert

[MaxHeadroom]

Thinking of the construction of the trombone's funnel, I was facing a dilemma:
The funnel's size.
The open end (the rear end) should have four to four meters in square.
This would be impossible for the transport!
Neither by train, nor by road transport.

I decided to build both versions!

This is what I did to prepare:




Now, these are the parts for the transport version:


And these are for the in-action version:


Norbert

[taiidantomcat]

Sweet planning  :)

[Claymore]

I like it a lot... tis all in the planning!  :)

[Camthalion]

Looks interesting.  nice work so far

[Buzzbomb]

Now that is planning.. far too much maths for me.

[Antonio Sobral]

Hi Norbert

Really interesting project. Love it!

And approached in a very methodical way. I should learn from this example...
but it is very hard to teach new tricks to old dogs :)

Keep up the good work!

[MaxHeadroom]

Thank you, friends!
Trying to make it as authentical as possible a little maths was inevitable, especially for constructing the folded transport-version!
Helpful was a paperback-collection of mathematical and physical formulas from my time as a pupil, our daughter and... the internet, because my trigonometrical skills has faded over the decades (shame on me).
I don't wanted to aim over the thumb!
My advantage is the fact the death-trombone is only a rumor, so I enjoy artistic freedom.    

Teaching new tricks to an old dog (in german we say "donkey" ) always is difficult, Antonio - I know!
But thank you, you like this methodical way.
Sometimes it is better to let your inspiration flow, sometimes it is better to do it methodical - you have to decide from case to case.
There can't be any rule!

Norbert

[uarkram]

You have got to be out of your mind! That's nuts, and I think you are walking that fine line between genius & madness. I love it! Totally awesome!
Can't wait to see it complete.



Now you know how I feel most days.