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.

[MaxHeadroom]

Thank you uarkram for your interesting characterization!
And thanks for being interested in my project.

I'm only following the german tradition of "mad scientist" (greetings from Dr. Strangelove).   
Weren't a number of the german Wunderwaffen a product of walking on the fine line between genius and madness?
Thats why I think, it isn't totally absurd to concieve of the possibility, german engineers in WW 2 hadn't tried to construct a ray gun or a sonic gun.

Norbert

[elmayerle]

Beautiful piece of "interpretive engineering" in trying to figure out what such a legend might look like.

*wry chuckle* It probably says something unpleasant about my sense of humor that the title of this topic always makes me think of the song "76 Trombones" that starts with "76 trombones met the morning sun..."

[MaxHeadroom]

Why "unpleasant", elmayerle?
O.k., I must confess, I don't know the song you told about.
Please explain.

"Interpretative engineering" is well said; you also can use the term "experimental archeology". 
I like such things: thinking over how it might have works, how it might have looks and trying...
NO!! I don't want to build it in 1 to 1 scale! 

Norbert

[elmayerle]

"76 Trombones" is from the musical, and movie, "The Music Man", about a fast talking (and less than ethical) musical instrument salesman in a a small town (River City, though I don't remember what US state it's supposed to be in, Indiana, I think) and it's somewhat his master sales pitch; he ends up falling for the town librarian and reforming.  That something so light hearted could be associated with a weapon is why I said "unpleasant".

I do enjoy how this is going and, given some of the other odd items the Germans were working on, such a weapon concept is not implausible.

[MaxHeadroom]

thx, elmayerle

[MaxHeadroom]

Now an overview with all the components of the sonic gun train:

(I've tried to hide the most of my chaotic worktable.  )

The parts are primed with ordinary grey primer by spraycan (from a hardwareshop) and coloured with "german dark yellow" as the base for the camouflage.
Above you see the parts of the funnel for the later folded transport version, the white (only primed) cones are for inside the funnel(s), cause the sonic gun is not simply a horn, it's a giant "Druckkammerlautsprecher" (I don'know the english word for; maybe: "pressure-chamber speaker"? "loud-hailer"?).
In the middle, you see the lower part of the StuG III still for the friction drive. This will be cut off and closed with plastic sheet.
On the left, you see the "pyramid" of the "ready to use"-funnel with the hinges, important for folding it. Two sides have it's hinges outside, two sides have it's hinges inside.

Any questions? 

Norbert

[MaxHeadroom]

Now pics of the trombone on the trailer in both conditions: folded and ready to rumble (both without the final camouflage until now).

First the unfinished folded version to show the cone inside:

and


And the other version:

and

(as I'd said: 4 to 4 meters in a square)

The hydraulic jacks are made by toothpicks. Putting the toothpicks into a Dremel's collet and sliding with a fingernail-file over it's surface, I'd made the typical view of  hydraulic columns.
Both versions have it's own hydraulics to change them as the trailer's load and use it as the fixation on the trailer and its holders, and to show the different views of the heights of both conditions.
On the trailer's left side of the platform you see the electric pump with the cover of the electric engine and the pressure tube/barrel of the hydraulic oil pump.
There won't be a lot of oil needed, because the hydraulic columns having walls massive enough to fullfill it's 2nd task: stabilising the speaker on the trailer during the transport.
Because the highspeed of the Stug III in armed version only was 30 kms/h it maybe will have a Vmax of 20, maybe 25 kms/h with both trailers, the electric powerplant trailer and the trombone trailer: so there won't be strong forces to the structure.
(Don't worry: if the trombone-train will be transported by the Reichsbahn, the speaker will be secured additionally on the trailer and on the car! There were specific instructions for. )

Norbert

[Buzzbomb]

This is interesting to see develop

Every time I read this thread I think of Back to the Future and huge amplifier scene

[MaxHeadroom]

Thanks, buzzbomb, and thank you remember me to Back to the Future (could at scene out of BttF be an inspiration for a build? ).

Now, busy by connecting all the parts, I'd realized, I'd forgotten two connections: the mouthes for the trailers' towbars - one at the StuG, the other at the power-plant-trailer.
O.k., the problem in 1:76 is...: you're right; the problem is 1:76!
Using other words: making the mouthes tiny enough to make them as realistic as possible, on the other hand making them big enough to be workable.
I got it!
But now the "eyes" of the towbars were much too big to fit into the clutch (is "clutch" a correct word [in german, we say "Kupplung" = clutch]?).
Now, I'd maked new eyes.
Pics will follow.

Norbert

[MaxHeadroom]

Now the pics.

The winding train:


Now the connections fits:


Thank of the new "eyes":


The couplings with their fixing bolts:

I think, to have cut off the coupling from the trailer's backside and glue it a bit higher again.
Sorry for seeing it so late.

Norbert

[Buzzbomb]

This is coming along terrific

[MaxHeadroom]

O.k., more terrific. 

Or better: two more little things (but nevertheless quite important).
Two ladders.

To climb on the generator's platform, the crew needs a ladder.
And to climb to the solenoid, to plug in or to plug off the power-cables, the operator needs a ladder, too.

First both ladders at one view:

The left one is fixed and stabilized with two bars below the platform.
To build the right one, I was forced to make it movable, because I only have one trailer for the two funnel conditions.
On the pic above, you see the transport status.

2nd; trombone-trailer-ladder freezed in motion:


3rd; same ladder in ready-for-use mode:

If someone likes to know, how I have made it movable and what kind of hinge, I have puzzled, just ask and I will do a sketch and show it.

Norbert

[Buzzbomb]

and of course one of these somewhere

The big red button

[MaxHeadroom]

With the exception of a base, the death-trombone of Marseilles now is ready!
Airbrushed with german dark-yellow, camouflaged with the correct shades of green and brown and after applying some few decals, I proudly present my version of one of the most mysteriously and unknown Wunderwaffe of the Wehrmacht.

Under transport-condition:


Ready to "shoot":


And at last, because it was invisible some pics before, the speaker's cone inside:


The icon-decal at the left side shows a bat in front of a halfmoon and a cloud, symbolizing the silent hunter ---> the unhearable death and destruction, the death-trombone was invented for.
O.k., bats are hunting for their victims by ultrasound and the trombone works with infrasound, but nevertheless: silent!

With the base, I will add a crew.

Norbert

[Buzzbomb]

Love it

nice work all around

[MaxHeadroom]

O yes, it was fun!

But now, I have a problem about the road-train's base.
'Cause I really don't know how the base might look; the mediterranian coast of France is characterized by a Karst topography and known for farming for frangrances...
Should I build a rocky landscape with a street alongside a scarp or a macadam-covered street across a field of lavender...? I really don't know!
And: how to make rocks? How to make lavender (in 1:76)?

Hmmm..., time will come and brings enlightenment. :)

Norbert

[Dr. YoKai]

 It certainly looks the business! In any case, a natural setting is probably easier to model than a reviewing stand full of Heer High-ups in Headphones...

[Antonio Sobral]

Hi Norbert

Really really great!

I would vote for the rocky landscape option!
As for lavender @ 1/76 I would suggest consulting the catalogue of some
Railroad modelling brand (Noch is my favorite). They have very interesting stuff
That can be used.

[Brian da Basher]

That's certainly the deadliest trombone I've ever seen!

You really turned this one into a prize-winner with that excellent camo!

Brian da Basher

[Camthalion]

Very nice