Vehicle:Wehrmacht GoliathFrom CoH-Stats
Tactics
HistoryFor the purposes of delivering demolition charges to a target remotely various projects were started, and from them, the Goliath emerged. Meant to be utilized by Pioneers when attacking static emplacements, the Goliath was a remote-controlled demolition carrier guided by a wired controller. Though the small gas-powered vehicle carried enough explosives to knock out most fortifications in one blast, rough terrain posed a problem for it. The wire often got snagged and caught on bushes, branches, and rocks, and wouldn't have the horsepower to free itself from some obstacles. Its larger and more successful cousin, the Borgward BIV, was a demolition tank that was radio-controlled from a StuG III G, or Tiger I E. The Goliath tracked mine was an unmanned German-engineered demolition vehicle. Employed by the Wehrmacht during World War II, this caterpillar-tracked vehicle was approximately four feet long, two feet wide, and one foot tall. It carried 75 to 100 kg (165–220 lb) of high explosives and was intended to be used for multiple purposes, such as destroying tanks, disrupting dense infantry formations, and the demolition of buildings. In late 1940, after recovering the prototype of a miniature tracked vehicle developed by the French vehicle designer Adolphe Kégresse from the Seine River, the Wehrmacht's ordnance office tasked the Carl F.W. Borgward automotive company of Bremen, Germany to develop a similar vehicle for the purpose of carrying a minimum of 50 kg of explosives. The result was the SdKfz. 302 (Sonderkraftfahrzeug, ‘special-purpose vehicle’), called the Leichter Ladungsträger (‘light charge carrier’), or Goliath, which carried 60 kg of explosives. The vehicle was steered remotely via a joystick control box, which itself was attached to the Goliath by a triple-strand telephone cable connected to the rear of the vehicle. Each Goliath was disposable, as it was intended for the vehicle to be blown up along with its target. Early model Goliaths used an electric motor, but as these were costly to make (approximately 300 Reichmarks) and difficult to repair in a combat environment, later models (known as the SdKfz. 303) used a simpler, more reliable gasoline engine. Goliaths were used on all fronts where the Wehrmacht fought, with their first action beginning in the spring 1942. They were used principally by specialized Panzer and combat engineer units. Goliaths were used most notoriously in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, as Wehrmacht and SS units were deployed to crush the fierce Polish resistance by the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa). As the Poles had only a small number of antitank weapons, volunteers were often sent to cut off the command cables of the Goliath before it reached its intended target. A few Goliaths were also seen on the beaches of Normandy during D-Day, though most were rendered inoperative due to artillery blasts, which severed their command cables. Although a total of 7,564 Goliaths were produced, the single use weapon was not considered a success due to the high unit cost, low speed (only just above 6 mph, or 9.5 km/h), poor ground clearance (just 11.4 centimeters), vulnerable command cables and thin armour which failed to protect the remote bomb from any form of antitank weapons. However, the Goliath did help lay the foundation for post-World-War-Two advances in remote-controlled vehicle technologies.[citation needed] Surviving Goliaths are preserved at the United States Army Ordnance Museum, the Bovington Tank Museum in the UK, and the Deutsches Panzermuseum in Germany.
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