Today a RAF 1000 pounder was found during excavation work at Leuven(Belgium) near the railyards.Dovo(our Belgian deminers) made it save for transport by taking out the fuses.Some 300 folks were temporary evacuated and road and rail traffic was stopped for a while.All was safe after some 15' work by Dovo guys.
In the run up for the 1944 Normandy landings,the railyards and workshops at Leuven were bombed several times.Since the yards and station lie +- 1km from the city centre it's easy to understand that collateral damage at the time was severe.The maire said that in future more unexploded bombs can be expected during works.
greetz,brummbar

1000 pounder found

 Paul Rogers, the oldest living Easy Company veteran has passed away yesterday.

 May he rest in peace.
warhistoryonline




Joined his brothers in arms

The Praying Mantis tank was an attempted variant of the Universal Carrier, the British armored tracked vehicle introduced in 1940 for transporting support equipment and personnel. The Mantis was an attempt to produce an armored vehicle that could fire over obstacles. Initially, it was designed to carry just one person. A two-man version appeared in 1943. An enclosed metal box structure replaced its hull. The box structure is pivoted at the rear of the vehicle and a driver and a gunner lay down in it. The structure could be elevated too and on top of it was a machine gun turret fitted with two Bren light machine guns.

The idea was to drive the Praying Mantis up to hedgerow or a wall, raise the gun and fire over the barrier from a safe position. After trials, it was rejected in 1944. A Praying Mantis survives in the Bovington Tank Museum in Dorset, South West England.
