The Great Panjandrum and the danger of an all-in-one solution

The Great Panjandrum tried to solve several amphibious-assault problems with one rocket-driven device. Two huge wheels were meant to carry roughly a ton of explosive through barbed wire, trigger mines, and blast a ramp through an anti-tank ditch or wall before troops and vehicles landed. More powerful cordite rockets and a heavier charge promised speeds above 60 mph, but the rockets could not be balanced reliably. Trials added a stabilizing third wheel and scores of rockets without making the weapon controllable. During the January 1944 test, rockets broke loose, senior observers dived into cover, and the machine turned back toward the sea before disintegrating. The project is presented as serious development rather than merely a Pas-de-Calais deception, pursued in an atmosphere encouraged by successes such as the bouncing bomb. The intended scale, with one device launched from each landing craft, would have multiplied the danger if it had been adopted. Rigorous trials exposed an ingenious beach-clearing weapon that was at least as dangerous to the landing force as to the defenders.