Leach Trench Catapult

[Black]

Hello all,

I was surprised and delighted to see a short program last night (Sunday 28 April) on ABC TV Australia about the Leach Trench Catapult. It featured in Episode 5 of "The Boffin, The Builder, The Bombardier". The episode runs for about 10 minutes and is entitled "Up, Up and Uh Oh!" where these three quirky gentlemen re-build various pieces of obscure military equipment to demonstrate their use and effectiveness. Cricket and golf balls are used here to demonstrate the catapult in action.

It's all fairly tongue-in-cheek, but in this case, the catapult is built from original specifications published by its inventor Claude Pemberton Leach who had the weapon patented, then sold it to the Army. It was manufactured by a sporting goods company in the UK, mainly because they had access to the natural rubber bands used to propel the bombs / grenades to distances of 120 yards or beyond. It was a silent and deadly weapon, but took a bit of skill to load and fire. Also it may have attracted some unwanted attention from enemy troops on the receiving end when they found bombs landing amongst them from well beyond human throwing abilities.

The catapult was used at both Gallipoli and on the Western Front with varying amounts of success. I was particularly pleased to see this program after writing about the use of catapults in "Fighting Nineteenth". The 19th Battalion AIF (and other units)used them against the Ottoman trenches at The Chequerboard from their relatively isolated garrison on Pope's Post in the latter half of the campaign at Anzac. Someone else on the Forum may be able to pinpoint instances of them being used in France or Belgium.

The program is available on the ABC website for the next 30 days if anyone in Australia or New Zealand wants to access it. I'm not sure if this link will work for UK and European GWF members? Link below:

http://www.abc.net.au/iview/#/series/12346

I seem to recall someone in the Forum wrote about the Leach Catapult in a previous thread I started (T8HANTS?) saying his re-enactment group in the UK had built a couple of replicas that were brought out for demonstration purposes. I'd like to hear back from whomever this is and possibly get hold of some photographs, please?

Regards,

Black

[Black]

Hello again,

I should have included this in the original post. Here's a drawing of the patented Leach Trench Catapult, referred to in "Fighting Nineteenth".

Black

[maxi]

Black

That feed is not available to the UK, well not when I tried it.

From the drawing it resembles a Roman hand cranked weapon, the name of which escapes me.

Maxi

[Andy Wade]

Ballista perhaps? The Romans very probably invented something similar. They seem to have invented a lot of nasty, but very efficient weapons:

[maxi]

Andy

Spot on, that is exactly what I was thinking of.

Cheers for that.

Maxi

[T8HANTS]

Hi

I am the owner of the Leach, how can I help?

Gareth

[Lancashire Fusilier]

Black,

Here are various examples of the ' Trench Catapult ' in use both on the Western Front and Gallipoli, hope they help.

Regards,

LF

[Lancashire Fusilier]

2

[Black]

Hi all,

Many thanks for your various responses and especially to those who provided pictures - very Roman-esque indeed. The Roman army ballista and similar weapons used waxed twine for their propellant, I understand, not having access to rubber goods in those days!

Sorry to hear that the link to ABC TV does not work in Europe, but sometimes the reverse is true for us Down Under when some of your TV links are posted.

For T8HANTS: Gareth, good to hear from you as well. Could you please PM me, as I'd like to discuss getting hold of some photos of your Leach to include on our book website.

Regards,

Black

[JoergSprave]

Hello all,

I am a newbie here, my name is Jörg Sprave, a German, currently 50 years of age. I run a fairly large YouTube channel called "The Slingshot Channel", and when a fan notified me that there actually WAS a rubber based weapon that was issued to a WW1 army, I had to make a replica. Came out OK, although I had to guess several details. Here is the video:

I'd love to get your feedback. I am very much interested in the Great War, so this seems to be a cool place for me.

Greetings from "Hessisch Odenwald"!

Jörg

[NigelS]

Don't believe it's been mentioned previously, but the original patent documents are available on line

English GB191507710 (A) ― 1916-05-18 and in French FR488057 (A) ― 1918-08-16

Sorry Jörg - welcome to the forum - for some strange reason there's no German patent...

NigelS

[JoergSprave]

NigelS,, thanks for the link! I tried to find the patent but google wasn't successful. Those drawings are way better than anything else I found. Seems like I guessed right on many details.

I did enhance the design in two ways:

1. I did not use metal links between the pouch and the rubber bands, but I used strong cord instead. That is much superior because it weighs less, hence enhances performance. But it also is much less dangerous to the operator as the pouch can come back violently and hit the shooter, especially when the draw weight is maxed out. A lot of unspent energy will propel the pouch to the front, then it will snap back towards the shooter. So sharp, heavy parts have to be avoided.

2. I used the much superior "Thera Band" elastic, as it simply performs much better than anything else on the market. Plus, it is designed to lay around in gyms for years, in the open, so it lasts quite long.

Other than that, I think Mr. Leaches design is quite good. I applaud his invention.

EDIT: I obviously also enhanced the pouch setup. In the patent, the wire or rope that is locked into the sear of the release device runs INSIDE of the pouch. This means that the bomb is leaning against the rope, which can easily slip over or under the projectile, This may lead to misfiring. Very dangerous!

"Once the fuse is lit, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend"