THE GREAT PANJANDRUM: Graham Inglis

In 1943, some people walking on the beach at the North Devon resort of Westward Ho! saw a strange sight: a device around eight feet in diameter, and resembling a large cotton reel, or the type of drum used to deliver large coils of cable to a building site – but rolling along, propelled by rockets that spewed sparks and smoke.

The original panjandrum devices had their hubs packed with explosive: it was basically a bomb that was intended to roll up a given beach until it encountered fortified defenses – whereupon it would explode and blow a hole in them. However, they had a tendency to fall over, or to run wildly off-course.

These experiments were part of the preparations for the Allied invasion of Europe, to drive the German armies out of France - although it’s debatable whether the device was actually intended to play a part in the Normandy landings on D-Day, or whether it was part of an elaborate scheme to mislead the Germans as to Allied intentions. Fake military activity occurred in many locations, to give the opposition a variety of false impressions.

The somewhat public testing of the device, on many successive days, could suggest the War Office wanted Hitler to hear all about it.

Today, the countdown, through a loudhailer, reached zero and a bang and a shower of sparks announced the panjandrum’s moment had arrived. Its method of locomotion is similar to the firework known as a Catherine wheel – 16 rockets attached to each wheel, dispersed around the rim, fire simultaneously and impart propulsive force to the device.

In terms of directional travel, the 2009 panjandrum out-performed its World War 2 predecessor, as today it didn’t veer off course or fall over. However, its speed was much lower than that or the originals. It progressed along the beach at around a walking pace, to cheers from the people lining the ridge. The originals were designed to go ten times as fast.

If the sight appeared strangely familar to some people, this may have been due to the “Dad’s Army” television episode called “Round and Round went the Great Big Wheel,” which featured just such a device. However, the one in this TV sitcom was radio-controlled, which neither the 1943 original nor the 2009 recreation were.