In the course of World War II, German sapper units (German: Pioniere) were assigned in the strength of the battalion to each infantry, armored, mountain, grenadier and panzer grenadier divisions. At the end of the war, they were also assigned to the Volkssturm division. The full-time sapper battalion consisted of, among others, a staff, two companies of sappers, a company of motorized sappers and a motorized bridge column. It is worth adding that the units of sappers (pioneers) in the Wehrmacht, and also in the Waffen SS, were abundantly equipped with machine guns and other support weapons, and the soldiers serving in them had good, and often very good, training. In addition to performing typical engineering and sapper tasks, they were also perceived as assault units (German: Sturmpioniere) intended to attack heavily fortified objects and permanent resistance points. It is worth adding that the Sturmpioniere units very often collaborated with other types of armed forces on ordinary infantry and ending with aviation.
Goliath (full name: Leichter Ladungstrager Sd.Kfz.302, 303) was a German light self-propelled landmine from the Second World War. The mine was powered by two electric motors or a single 12.5 hp internal combustion engine. Serial production of this atypical weapon was carried out in the years 1942-1944, a total of about 7,700 self-propelled mines of this type were produced. Depending on the version, it could carry from 75 to 100 kg. explosive charge.
The design of the Goliath self-propelled mine was based on a captured, prototype vehicle developed by the French engineer Adolphe Kegresse, which was taken over by the Germans after the fall of France in June 1940. On this basis, the Borgward plants developed an improved version intended for the German armed forces. Two versions of the Goliath were developed in the course of production: the first ( Sd.Kfz.302) was powered by two electric motors, and the other (Sd.Kfz.303) had a much less reliable internal combustion engine as a drive. The mine was controlled and detonated by means of a special cable pulled behind it. The downside of this weapon (in the Sd.Kfz.302 version) were the highly emergency engines, and the general drawback - the wired steering, which was very susceptible to damage and destruction. The production cost was also relatively high for a single-use weapon. German troops used Min Goliath during the siege of Sevastopol (1941-1942), the battles at Anzio and during the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944.
