Re: US Army attack on Aachen, 12 Oct 1944

Not to be excluded from bombardment, the 1106th Engineer Combat Group in defensive positions astride the heights south of Aachen rigged an ingenious device which the men dubbed the V-13.

Towing an Aachen streetcar to the crest of a hill, they stacked the car with captured explosives set with a time fuse and sent it careening down the trolley tracks into the city.

On the first try, the car exploded prematurely. A second ground to a halt in the wreckage of the first. After patrols had cleared the tracks, the engineers tried again. This time, the car reached thecity proper before it exploded. Whether it did any damage to the German installations was irrelevant in view of the impish delight the engineers derived from it.

The Siegfried Line Campaign by Charles B. MacDonald, Center of MilitaryHistory, US Army, Washington, DC. p310.